5 ms·

I live in florida. And in an area where most power is overhead. Storms during the rainy season usually means i experience cuts. Usually 1-2 times a month for 3

I live in florida. And in an area where most power is overhead. Storms during the rainy season usually means i experience cuts. Usually 1-2 times a month for 3-8 hours ea from May-Nov Hurricanes are usually expected to be 3+ days at minimum of outage. Most recent ones were closer to 14 days. I have a couple gennys, and interlock kits with 30a hookups on my house during these times. I can run 1 genny on the whole house, or even 2 since i have a sub-panel with another interlock kit. The only thing i CANT run is my AC. But we have 2-3 window units/portables to get by. FWIW running generators for days at a time is NOT cheap. on my setup its about 20-30 bucks a day in fuel alone.

lostmsu 6y ago
Why not just go solar? Florida seems like a perfect place for that.
- croutonwagon 6y ago
  Cost. Not worth it. Even with my roof (which is east/west facing) the cost to just install panels would be 20-30k. And my city has a 1:1 buy back...And even assuming i sell them back power it would take a decade to recoup the costs...and by then the panels would be less efficient. And this is with buying 95% panels. but then during an outage.... So you need something to store it... Short of rednecking a series of deep cycle batteries the Tesla Powerwalls are really the only big option. And those arent cheap either. To run my house for 2-3 days would be in another 10-30k I can do all of that with 2x7kw gennys and some ancillaries. With a 14-17kw i could probably run my AC (which have hard start caps on them) Even at 30 bucks a day in gas im still well south of even 10k. Next step up would probably be a active standby generator with transfer switch and giant Propane tank to fuel it. That would be about 10-15k once permitting and all is done. And that adds complexity and cost. But it would mean i dont have to manually flip breakers and cutover. (as it is, my computers are just set to talk to a NUT server, and shutdown in the event i dont cutover within 10 minutes.) And during storms supply chains are strained. Its hard to source diesel and LP and sometimes even petrol (in fact i warned a previous company of this, and we almost had to shutdown due to fuel levels). And you have to maintain a contract with LP providers and usually rent a tank from them. With petrol and my little standby units i can source it myself (3-4 am is the best time during runs on gas), even siphon from one of our cars. I may spring for a full kit standby one day. But for me, it costs about 2k in generators. Another 1k to have an electrician install the interlock kits. And i can service/manage the gennys myself. swap them out while i do maintenance during extended runs etc.
  - 24gttghh 6y ago
    What is a 95% panel? Solar cell efficiency is generally in the 20-30% range. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency#/media/File:CellPVeff(rev200708).png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency#/media/F...
    - Tostino 6y ago
      I believe GP was talking about "95% offset" rather than 95% efficiency. So he sized the number of panels to offset 95% of his usage is my guess.
    - croutonwagon 6y ago
      They are panels with slight manufacturing defects that you can buy and wont have a full lifetime or near the normal efficiency. So are less expensive as well. They used to sell them last time i was looking into it, which was about 3 years ago.
- deleted 6y ago
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- deleted 6y ago
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watersb 6y ago
Lived in Florida for about two years. We’d lose power due to the neighborhood transformer exploding a couple of times a year. That must have gotten expensive real quick. The quality of the residential wiring in the original half of the house was not friendly to my hard disks. I lost four in rapid succession. Got a newer UPS, line interactive, had better luck after that until we moved out of state. (That month of disk meltdown made me love ZFS. Didn’t lose any data.)
dervjd 6y ago
| FWIW running generators for days at a time is NOT cheap. on my setup its about 20-30 bucks a day in fuel alone. What type/size of generator are you running? Might be worth taking a look at an inverter unit next time; they're much quieter and sip gas. Can't stress the quiet part enough - you can hold a conversation a few feet away easily. Assuming you need 240v since you mentioned you have an interlock kit; Champion makes a 5,000 watt model for $1K. Will go for 12+ hours on 4 gallons of gas at 25% load. https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Champion-100519-Portable-Generator/p95172.html https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Champion-100519-Por... If you can get by with a single 5-8K BTU window unit, a WEN 56200i/Harbor Freight Predator 2000 (I own one) will last for 8-10 hours on a single gallon, keeping both the window AC and kitchen fridge running. They're a clone of the Honda EU2000i/Yamaha EF2000is, and I've found it to be just as reliable. https://wenproducts.com/products/wen-2000-watt-inverter-generator-56200i https://wenproducts.com/products/wen-2000-watt-inverter-gene... & https://www.harborfreight.com/2000-watt-super-quiet-inverter-generator-62523.html https://www.harborfreight.com/2000-watt-super-quiet-inverter...
- HumblyTossed 6y ago
  The wen and harbor freight gens can handle the startup surge of the fridge? What size fridge?
- croutonwagon 6y ago
  I have looked at inverter generators. But they seem harder to find in larger wattages/capacities. I dont know that i trust Champion engines for long runtimes (days) I currently have a 7kw (8750 surge) and a 6kw unit. they are dewalt gennys with Honda engines. I really only would trust a B&S, Honda or Kohler engine i feel like. I think my next purchase will either be a bigger inverter or just a 14-17kw contractor genny and switch to double conversion Battery Backups. Not quite sure. But what i have does work too. Just that my current generator is approaching a decent number of hours (400-500).
HumblyTossed 6y ago
Floridian here as well. Our lines are buried, but the feed is above ground so if a tree takes that out, a couple thousand or so of us have no power for hours. I've thought about a generator, but I can usually keep working on battery (laptop and phone) so, I've not yes seriously considered it.

