Whole house generator follow-up (fuel use)

[EightFingers]

We're out in the country and also on a well. But beyond that my wife is handicapped and uses medical equipment. It would be fairly tough (if not impossible) for us to get everything she needs into a hotel so i consider the generator a good investment. All that plus thae fact that when we first moved into this house it was almost monthly we would have a 2-3 hour interruption....after I put the genny in that improved significantly. My neighborhood should thank me.

You should be on a priority hook up list.

[crokett™]

It was always fascinating going outside when the power went out and listening to the standby gens starting up in the hills around me. I had do drag mine out of the garage, push it up the driveway, plug it into the house and hope the trickle charger kept the batter strong enough to crank it up.

Yeah.  Mine is manual start.  I go outside to start it, and can  hear the auto start ones running already.

[Snipe Hunter]

Yeah.  Mine is manual start.  I go outside to start it, and can  hear the auto start ones running already.

Yea but you save a few grand. That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

[fredhargis]

WT, has any of this helped you form a plan? Just curious.

[Roly]

You should be on a priority hook up list.

If there is a wide spread storm or unexpected storm at night it will take a while to get restored.  If a life depends on electric have your own method to deal with it.  It takes time to call in crews.    Roly

[R Clark]

There is no priority restoral for individual customers by our power company that I know of.  Their published list starts with transmission lines from generating facilities, then substations, then distribution lines from substations, then taplines through neighborhoods, and then individual customers.  There's no "signup list" to be the first or "early" in that individual customer category.

Being out in a rural area, I'm sure we would not be "foremost" in the power company's plans for fast power restoral.

[fredhargis]

We do have priority listing with our supplier, I've seen some power poles with a tag that indicates so (unless they stopped doing it). But I'm with both of you, it takes time and they have to start from the source and work outward. The priority might mean the outward direction comes toward you sooner rather than later, but that's a guess; and it could still take a long time.

[Snipe Hunter]

No priority for us at the old place either. We were at the end on the line on the edge of the county so always the last to get power. We also had old obsolete transformers. Even where we got power to the street, the 1st transformer had to heat up before it worked. That could take 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Every 2 houses shared a transformer. They each had to heat up before power went down the line to the next transformer. We were at the end of the street so on a real cold day, it could be another 8 to 10 hours before we got the lights on... assuming nothing went wrong with one of the other transformers. On those days below zero the power company put tents over the transformers with kerosene jet heater blowing in them and it still took 45 min to heat them up.

[Bill Wilson]

No priority for us at the old place either. We were at the end on the line on the edge of the county so always the last to get power. We also had old obsolete transformers. Even where we got power to the street, the 1st transformer had to heat up before it worked. That could take 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Every 2 houses shared a transformer. They each had to heat up before power went down the line to the next transformer. We were at the end of the street so on a real cold day, it could be another 8 to 10 hours before we got the lights on... assuming nothing went wrong with one of the other transformers. On those days below zero the power company put tents over the transformers with kerosene jet heater blowing in them and it still took 45 min to heat them up.

Man, that would really suck!

[rwe2156]

We're out in the country and also on a well. But beyond that my wife is handicapped and uses medical equipment. It would be fairly tough (if not impossible) for us to get everything she needs into a hotel so i consider the generator a good investment. All that plus thae fact that when we first moved into this house it was almost monthly we would have a 2-3 hour interruption....after I put the genny in that improved significantly. My neighborhood should thank me.

Fully understandable for you. For some the stress management of being able to stay in your home is worth the expense.

However, if its a hurricane and you're in a evacuation area, a generator won't help it's only AFTER the storm and assumes there's no damage to the house.

I have a 4500W generator. An electrician friend put a cut off box in my pump room that cuts power from the house and shifts to an outlet. I have a double ended plug that goes to the generator.

I have also backfed my service panel a few times [GASP].