home generators for back up?

[delmer]

If you have natural gas, you might want to look into Generac whole house systems. Once set up they automatically kick in and you wont even notice the power went out. If installed properly (by qualified electrician), they have disconnect boxes between supplier and system and fully automated.

My neighbor has a large stationary generator that provides whole house power, (his hot tub even stays powered!). Every Thursday afternoon it automatically starts and runs for 30 minutes as part of a maintenance cycle. I believe it is on a 2 or 3 minute delay to start after power goes out.

[JBen]

Will do M. Once I have a steady source of income again, we have plans for a few things, until then a little here and a little there. Have a friend that recently moved out of the city and he to, is planning over some years to eventually be entirely off grid and/or mainly self sufficient. He's looking at building battery banks as one way to get there.

Re electrical.
If you know what your doing, great. But even then Id be careful if you don't know what someone did 20 years ago, or 40 years or the last guy that owned the house that tried to save a few bucks............

[impact]

Re electrical.
If you know what your doing, great. But even then Id be careful if you don't know what someone did 20 years ago, or 40 years or the last guy that owned the house that tried to save a few bucks............

Isn't that why you hire an inspector to go over the home before purchase?
After you move in it then becomes your very own fxxx-up's.....lol

As for myself, I regularly work with 150KV / 80 KW generators, yes that is 150,000 volts with 80,000 watts.
Now you know how much power is required for an x-ray to penetrate the chest of a large man.
120 volts is just a tickle....lol

[Fox]

Isn't that why you hire an inspector to go over the home before purchase?
After you move in it then becomes your very own fxxx-up's.....lol

As for myself, I regularly work with 150KV / 80 KW generators, yes that is 150,000 volts with 80,000 watts.
Now you know how much power is required for an x-ray to penetrate the chest of a large man.
120 volts is just a tickle....lol

Ha ha ha ha, sorry but inspectors cannot even take a panel off to see if there is aluminum wiring, it is dumb.

All of the stuff I have found in my house after paying for an inspector, they did nothing for me except tell me that my roof was ok and that I did not have vermiculite in my attic, that is all.

[JBen]

lmao Impact.

When we were house shopping we looked at ( bid on one) two houses that had aluminum wiring. Had the family member thats a ME come back for a return showing before the bidding war on the Monday. Luckily a good chunk of the basement was unfinished and he could see a lot. He felt we'd be ok getting it, but until and unless we wanted to rip down a lot of dry wall on the main floor....who knows what some pervious owner did.................Most people these days still insert copper wire into the female on light and recepticle outlets rather than do it properly and use the screws.....

Place we bought we used a company out of Peterborough to do the inspection ( lets not forget the vast majority these days sell and buy without inspections) . Rather than just one or two guys that advertise being "inspectors", this company sends an army of tradesmen.

We showed up at 8:45
At 9:00 we had
1 plumber
1 carpenter
1 HVAC
1 general contractor
1 water ( water system, well and septic)
1 Master Electrician

Going through the house like an army of ants. My agent whom I trust implicitly was even impressed and Im guessing she's seen everything....

[Fox]

lmao Impact.

When we were house shopping we looked at ( bid on one) two houses that had aluminum wiring. Had the family member thats a ME come back for a return showing before the bidding war on the Monday. Luckily a good chunk of the basement was unfinished and he could see a lot. He felt we'd be ok getting it, but until and unless we wanted to rip down a lot of dry wall on the main floor....who knows what some pervious owner did.................Most people these days still insert copper wire into the female on light and recepticle outlets rather than do it properly and use the screws.....

Place we bought we used a company out of Peterborough to do the inspection ( lets not forget the vast majority these days sell and buy without inspections) . Rather than just one or two guys that advertise being "inspectors", this company sends an army of tradesmen.

We showed up at 8:45
At 9:00 we had
1 plumber
1 carpenter
1 HVAC
1 general contractor
1 water ( water system, well and septic)
1 Master Electrician

Going through the house like an army of ants. My agent whom I trust implicitly was even impressed and Im guessing she's seen everything....

I am actually surprised you were allowed to do this, I was told they could not take anything apart, mind you I had a septic inspection and I should have checked the well before buying as well but it is safe to drink, just crappy regeneration rate.

[JBen]

Not sure of all the rules Fox, but yeah those guys did everything they could within the rules.
All taps were tested, water samples taken. The front yard dug up, sceptic checked careful including flow rate. Well and water system tested.

The Carpenter and general guy checked the bones and roof/attic as well as a couple other things.

The electrical not sure exactly what the Master Electrician was doing the whole time, I was mostly sticking near the water guys and HVAC because they were on forced air electric and I was swapping that out to Propane so wanted to ensure there were going to be no "hiccups" with the gas lines, the electrical or duct work.

[73hunter]

so back to backup generators....

what "could" be done, although perhaps not legal is install a 240V twist-lock plug in your garage and use it to backfeed your panel, and have an electrician make you up a double-male ended extension cord.....this can be really unsafe if the wrong person tried to use it, but perfectly safe if the proper steps are taken, one of the most important steps being to LOCK OUT THE MAIN BREAKER to avoid back-feeding the power grid.

some will criticize this but it can be done safely

[Bluebulldog]

so back to backup generators....

what "could" be done, although perhaps not legal is install a 240V twist-lock plug in your garage and use it to backfeed your panel, and have an electrician make you up a double-male ended extension cord.....this can be really unsafe if the wrong person tried to use it, but perfectly safe if the proper steps are taken, one of the most important steps being to LOCK OUT THE MAIN BREAKER to avoid back-feeding the power grid.

some will criticize this but it can be done safely

Not going to confirm, nor deny that....but it is what happens in a few cases.

Of course creating a male-to-male cord is strictly verboten as far as code goes.....but it's not terribly difficult.

[Fox]

so back to backup generators....

what "could" be done, although perhaps not legal is install a 240V twist-lock plug in your garage and use it to backfeed your panel, and have an electrician make you up a double-male ended extension cord.....this can be really unsafe if the wrong person tried to use it, but perfectly safe if the proper steps are taken, one of the most important steps being to LOCK OUT THE MAIN BREAKER to avoid back-feeding the power grid.

some will criticize this but it can be done safely

Can things like this be done, yes, but you have a lot of chances to screw things up and cost a lot of money in the process, at minimum.

There are male outlets used in the RV world, I believe they have these in 240 VAC twist lock as well as 120 VAC, so then you would not need a male to male extension cord but the worry of back feeding the power grid is a very significant one.