Whole house battery backup or natural gas powered standby generator?

[old medic]

How often has this happened in the past?

Here in WNC we get hit with a day event every few years. Major ones I can remember 4 in our 40 years here. Blizard of 93 was 17 Days and no generator. Helene was the next at 9 days. other were a couple days. When we lived in the camper the power would go out and we wouldn't notice it unless we tried using the AC or Microwave.

 

[Texas Proud]

About using a generator, I had an idea to build a timer that would run the generator for a set time every few hours. This would minimize fuel usage and allow fridge, freezer, AC to run. This was mainly for when we were out of town and had an extended power outage. This is not unusual for a multi day outage after a hurricane. But abandoned that idea when we sold the house and went full-time in our coach.
I actually contacted a few local companies and generator manufacturers about this and they weren't interested. The best they could come up with was a remote system to turn on/off and monitor the generator. But I told them that probably wouldn't work since internet and phone systems are usually out of service also after a devastating hurricane.
With digital systems out there now it shouldn't be too difficult to cobble together a timer system using relays. One to detect when power is out then another to start the generator. Then a timer.
My main reasoning was if we were out of town and had a longer power outage I didn't want my generator running constantly for a week or more.

I do not think that there is a lot of demand for what you suggest... so why build one?

The vast majority of outages are in the hours so no timer needed..

 

[folivier]

Except for the week+ outages that occur when a hurricane wipes out the towers out in the marsh that have to be accessed by airboats. Been through quite a few of those when w&rking. But since retiring we try really hard NOT to be here during hurricane season.

 

[Texas Proud]

How often has this happened in the past? I ask because after our snowmageddon a few years ago, where many people lost power for several days, whole house generators were in high demand. I looked into it, and a natural gas generator was a pretty expensive insurance policy for something that had occurred once in my lifetime. And we never lost power for more than a few hours at a time.

I understand the concept and would also like to have backup power, but I’ve chosen not to spend that kind of money for such an unlikely event. As battery capacity grows and costs drop, I may consider that at some point, but for now, I’ll assume the risk.

I have been through a good number of outages lasting days... living in Houston with hurricanes etc and just bad grid give you this..

In the old days we just lived through it... if it went a few days we packed up and left..

Last I checked the run time on my generator was approaching 400 hours... maybe about 70 hours of that is exercise... so about 13.75 full days of use..

One big advantage IMO is the short outages... I do not have to worry about when electricity will be restored... I can use my fridge, freezer, microwave and stove like normal... with an outage you do not want to lose the cool in the fridge or freezer just in case..

And even though they update you with texts and emails, sometimes they are way off in their estimated time to get it back on...

 

[TripleLindy]

living in Houston with hurricanes

The OP is in Pittsburgh, so that risk isn’t relevant. That’s why I asked how many times long term outages had occurred in the past. If never or rarely, it becomes a question of risk tolerance over need.

Our greatest risk from a financial standpoint would be frozen pipes and the subsequent repair cost. Significant damage could exceed the cost of a generator, so that’s where the risk tolerance comes into play. It’s more of a risk for the OP in Pittsburgh than for me in DFW.

Summer outages are more common in our area, because that’s when the grid is under the most stress, but they tend to be rolling blackouts and not long term. If things got uncomfortable, we could always go to a hotel or something. Sure, we might lose the food in the fridge, but it would require a lot of lost food to cover the cost of a whole house generator setup.

 

[Koolau]

Has anyone looked into one of the stand alone battery back ups like these?

Best Portable Power Stations

The best portable power stations give you enough juice to run what you need and charge what you need to without fuel, fumes or fuss.

reviews.chicagotribune.com

We lose power quite often but usually for relatively short periods. We have had an 18 hour and recently a 20 hour outage. One of the portable units could easily have prevented the frozen stuff from softening. We had plenty of lights in the house (battery operated). If we'd had the fridge operating, then we might have liked to microwave some food - meaning a certain level of power available from the battery. But it's doable for maybe a $Grand or less. Whole house would be better, but it's clearly more expensive. Just thinking out loud so YMMV.

 

[TripleLindy]

But it's doable for maybe a $Grand or less. Whole house would be better, but it's clearly more expensive

Spot on. Just depends on what you’d be willing to tolerate in the event of an outage, or on the flip side, how much you’d be willing to spend for convenience even if a prolonged outage is unlikely.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

My friends who take this more serious than I do have Generac gas powered automatic generators. They can't wait for the power to go out.....then say "I told you so"

I have a portable generator to operate our freezer for days during the warm months. I can cook on my camping equipment, I did it for 8 days during a summer blow down in 2016. In the cold months we would never be without power for a day or more. We have backup LP heat for that. Summer is actually harder and power outages can take longer.

Keep at least 12 gallons of gasoline on hand for your generator. Use it cautiously. Not to run your air conditioner or water heater. Focus on your refrigerator and freezer and keep your phones charged. A power outage in the summer is one thing, the winter is another.

A suggestion to all. Have drinking water on hand. Lots of it. Coffee, a gas stove and gas grill too. A portable toilet was also helpful. Just a lid over a 5 gallon pail works well.

Flashlights, radio and gas for your chain saw. A deep cycle battery with an led light strip is useful.

