"Jon Elson" wrote in message
...
Existential Angst wrote:


I opted for 7 kW as opposed the 12 kW jobby, simply as a $$ bet. The 7
kW
will power the house OR the shop, or pieces of both. If it works well,
and if it turns out I need more power or there are lots of outages, I can
always
get another, and still be ahead of the game. I can isolate the shop from
the house electrically, and therefore can power them separately. Or
together, if I'm mindful of loads.

My wife OK'ed getting a generator for the Y2K thing, which I knew was
going
to be a bust anyway. But, I've lived through a couple other prolonged
outages, and they are a major annoyance. Had one when I was single and
in the summer, and I just played on the computers at work until late at
night, when it was cool enough to go home and sleep. That one lasted
3 or 4 days.

After getting the generator, we didn't have any outages for a long time,
I occasionally got the thing out to run an outdoor power tool, just to
keep the cylinder from rusting. Kind of like an umbrella keeps it from
raining. Well, we finally had a serious ice storm about 5 years ago.
Power was only out for about 14 hours, as we are pretty close to the main
feeder for a large area.

Anyway, when the juice went off, I could hear the zorch-zorch-zorch
of the recloser cycling, so I knew the entire 7200 Volt feeder was off
from
the substation, and figured this would take a while. So, I ran extension
cords through the house to the furnace, and rewired the furnace for a
dangling 120 V plug. Then I went to bed. About six AM my wife woke me
up and said it was getting pretty cold. So, I went out to the garage,
fired up the generator, plugged in the extension cords and powered the
furnace, refrigerator and freezer, and charged some cell phones and
flashlights. Ran it for about 90 minutes until all the appliances were
done. That afternoon it started to get cold again indoors, but I walked
around the neighborhood and some power contractors said they had our whole
area cleared of branches and downed wires, but they had no idea when the
power co. would turn on the feeder. Before I quite ready to start the
generator again, the power came back on.

So, in 12 years, we have used it exactly ONCE for a normal outage.
We have had a few other instances where our buried drop from the pole
burned up due to idiots digging around for other utilities, but I just
got the power co. out to fix it pretty quickly.

Now, depending where you are, your power may be a LOT less reliable than
ours.

Indeed, an umbrella that keeps the rain away!!!
Exactly what I've telling everyone, who pooh-poohed the idea of a generator,
being about 10 miles from Columbus fuknCircle/Manhattan!!
Really quite the actuarial problem: How much to spend on something that may
NEVER be needed?!!

But despite my proximity to The Center of the Universe, I've had surprising
numbers of outages, some over a day, and the Halloween/Irene things really
were unnerving -- even tho I miraculously escaped outages during those.
People in the NY/NJ/CT area were without power for *weeks* from the
halloween snow. 3,000,000 people affected.

I figgered $1k for some peace mind AND for something that could keep the
shop hobbling along, and that could also be used portably for whatever
whatever is not a bad actuarial deal.

What is surprising, tho, as Gunner said, Man, double the size you think
you'll need -- mebbe even triple it. I just realized that altho 7,000 watts
can handle a fair amount, it CANNOT handle the starting loads of the
compressor, unless the compressor is the main thing hooked up. And then it
would probably knock out any electronics hooked up.... dayum.....

Also, to hook up these generators even semi-correctly/ergonomically is no
mean feat, really quite the triathalon of carpentry for the noise, electic
hookups, pita plumbing (if tri-fuel/nat gas, about 50 feet of gas line), and
the tri-fuel mods/screwing around. For example, I gotta replace the muffler
to be able hook up an extension hose for exhaust, etc.
Even the sleuthing process, of stuff/companies/etc has been a mega time
investment..... I'm almost hoping for a major prolonged outage just to
make all this bull**** worthwhile!!!

Ultimately, you gotta pick the way you want to pay, but you WILL pay....
--
EA



Jon