4 ms·

I wouldn't say they're common, but I see plenty of at-home generators (Generac is popular, there are others) here in the Northeast USA. We have lots of old tree

I wouldn't say they're common, but I see plenty of at-home generators (Generac is popular, there are others) here in the Northeast USA. We have lots of old trees, and lots of snow, which maybe you share, but I guess it's our propensity to ignore infrastructure maintenance that leads to more, longer power outages. In the last ~12 months, I've thrice lost power for more than four hours. Once you start losing a fridge's worth of groceries every 4 months, amongst the other challenges with power outages, the at-home generators start to look attractive.

FractalParadigm 5y ago
It also helps that, at least here in Ontario (Canada), diesel is a very popular substitute to run in conventional oil-burning furnaces - having a generator is almost a no-brainer when you've already got tons of fresh fuel on hand. On the other hand, 27kW is a LOT of generating capacity for one home. I consider that the average home (at least in my area) only has 200A service, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain that it's not enough (outside my dad who wanted a 16-person hot tub for two people).
- quickthrowman 5y ago
  > On the other hand, 27kW is a LOT of generating capacity for one home. I consider that the average home (at least in my area) only has 200A service Uh, a 27kW generator is 225A at 120v, it’s the model you use if you want whole-house backup generator for a 200A service…
  - dkdk8283 5y ago
    That’s not how you calculate amps. We don’t know if it’s single or three phase. It’s 113 amps @ 240v single phase.
    - quickthrowman 5y ago
      You are correct, my bad. It’s 120/240 single phase, so 113 amps. https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/content/all-products/generators/resi-comm/protector/0l0036sby.pdf https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/conte...
WJW 5y ago
Over here in the Netherlands the regulator claims >99.99% uptime (ie downtime slightly less than an hour per year), but I think they're being a bit modest since I can't remember a single outage in my area in the last 5 years. (Though perhaps they measure country wide in which case it might be "only" 4 nines.
- pedrocr 5y ago
  The uptime is probably much better in cities than in rural areas. In Portugal, having run home servers both in a city and rural locations the difference is immense. I get more uptime out of a city server with no UPS than a rural server with a UPS that can power the server for ~30min. There are more long outages in rural areas than even transient outages in the city.
- xyzzyz 5y ago
  Grid is much more reliable in richer countries of Europe than it is in the States. This is one of the areas where US infrastructure is really lacking. Our power is cheap, but the reliability is bad.
  - bcrl 5y ago
    The difference is mostly due to the fact that the grid in Europe tend to be mostly buried. A large part of the electrical grid in North America is aerial due to cost and geographical constraints (burying in solid rock is expensive, and doesn't make sense with lower population densities), which makes it much more vulnerable to damage by storms.
    - KaiserPro 5y ago
      I think its more fundamental than that. The grid in the EU is mostly well funded, and isn't a political football.

FractalParadigm 5y ago

It also helps that, at least here in Ontario (Canada), diesel is a very popular substitute to run in conventional oil-burning furnaces - having a generator is almost a no-brainer when you've already got tons of fresh fuel on hand. On the other hand, 27kW is a LOT of generating capacity for one home. I consider that the average home (at least in my area) only has 200A service, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain that it's not enough (outside my dad who wanted a 16-person hot tub for two people).

quickthrowman 5y ago
> On the other hand, 27kW is a LOT of generating capacity for one home. I consider that the average home (at least in my area) only has 200A service Uh, a 27kW generator is 225A at 120v, it’s the model you use if you want whole-house backup generator for a 200A service…
- dkdk8283 5y ago
  That’s not how you calculate amps. We don’t know if it’s single or three phase. It’s 113 amps @ 240v single phase.
  - quickthrowman 5y ago
    You are correct, my bad. It’s 120/240 single phase, so 113 amps. https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/content/all-products/generators/resi-comm/protector/0l0036sby.pdf https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/conte...

WJW 5y ago

Over here in the Netherlands the regulator claims >99.99% uptime (ie downtime slightly less than an hour per year), but I think they're being a bit modest since I can't remember a single outage in my area in the last 5 years. (Though perhaps they measure country wide in which case it might be "only" 4 nines.

pedrocr 5y ago
The uptime is probably much better in cities than in rural areas. In Portugal, having run home servers both in a city and rural locations the difference is immense. I get more uptime out of a city server with no UPS than a rural server with a UPS that can power the server for ~30min. There are more long outages in rural areas than even transient outages in the city.
xyzzyz 5y ago
Grid is much more reliable in richer countries of Europe than it is in the States. This is one of the areas where US infrastructure is really lacking. Our power is cheap, but the reliability is bad.
- bcrl 5y ago
  The difference is mostly due to the fact that the grid in Europe tend to be mostly buried. A large part of the electrical grid in North America is aerial due to cost and geographical constraints (burying in solid rock is expensive, and doesn't make sense with lower population densities), which makes it much more vulnerable to damage by storms.
  - KaiserPro 5y ago
    I think its more fundamental than that. The grid in the EU is mostly well funded, and isn't a political football.