On Tue, 6 Nov 2012 14:02:48 -0500, "Existential Angst"
wrote:

Holy ****, I think he was.... but for the wrong reasons, of course. He
was bitching about tripping over extension cords and fires or some other
dumb **** (regarding car inverters), whereas the problems are really more
fundamental.

So this protracted wrangling of mine, over car/battery inverters vs. trad'l
gensets, has been solved:
I ordered BOTH.... LOL
But the "real working solution" seems to be a genset, in this case a
tri-fuel.

The inverter thing *could* work, but from other recent threads, it seems
that this strat just turns into a bear.
I did order two inverters (1500 and 2500 W cobras) to experiment with, but
not nec. for house power -- altho when I set it up, I'll screw around with
that as well.

The inverters will work, but to do that part right you really need a
SERIOUS battery bank at home. Call the battery distributors in your
area, ideally you get 6 large Tank Cells in series, 200AH is easy, you
can find 4,000AH if you search a little. All you need is a make or
buy a rack to keep them off the floor, and from falling over in an
earthquake.

And there's the serious quantity of battery power to run your inverter
in the evening for the little stuff that must have 120V like the TV
and a few selected small appliances.

And as many of those as you can should run direct off the 12V battery
string - Lights and a fan to stir the heat from the Wood Stove or
Gravity Wall Furnace are easy. You can get TV sets meant for
Motorhomes that have a 12V input also.

Oh, and the 12V batteries can run a High Water Alarm for the basement,
a High Temp alarm for the freezer and refrigerator, or a Freeze Alarm
for the house and garage, in case you have to get up and crank the
generator for a while.

Then you run the generator a few times during the day and charge the
big deep-cycle batteries back up, run the refrigerator, microwave,
coffeepot, freezer, furnace and well pump.

What I finally did was order one of these:
http://www.generatorsales.com/order/...sp?page=H04599
and one of these:
http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Ca...001_0306020503

so's I can run the unit inside.

You can run the generator inside, for certain quantities of
"inside"...

I would STRONGLY suggest you build a separate "Generator Room" off
the side of the house and near the Main Power Panel that is sealed
from the inside of the house - No chance of a fire or CO getting
through.

Drywalled on the inside as a firestop, large vent grilles low and high
(or through the roof) for natural ventilation at all times - put a
turbine ventilator on the stack and let the breeze help. Get a 120V
attic exhaust fan on the outlet to get positive airflow when the
generator is running.

Connect your flex exhaust tubing up to a 3" B-Vent riser and roof jack
to get the exhaust out up high, anyone looking from the street will
think 'heater' not 'generator'.

The unit I ordered is actually a tri-fuel, but it has no gas tank, but can
siphon from any container, which is pretty neat.

You can put that gas tank on the outside, or in a separated room
sealed from the generator so the fumes can't get through, where you
can refuel with it running.

Don't even THINK of burying the fuel tank. I'd get a double-wall
above-ground tank and put it outside the room - something like the
double-wall McMaster 3696K71 if you want to be paranoid, or the
37415K55 single-wall if you want to build a dike containment pan to
sit it in. But a large Propane tank is much easier to pull off.

The total bill is $3K, MUCH more than I wanted to spend (PLUS my stolen $1K
BlackMax -- goodgawd), but bottom line, this Sandy thing just spooked me big
time, PLUS this being the 3rd major weather event around here in 1.5 years.
I've lucked out in all three, but that's all it was, luck.

Now, this unit may not be for everyone, and here are some of the
pro's/con's.

Like virtually all "affordable" units, this thing will sound like a goddamm
lawnmower -- don't listen to those bull**** decibel claims.
A true automotive muffler might help (either replacing the original, or
placed in series with the existing) can help a bit, but a sound-proofed
enclosure box is a better (albeit more troublesome) solution. If you want
an intrinsically quiiet unit, quiet will double, triple the price at a given
wattage, eg, the Honda EU series.

Build a little room for it, then sound is not an issue. And it'll
make it a lot harder to steal, too.

Tri-fuel, imo, is Da Bomb, makes the unit very versatile, I can throw it on
m'truck anytime, for whatever -- not for camping, tho, too noisy, unless you
build a really good box. Car inverters would proly be better for camping,
it would seem.
But for long outages, natural gas is *by far* the best way to go, followed
by propane, then gasoline.

That's a bit big to "throw" on the truck - far better to build it in,
and get another truly portable one.

15 kW is proly more than most people need, but I have sizable sq ft and a
shop, so I figgered I might as well just take the plunge.

Vic Smith is very right about the cost/benefit/probability considerations,
and no doubt I "overpaid" in this regard, but I really got spooked this
time, and the utilities are telling people, flat out, they're not getting
power 'til Nov 15...... at best.
Holy ****.... Dat easily coulda been me. My rich ****head neighbors
(bunches of them) were without power for a full week. The MAYOR is without
power, in a city of 200,000++ ... !!!!
I believe that like the Halloween snow storm, some people will be without
power for a month.

You would not, without some kind of custom adatper, be able to install that
flex hose above, whereas on the unit I ordered, it (theoretically) clamps
right on the muffler flange.

If it was mine, I'd look at a steel Camlock fitting - you can make an
adapter on the tailpipe of the generator for a male Camlock, then a
Female with a hose barb to go into the steel flex tubing. A little
High Temp Silicone to replace the Buna gaskets, and it should be good
to go.

Or just give up and make a semi-permanent adapter.