On Mon, 25 Nov 2019 23:44:51 -0500, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article ,
says...

That 5KW disappears pretty fast when you turn on the oven, start up
the dryer or the water heater kicks on, even if the A/C is off.
I ran my house on 5.5kw for 8 days but no dryer, no hot water and
everything was cooked on the gas grille. Fortunately it was warm
enough that we didn't need heat.





Sure the 5 kw is just barely enough. You have to do like the old show
Green Acres did with their electrical supply. Just turn on a few things
at a time. You could cut off most everything but a few lights and run
the water heater to get hot water. Then cut off a lot for the stove, or
just use the microwave.


The water heater, all by itself tripped the breaker on the generator
(5500w). Same with the dryer. I can run the oven but that is 97% of
the output.
The A/C acts like a bolted fault.
I was able to run 2 fridges, 2 well pumps, and then either the pool
pump or the mini split in the bedroom so that was my switching. Being
careful we used the general lighting load normally.
I still tripped out occasionally if a couple of things tried to start
at the same time.
I was burning 0.5 GPH gasoline or 0.8 GPH propane with no appreciable
difference in acceptable load. The difference in energy per gallon
just showed up in fuel consumption.

The cost is another factor. Just looking at a 7.5 kw and running at
half load the company says about 18 gal per 24 hours on gas and 5 hours
on 20 lb of propane. That is going to be around $ 45 per 24 hours of
run time. The inverter type will cut back under light loads, but the
ones without will consume about that much even without much of a load a
load.

My small 3500 kw will run for about $ 25 per day at half power. I can't
run as much ,but can burn a few lights and watch TV and heat some things
in the microwave. If I want more power, I can fire up the 5 kw unit.

People have to realize that this is a temporary emergency situation.
They will not be able to run the whole house unless very rich.

The larger diesel generators seem to be a lot more econimical to run
from what I have heard.

Diesels are great if you have a big tank of it on site. If the
stations are closed, you aren't getting diesel either.