Posted: 7/1/2026 5:56:05 PM EDT
[Last Edit: PA452][Edited]
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Our last power outage has motivated me to finally make preparations for the next one. I'm having an interlock installed on my main panel and an inlet box installed both inside and outside; inside for portable battery power stations and outside for a generator. I had planned to get a portable diesel generator. The reason I wanted to go with diesel is we always have a lot of diesel on hand, but I don't keep a lot of gas here usually and we are not connected to a natural gas line. I have a propane tank, but I don't want to use my house heating fuel for power. If we had a really bad winter, it may be tough to get it before a thaw. I had never given any real consideration toward a battery power station like a Jackery. I figured it was kind of pointless, because once drained, I'd have to use a generator to charge it back up, so why wouldn't I just run off a generator anyway. But then I heard the argument that if you run off something like a Jackery, it's quiet and no fumes which is nice, but then when you charge it, you're using the full load of the generator to charge it back up, whereas if you're running a large generator for everything, much of the time you're not taking advantage of the full load of the generator so you're wasting fuel essentially. So instead, you can use the generator to charge up the battery system, maximizing your efficiency, and you get the added bonus of quiet most of the time. Now I'm not sold on that entirely, but I'm reconsidering my plan. Does anyone here use a setup like this? A large battery system like the Jackery 5000 and then a generator to charge that? |
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You say "large diesel generator." Numbers? In my world "large" is 1750 kVA. You looking at whole house? What do you intend to keep live? ETA just looked up the Jackery. So 30A, not whole house. You might have trouble finding a diesel that small. |
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First thing I would do in your position is to figure out your power plan, so you can size a generator or solar system to install. Without knowing how much power you use per day and will need to use in a power outage, you are just shooting blind. Instead of a portable solar generator like the Jackery 5000, I would look to build your own with batteries and an inverter as it will usually allow much better performance. |
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Not familiar with diesels but my whole house propane generator fuel consumption depends on the load, so it doesn't waste that much. If you do tour math right and your power consumption is bursty, you could save by getting the battery that can provide power at your peak consumption but use a smaller generator to charge the battery, so you'd only need to size your generator for average consumption. But you'll have to factor in the cost and service life of the generator, the battery and the fuel consumption to get an answer. Calculator or spreadsheet is your friend here. |
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Originally Posted By DaGoose: First thing I would do in your position is to figure out your power plan, so you can size a generator or solar system to install. Without knowing how much power you use per day and will need to use in a power outage, you are just shooting blind. Instead of a portable solar generator like the Jackery 5000, I would look to build your own with batteries and an inverter as it will usually allow much better performance. |
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Originally Posted By voyager3: Not familiar with diesels but my whole house propane generator fuel consumption depends on the load, so it doesn't waste that much. If you do tour math right and your power consumption is bursty, you could save by getting the battery that can provide power at your peak consumption but use a smaller generator to charge the battery, so you'd only need to size your generator for average consumption. But you'll have to factor in the cost and service life of the generator, the battery and the fuel consumption to get an answer. Calculator or spreadsheet is your friend here. |
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
| We just lost power here. I'm keeping cool with my DeWalt fan in my bedroom . I could haul the jackery to the bedroom but it's late in the day and I have to be up at 5 am so no point in it. I'll see how things look in the morning |
*post contains personal opinion only and should not be considered information released in an official capacity*
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Following for info. I added solar panels for our two EcoFlow batteries and we used them for everything other than the fridge and freezer. In the winter I did charge them with my middle of the road Westinghouse. I’m considering a larger battery to be able to hook in directly so curious what others think. |
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I have a portable diesel generator. Yanmar clone. Not sure if I can answer any questions about it for you or not. What do you need to run and what size loads? Mine is about 5600 watts running and a bit more for surge. I can run my entire house including my well pump with two exceptions. Only things I can’t run are my heat pump/AC (3.5 tons) and my dryer. I recently found out it will easily run the shop mini split (2 tons) so now I’m thinking of a backup mini split for my basement. I have a wood stove and propane for heat but want an AC to be able to at least cool the basement for sleeping. My diesel generator is extremely noisy so I plan to replace it eventually. It’ll get replaced with a 240v capable dual fuel propane/gasoline inverter generator. I’ll run it primarily on propane. |