During the 8 day blow down back in 2016.... lots of ice and beer came in handy too. Our road was blocked and we had no way in our out til the power lines were off our road. We were ready. The neighbors and I cut trees down for over a mile so the power company could get in on our private road. The power company was a local cooperative, they took 8 days off of our power bill for lack of service, you can't beat that.

 

[Koolau]

My friends who take this more serious than I do have Generac gas powered automatic generators. They can't wait for the power to go out.....then say "I told you so"

I have a portable generator to operate our freezer for days during the warm months. I can cook on my camping equipment, I did it for 8 days during a summer blow down in 2016. In the cold months we would never be without power for a day or more. We have backup LP heat for that. Summer is actually harder and power outages can take longer.

Keep at least 12 gallons of gasoline on hand for your generator. Use it cautiously. Not to run your air conditioner or water heater. Focus on your refrigerator and freezer and keep your phones charged. A power outage in the summer is one thing, the winter is another.

A suggestion to all. Have drinking water on hand. Lots of it. Coffee, a gas stove and gas grill too. A portable toilet was also helpful. Just a lid over a 5 gallon pail works well.

Flashlights, radio and gas for your chain saw. A deep cycle battery with an led light strip is useful.

During the 8 day blow down back in 2016.... lots of ice and beer came in handy too. Our road was blocked and we had no way in our out til the power lines were off our road. We were ready. The neighbors and I cut trees down for over a mile so the power company could get in on our private road. The power company was a local cooperative, they took 8 days off of our power bill for lack of service, you can't beat that.

Heh, heh, and you got to keep the firewood!

 

[CTRetiree]

After the infamous October snowstorm that knocked out power to our house for 9 days, we decided to install a 20 kw Cummins generator.

One not-so-obvious decision to make. You can buy the tanks or rent the tanks if you run it with propane. If you buy, you can get the cheapest price on propane to run it the 20/min a week the manufacturers recommend. If you rent the tanks, you will rent them from a propane supplier. It will cost you more for the tanks and the propane. Easy decision until you stop to think, "Who will want to deliver propane to me in the 5th day of a 9 day outage? The guy I have a business relationship with, or some guy I call to find the cheapest price?"

We are renting ours.

 

[DangerousNachos]

Ford F-150 Lightning (the “power your house” truck)

A proper V2H setup has three critical pieces:

1. Bidirectional charger
   • Not a normal charger
   • It can push power both directions (to the truck and back to the house)
2. Transfer switch / integration system
   • Disconnects your house from the grid during an outage
   • Prevents backfeeding (which is dangerous and illegal)
3. Vehicle with V2H capability
   • Example: Ford F-150 Lightning

I copy/pasted from AI the above info, but I've given serious thought to it. I have too much electricity being generated at my business, due to all the solar I have, and I wanted to find a way to "transfer it" to my house. Basically, the truck would be a big mobile generator. It's WAY overkill from the original post, but I didn't know this type of tech was even out there.

Just a public service announcement.

 

[Retired Expat]

Our area has recent suffered two multi-day widespread power outages. Fortunately, our house was not affected, but neighborhoods very nearby were. The problem is lots of old trees and a lot more high wind events.

I have been considering a battery backup, but getting one with enough capacity for a several-day outage is prohibitively expensive. So now considering a standby backup generator powered by natural gas.

We have a very small house and do not use much electricity (except during a heat wave for the whole house AC), so probably a 12kw or 14kw model would work.

Has anyone installed one? If so, what are your thoughts?

Can it be installed in an area of full sun? We have a great location to install it, but it would be in full sun for several hours/day. Also, how noisy would it be? Concerned about annoying the neighbors for days at a time.

TIA!

Have installed many generators for my wealthy clients. Virtually all said it was a nice convenience but financially a mistake. The generator needs regular maintenance, it has to run every week for 30 minutes or more to exercise it. Kind of like you can’t just leave your car in the garage for a year and expect it to run.

In most cases they put one in after a black out because they lost a refrigerator and freezer full of food. But if you add p the value of the food lost it would take 20 such blackouts to justify it. All were extremely high net worth individuals and they simply wanted there vacation home operating at 100% if and when they managed to get there.

Other clients put in partial systems so they had heat and hotwater, fridge, stove and some lights and conveniences. It also depended how far they were from “civilization”? If not far and the lights went out some would simply pack an overnight bag and go to the nicest hotel in the nearby town. Generator is rarely a good financial decision but an emotional one. .

One Billionaire client who grew up lower middle class, survived a Blackout with his family cooking food over the fire pit or on the outside gas grill, moved some lounge chairs into the pool to sleep as it was very hot that night. When he asked his family about the generator they said no. “Camping out” in the backyard of the mansion was simply too much fun… next winter however we installed a generator……..

 

[Koolau]

Our last home on the Mainland we wrestled with the idea of a generator. We eventually bought a cheap one (Briggs and Stratton stand alone "portable") and even installed the circuitry to allow us to use it "whole house". But as it turned out, we never needed it over a period of 5 or 6 years. It was a waste, but at least we didn't spend several thousand on it. Less than $1000 when it was all done.

We did install two propane heaters for winter back-up as well. I never trusted that we could wire in the central heating system to our generator.