Generator

[Daryl]

have been without electric a number of times already this fall. Wife is complaining about this too much. She wants a generator so I guess we will be getting one.. I want to get a portable one that can be used for other things as well. Using it for the house would just be refrig and light and maybe tv. We are on well water and to get one to run the pump I am sure will take a big one. Anyway does anyone have a suggestion. Found a troybilt and a coleman at Lowes. Would these be good. Neither has idle down which i think i would like but it is neccessary.
Thanks

[JazzDad]

Hey, Daryl. Unless you are going to run extension cords, another expense to consider is the transfer switch. This item is needed to prevent electrocuting any of your local power company employees.
It is not good to kill your power company employees, as this will add to the time it takes your power to come back up.

[GaryM]

To echo what JazzDad said, you need a manual transfer switch. And a connection box on the outside of the house is handy too.

There are mechanical methods to eliminate, or at least reduce, the chance of backfeeding the power grid, but a professionally installed transfer switch is pretty fool proof.

I have an installed generator with an automatic transfer switch. If the power goes out while I'm not home my wife has no concerns at all. Just wait 30-45 seconds and it'll be back on.

[Pat]

If you are going with a portable generator I recommend you get weather proof plugs and sockets to make the outside connections that take the power to the transfer switch. You might consider how to keep the generator out of the weather (especially rain). Hubbel is a good brand of water tight power connectors.

Another consideration for the generator is electric start. If your wife feels comfortable going outside in whatever weather there is and pulling the recoil starter as required to fire it up then the electric start is less important. Murphy has decreed that you won't be home to start it for her and concerns about food in the frige etc will be upsetting, likewise with no electic power all the cordless phones in the house are dead. Average wife doesn't like to be in the dark with no phone.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[jimbrown]

The generator thing has been beat to death much like Ford vs Chevy. In generators like many things you get what you pay for. The cheap contractor grade generators are just that. Cheap, noisy, and poorly regulated. I would guess that your well is also 230V. So you are going to need a 230V gen set. If I were buying one I would get an 1800RPM model just for the noise factor. My personal choice would be Onan but they ain't cheap.

[QRTRHRS]

First off, a portable generator and a manual transfer switch can be compared to programming the old VCR for some people. I can go over it a hundred times with my wife who is not mechanically inclined and she still won't do it.

If you want to use the portable for other tasks, go with idle down. I had my Generac in for service and they failed to fix the idle down which is not working. Drives me nuts when I am using it because I am away from the grid and it is screaming away when I set my saw or drill down. It's on the list to drop it off again.

By the way, my Generac Megaforce is a noisy jobsite model I bought maybe eight or ten years ago I guess. It is rated 6500 watts continuous and 8500 on demand. The well pump will make it "chug" momentarily but it has run my house just fine for as long as three days. I have a 7500 watt transfer switch with ten circuits on it that keeps us comfy.

You did not mention your heat source. I do hope you have oil or propane and not electric heat?

[Daryl]

My well is 110 feet down and I am not sure what size pump I have. Looked at the Troy Built 5500 gen at Lowes this weekend. It says it has 8200 surge watts. Will this power my well? I am guessing it does not have over 1/2 hp pump.

[jimbrown]

It should assuming the generator ratings are true.
a 1/2 hp pump will pull about 12 amps on start at 120v and 7 amps or so at 230v. 120vX12amp=1440 watts. Just for reference a 10HP engine can not make more than 7,457 watts.
But you still have the problem of how are you going to connect it up.

[Daryl]

I am going to use a transfer switch.
This is a link to the page that tells 8550 max watts.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...amp;lpage=none

[jimbrown]

Well I guarantee you that it will not pull 8500 watts for more than about 2 seconds before it starts slowing down. With a transfer switch you should be able to pull about 20 amps off of each leg of the utility box. If you have not done so you might want to read this.
http://www.troybilt-gen-pw.com/data/...0245_0esBw.pdf