lostmsu 6y ago

Why not just go solar? Florida seems like a perfect place for that.

croutonwagon 6y ago
Cost. Not worth it. Even with my roof (which is east/west facing) the cost to just install panels would be 20-30k. And my city has a 1:1 buy back...And even assuming i sell them back power it would take a decade to recoup the costs...and by then the panels would be less efficient. And this is with buying 95% panels. but then during an outage.... So you need something to store it... Short of rednecking a series of deep cycle batteries the Tesla Powerwalls are really the only big option. And those arent cheap either. To run my house for 2-3 days would be in another 10-30k I can do all of that with 2x7kw gennys and some ancillaries. With a 14-17kw i could probably run my AC (which have hard start caps on them) Even at 30 bucks a day in gas im still well south of even 10k. Next step up would probably be a active standby generator with transfer switch and giant Propane tank to fuel it. That would be about 10-15k once permitting and all is done. And that adds complexity and cost. But it would mean i dont have to manually flip breakers and cutover. (as it is, my computers are just set to talk to a NUT server, and shutdown in the event i dont cutover within 10 minutes.) And during storms supply chains are strained. Its hard to source diesel and LP and sometimes even petrol (in fact i warned a previous company of this, and we almost had to shutdown due to fuel levels). And you have to maintain a contract with LP providers and usually rent a tank from them. With petrol and my little standby units i can source it myself (3-4 am is the best time during runs on gas), even siphon from one of our cars. I may spring for a full kit standby one day. But for me, it costs about 2k in generators. Another 1k to have an electrician install the interlock kits. And i can service/manage the gennys myself. swap them out while i do maintenance during extended runs etc.
- 24gttghh 6y ago
  What is a 95% panel? Solar cell efficiency is generally in the 20-30% range. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency#/media/File:CellPVeff(rev200708).png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency#/media/F...
  - Tostino 6y ago
    I believe GP was talking about "95% offset" rather than 95% efficiency. So he sized the number of panels to offset 95% of his usage is my guess.
  - croutonwagon 6y ago
    They are panels with slight manufacturing defects that you can buy and wont have a full lifetime or near the normal efficiency. So are less expensive as well. They used to sell them last time i was looking into it, which was about 3 years ago.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

watersb 6y ago

Lived in Florida for about two years. We’d lose power due to the neighborhood transformer exploding a couple of times a year. That must have gotten expensive real quick. The quality of the residential wiring in the original half of the house was not friendly to my hard disks. I lost four in rapid succession. Got a newer UPS, line interactive, had better luck after that until we moved out of state. (That month of disk meltdown made me love ZFS. Didn’t lose any data.)

dervjd 6y ago

| FWIW running generators for days at a time is NOT cheap. on my setup its about 20-30 bucks a day in fuel alone. What type/size of generator are you running? Might be worth taking a look at an inverter unit next time; they're much quieter and sip gas. Can't stress the quiet part enough - you can hold a conversation a few feet away easily. Assuming you need 240v since you mentioned you have an interlock kit; Champion makes a 5,000 watt model for $1K. Will go for 12+ hours on 4 gallons of gas at 25% load. https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Champion-100519-Portable-Generator/p95172.html https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Champion-100519-Por... If you can get by with a single 5-8K BTU window unit, a WEN 56200i/Harbor Freight Predator 2000 (I own one) will last for 8-10 hours on a single gallon, keeping both the window AC and kitchen fridge running. They're a clone of the Honda EU2000i/Yamaha EF2000is, and I've found it to be just as reliable. https://wenproducts.com/products/wen-2000-watt-inverter-generator-56200i https://wenproducts.com/products/wen-2000-watt-inverter-gene... & https://www.harborfreight.com/2000-watt-super-quiet-inverter-generator-62523.html https://www.harborfreight.com/2000-watt-super-quiet-inverter...

HumblyTossed 6y ago
The wen and harbor freight gens can handle the startup surge of the fridge? What size fridge?
croutonwagon 6y ago
I have looked at inverter generators. But they seem harder to find in larger wattages/capacities. I dont know that i trust Champion engines for long runtimes (days) I currently have a 7kw (8750 surge) and a 6kw unit. they are dewalt gennys with Honda engines. I really only would trust a B&S, Honda or Kohler engine i feel like. I think my next purchase will either be a bigger inverter or just a 14-17kw contractor genny and switch to double conversion Battery Backups. Not quite sure. But what i have does work too. Just that my current generator is approaching a decent number of hours (400-500).

HumblyTossed 6y ago

Floridian here as well. Our lines are buried, but the feed is above ground so if a tree takes that out, a couple thousand or so of us have no power for hours. I've thought about a generator, but I can usually keep working on battery (laptop and phone) so, I've not yes seriously considered it.