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I’m all for the battery bank and a generator to charger the batteries. Then you’re not running the generator 24/7 and wasting fuel. You run the generator to charger the batteries and power the home while charging the batteries too. The question is how in are you wanting to go and how much of a load are you going to want to carry with your backup power solution? If you don’t have a generator yet, you might be able to buy a much smaller one and leave room for charging your backup power system. If you’re looking for whole home backup, then you can get an inverter with 200A pass through and some big batteries and be set. The inverter would have a generator input that can charge the batteries.If the generator you get isn’t going to be an inverter type with cleaner power output, you might want to get a “Chargerveter” or other brand of the same device that takes 240V in and outputs clean 48VDC. |
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This channel gives a pretty solid overview of what you are trying to do. If The Grid Goes Down, Start Here |
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Battery power has a place. Its stored electricity obviously but it means you can run silent when needed, battery power tools are portable, on demand use and dont require generator close by to use. Its a defense in depth strategy. You can use generator to charge batteries when running a generator is planned/optimal and then use batteries when and where needed and suboptimal to use a generator. Think diesel electric subs in WW2. |
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Battery power has a place. Its stored electricity obviously but it means you can run silent when needed, battery power tools are portable, on demand use and dont require generator close by to use. Its a defense in depth strategy. You can use generator to charge batteries when running a generator is planned/optimal and then use batteries when and where needed and suboptimal to use a generator. Think diesel electric subs in WW2. Spot on! My setup uses generator, solar, EV battery, and standalone battery backup all working together. I can coast at night with no noise using the batteries, and do limited recharge using the solar. I can run everything directly using the generator and put the excess into the batteries or even the EV. I can drive the EV to work or elsewhere that has power and top it and then come back and use it. Lots of options- some totally self-contained and discreet, some not. As a Guardsman, I saw LOTS of the "after" part of storms and outages and came up with my system based on the successes and failures I saw. I'm rural so crime is a much lower concern than elsewhere, but even so I saw motorized groups driving around being predators after some of the big storms- and a loud generator and lit house was already a high value target for them. As others have said, it all needs to start with your load analysis. |
| Due to the recent number of tractor threads we've had around here, and since OP has plenty of diesel, I'll bring up that there's a such thing as a PTO generator. Probably gonna be cheaper than buying a whole diesel generator since you don't need to buy a new engine with the generator. My uncle has a welder that somehow hooks up and he can power his house. |
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Solar is incredibly cheap now. Last pallet of panels we got right before Hurricane Helene in 24 was $.27 a watt delivered. Compare this to our first Kyocera panels purchased and installed in the 90's at $6.25 per watt..... It's never going to be free, but damn near a quarter a watt is likely the closest it will ever get. We still have our big China Diesel 12KW genset but it barely sees use any more and we had some issues with it during Helene. Fixed now but we also have a large gas/propane backup as well, all the other gensets were smaller 5KW and under. We need a large one to run one of our wells. I wrote an article back in the 90's/early 2000's about starting with a genset and then adding a real AE inverter and battery bank- not a power "boom box", but an actual battery bank. When solar was so expensive back in the 90's this is how people got their energy system started- BIG genset used as "AC1 input" on the inverter then a DC side usually considerably smaller that included any panels, wind, etc. With a big battery bank, we lived off of 1,600 watts solar for close to a decade, utilizing the diesel genset to bulk charge the 20 L16s and then 1,600 watts solar to also charge the bank throughout the day. System worked great, just a little more hands on then now a days. I would advise anyone serious about survival to look at a real AE inverter and even a small battery bank- run your generator to charge the battery bank- NOT to run 24/7 which is a major waste of resources as well as security issue (during Helene you knew EVERYONE that had a generator running 2 miles in all directions, ev ree one...). Later, add solar a little at a time and build a system that will work for you both now and if something happens. |
