3 ms·

Seems like this is where a generator and appropriate hookup for powering (primarily?) a gas furnace might not be a terrible thing. Unfortunately almost all home

Seems like this is where a generator and appropriate hookup for powering (primarily?) a gas furnace might not be a terrible thing. Unfortunately almost all homes regardless of source will lose heat if the power goes out because of fans and furnace control.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
pram 6y ago
I was just looking at natural gas powered generators because of this. I've had an accumulative 24 hours of outages in the past month. They don't seem bad, the units themselves are around $6k. Definitely worth considering!
- jounker 6y ago
  If you’re just looking for emergence power you can get honda e2200i generator with a gas adapter for around 1500 USD.
  - phonebanshee 6y ago
    Most people around here (Pacific Northwest) do propane. No one wants to store large quantities of gasoline on their property.
    - oasisbob 6y ago
      Yup, especially when those tanks of propane work for hot water and cooking too. There's a lot of crossover with RVs, industrial, and even marine when you use propane. The cabin I'm writing this from has a battery bank and a standby generator salvaged from a touring bus.
      - ericbarrett 6y ago
        Propane is quite expensive compared to natural gas, though, especially from a fixed-line utility. Except maybe this weekend!
    - jounker 6y ago
      Gas adapters are for propane or natural gas. Gasoline doesn’t require an adapter.
    - fencepost 6y ago
      To consolidate and clarify a few comments: You can get a non-fixed portable generator modified to run on propane or natural gas fairly inexpensively (the "gas adapter" mentioned above). That can be hooked to either a large fixed propane tank or be used with the smaller tanks often used with gas grills (or be permanently connected to natural gas, but then just get a fixed install generator). Advantages of propane are that it's stable (gasoline and diesel degrade), readily available, you can simply be well-prepared for a heavy grilling season if you don't need to use the generator, and because it's stable and stored you can be somewhat insulated from price swings. There are calculators available to determine appropriate sizes and approximate runtime based on generator size, load, etc. but a simple rule that I saw was that a 3000 watt generator would likely run for 45 minutes to an hour on a 20-25 pound tank depending on load and inverter setup.
acidburnNSA 6y ago
You could conceptually also use something like Modern Electron's meta-material thermionic electric generator that just used a home's natural gas flame to make (lots of) electricity. https://modernelectron.com/technology/ https://modernelectron.com/technology/
- aftbit 6y ago
  Looks pretty neat but they seem to be pre-launch. Call me back when they have a product with verifiable specs. I'm hoping a breakthrough in solid state thermocouple materials will eventually make heat engines obsolete (at least at small scales).

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

pram 6y ago

I was just looking at natural gas powered generators because of this. I've had an accumulative 24 hours of outages in the past month. They don't seem bad, the units themselves are around $6k. Definitely worth considering!

jounker 6y ago
If you’re just looking for emergence power you can get honda e2200i generator with a gas adapter for around 1500 USD.
- phonebanshee 6y ago
  Most people around here (Pacific Northwest) do propane. No one wants to store large quantities of gasoline on their property.
  - oasisbob 6y ago
    Yup, especially when those tanks of propane work for hot water and cooking too. There's a lot of crossover with RVs, industrial, and even marine when you use propane. The cabin I'm writing this from has a battery bank and a standby generator salvaged from a touring bus.
    - ericbarrett 6y ago
      Propane is quite expensive compared to natural gas, though, especially from a fixed-line utility. Except maybe this weekend!
  - jounker 6y ago
    Gas adapters are for propane or natural gas. Gasoline doesn’t require an adapter.
  - fencepost 6y ago
    To consolidate and clarify a few comments: You can get a non-fixed portable generator modified to run on propane or natural gas fairly inexpensively (the "gas adapter" mentioned above). That can be hooked to either a large fixed propane tank or be used with the smaller tanks often used with gas grills (or be permanently connected to natural gas, but then just get a fixed install generator). Advantages of propane are that it's stable (gasoline and diesel degrade), readily available, you can simply be well-prepared for a heavy grilling season if you don't need to use the generator, and because it's stable and stored you can be somewhat insulated from price swings. There are calculators available to determine appropriate sizes and approximate runtime based on generator size, load, etc. but a simple rule that I saw was that a 3000 watt generator would likely run for 45 minutes to an hour on a 20-25 pound tank depending on load and inverter setup.

acidburnNSA 6y ago

You could conceptually also use something like Modern Electron's meta-material thermionic electric generator that just used a home's natural gas flame to make (lots of) electricity. https://modernelectron.com/technology/ https://modernelectron.com/technology/

aftbit 6y ago
Looks pretty neat but they seem to be pre-launch. Call me back when they have a product with verifiable specs. I'm hoping a breakthrough in solid state thermocouple materials will eventually make heat engines obsolete (at least at small scales).