ransley wrote in
:

On May 27, 7:49Â*am, " wrote:
On May 27, 7:32�am, ransley wrote:





On May 26, 11:39�pm, Red Green wrote:

Joe wrote in news:7ae01607-64b1-4759-81b9-
:

I had a 90 minute power loss last week and I noticed that my
Weil McLain oil fired boiler did not going on for the entire
period. Up until then I was under the foolish assumption that
if there was a blackout in the middle of winter my hot water
boiler would continue
to
heat the house. How can I protect against an extended power
outage i
n
the middle of winter leaving me without power. Even if I had a
portable generator my electric oil pump is hard wired so there
is nothing to plug in. What do other people do in this
situation?

Assuming you need 120v to run your furnace?...

You feed power from the generator outlet into your house by
plugging i
t
into an house outlet. That outlet will feed the breakers through
the panel box. Make a 20A cord with two male ends.

IMPORTANT and LEGALLY REQUIRED. ALSO MORALLY SANE. You are
required to

have a "TRANSFER SWITCH". This disconnects your panel box from
the met
er
while your generator is running. Besides the generator feeding
your house, it will feed power back to the "pole" or wherever. If
someone i
s
working on the line trying to restore power and thinks the line
is dea
d,
your generator could hurt/kill them. You would be liable. And
even if
the
lineman scenario didn't happen, I think things would get nasty
when th
e
power came back on and the generator was running too.

For 120v, the generator must be plugged into an outlet that is on
the same side of the panel box bus (not physical side of
breakers) as the furnace. Power will be supplied to all house
outlets/hardwired things
on
that side of the bus. Make sure everything is turned off so it
doesn't

bog down the generator. Someone running like a hair dryer will
bog it down and maybe trip generator breaker.

No personal experience but I've heard you can't plug the
generator int
o a
house GFCI outlet like say in a garage.

DO NOT have anything on in the house that is 220v. It will only
get 12
0
and burn stuff up.

I've never done this part but if you do this with a generator
that has

220 output and can plug into a 220 house outlet, you should get
power
to
both sides of the panel box and all house outlets.

Hopefully some more savy electrical people in this group will
shoot ho
les
or add good info to this post. This is welcomed from my POV so no
one gets hurt and you don't cause any damage on your end.

You dont plug it into a house outlet-backfeed a house, a transfer
panel has its own exterior box and plug. My 7500w uses 4 prong, ï¿
½8ga
wire, weatherproof box, Look at a Generac Transfer Panel kit, its
all included at about 2-300. But if you want real cheap put the
boiler on a plug in outlet and unplug the boiler and gop to the
generator with an extension cord. Backfeeding a house is dumb and
probably illegal- Hid
e quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

oh more costly but nice, a natural gas or propane automatic back up
generator, will run most stuff in house for about 4 grand.

if your away and a major storm takes out power in freezing weather
your entire home could freeze, ruin bolier, burst pipes etc.

such things can happen and today power companies take much longer to
restore service, and more storms appear to be occuring.

auto backup is looking more attractive- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

If you live in an area that gets at least one 24hr outage a year then
it might be a good option in just the food you could loose in your
frige and other apliances needing power. But I wonder on the life and
cost to maintain these basicly lower grade exterior units. They
automaticly cycle every month or so, there is an added cost for that,
and oil changes, battery. Having a generator and all the electronics
stored outdoors cant be good over a period of 10 years for the relays,
bearings, connections, and any component that will over many years be
affected by weather and corrode. I imagine alot of no starts after
5-10 years where a repairman is necessary. I keep my portable in a
garage where its not affected by rain and high humidities. If it does
not start one day there is no provision to plug in a portable to an
exterior box on the auto units, I bet its alot extra. I just have a
simple weatherproof exterior box any portable could be plugged into if
my gen breaks, and a 6 circuit with 2 V meter transfer switch. At
least getting a 2-300$ transfer switch and box instaled might be a
better idea to do now rather than buying a Gen first. I can always
borrow one for a few hours

That was impossible during the storm.

or get a cheap 400$ one at 3am at wallmart.

Absolutely no store had any. HD had some scheduled to come in. The day
people were told the truck would arrive, there was a large crowd and a
couple of local police cars to discourage any issues.

Good hearted people/businesses were donating some to the farmers in NY to
keep their animals alive & milked.

Many scumbags were going way out of the northeast where they were able to
latch on to a bunch, load on a truck and drive back to these desparate
farmers to offer them like $500 generators at rumored $4000-5000 because
they knew farmers losses without them was much more costly.


4000 is alot and I guess maintenance and testing could cost 50-200$ a
year, and how long do those units realy last or cost over 10-20 years,
with salt air not long, but for many they are great.