willshak wrote:

The power, cable TV and Roadrunner came back on at about 8:20 PM
tonight. For a while we didn't have landline phone either.
I saw some utility guys from Michigan earlier today working on the lines.
My Generac 5500XL generator ran through about 30 gallons of gas for the
72 hours running the whole house. It has a 7 gallon tank and it lasted
for about 16 hours a tank full, so that works out to about 0.44 gallons
an hour.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

I strongly suggest that anyone thinking about getting a gasoline-powered
generator for backup power consider:

1. How much power is REALLY NEEDED?
2. How much gasoline is required per hour of power

After reflecting on the above and doing a bit of calulating, I
determined that I could get by with the 1600 running watts, 2000 surge
watts, provided by a little Honda EU2000i. The EU2000i weighs a bit more
than 50 lbs, has the dimensions of a medium-sized suitcase and produces
clean power.

I routinely, and concurrently, power a 1/3 hp natural gas furnace
blower, avg-sized refrigerator, small chest freezer and the odd radio
and/or light. I can choose to power a 1/3 hp sump pump and hook up the
frig and freezer only as-needed, determined by using a couple of
battery-powered cheap thermometers with remote probes .

I've powered ALL of those things at the same time and RUN FOR MORE THAN
8 HOURS ON LESS THAN THE APPROX. 1 GALLON CAPACITY FUEL TANK. I suppose
if any 2 or more of the inductive loads tried to START at the same time,
it would trigger an overload cutoff -- merely an inconvenience -- but
that hasn't happened yet.

I can feel pretty comfortable keeping 5 gallons of FRESH gasoline on
hand along with a Super Siphon in case I need to tap into the car's gas
tank -- no anti-siphon tank por moi "vintage" automobile.

I believe, for most people, the fuel storage requirements for a given
generator should be a MAJOR consideration in deciding what generator is
appropriate.