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Originally Posted By Lowdown3: run your generator to charge the battery bank- NOT to run 24/7 which is a major waste of resources as well as security issue (during Helene you knew EVERYONE that had a generator running 2 miles in all directions, ev ree one...). It was different in my part of GA. I had a non-inverter generator big enough to power my whole house in a neighborhood with 0.5-1 acre lots. Its one of those cheap and loud ones. We did a test and you couldn't hear it 200ft away. Thats 1-2 houses away, depending on the size of the yards here. What let everybody know we had power for a mile radius was the fact that we were the only source of light. If you care about safety to the point you don't want people to know you have power, worry about the visible clues, not the audible ones. |
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Originally Posted By giantpune: It was different in my part of GA. I had a non-inverter generator big enough to power my whole house in a neighborhood with 0.5-1 acre lots. Its one of those cheap and loud ones. We did a test and you couldn't hear it 200ft away. Thats 1-2 houses away, depending on the size of the yards here. What let everybody know we had power for a mile radius was the fact that we were the only source of light. If you care about safety to the point you don't want people to know you have power, worry about the visible clues, not the audible ones. Even in a sea of suburban houses, at the right time of day you'd probably be surprised how far it could be heard. We have blackout curtains for everything including skylights but definitely did not bother with them for 3 week inconvenience of Helene. If someone was where they could see our house they were long trespassing and would have alerted a "multitude" of things they wouldn't have seen or heard. We have done weekends like that before (blacked out, etc.) in years past and it's tough when it's hot cause of course it stops air flow. It was fairly hot down here during Helene so we didn't bother with them then. |
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Thanks for all the replies and info everyone. Finally getting to address some questions and comments. To correct myself, this wouldn't be a "large diesel generator", I just meant something capable of running pretty much everything I want to keep going versus a smaller generator that could be used just for recharging a battery system but not big enough to handle my outage needs alone. Things I want to keep running for sure: Well pump Water treatment pump Fridge Two freezers Wood stove blower Things that are not essential but would be nice (though not sure if practical): AC unit (heat pump) Propane furnaces Water heater I think I could borderline heat the house with the wood stove as long as the blower is running and/or I could run some fans too. We don't usually see major storm damage here, hurricanes don't usually make it here. About a year ago we had a really bad wind storm in the area. I know some people were out of power for close to two weeks. We are pretty fortunate in that the power company seems to get this area back up and running pretty quick usually, but we live way off the road and our power lines run through some woods. If something comes down between here and the road, we will be a very low priority. This actually just happened recently. Here's some wattage requirements I'm coming up with:  |
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Originally Posted By bowmanch: This channel gives a pretty solid overview of what you are trying to do.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETTgtj7yYK4Thanks, I'll check it out. |
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Originally Posted By PA452: Thanks for all the replies and info everyone. Finally getting to address some questions and comments. To correct myself, this wouldn't be a "large diesel generator", I just meant something capable of running pretty much everything I want to keep going versus a smaller generator that could be used just for recharging a battery system but not big enough to handle my outage needs alone. Things I want to keep running for sure: Well pump Water treatment pump Fridge Two freezers Wood stove blower Things that are not essential but would be nice (though not sure if practical): AC unit (heat pump) Propane furnaces Water heater I think I could borderline heat the house with the wood stove as long as the blower is running and/or I could run some fans too. We don't usually see major storm damage here, hurricanes don't usually make it here. About a year ago we had a really bad wind storm in the area. I know some people were out of power for close to two weeks. We are pretty fortunate in that the power company seems to get this area back up and running pretty quick usually, but we live way off the road and our power lines run through some woods. If something comes down between here and the road, we will be a very low priority. This actually just happened recently. Here's some wattage requirements I'm coming up with: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/39064/Watts-3788658.png |
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We have a small 2000w Anker power station that will run my fridge for about 10 hours. We also have a 10kw inverter that I can run on propane tanks and a 50A interlock for our panel. I can't kick on our heat pump to run the central AC, but I have a window unit I can throw in our bedroom that the generator will run. Not ideal, but I also didn't want to drop $15k on a whole house with large propane tanks. I can run just about everything else in the house on the inverter (fridge, well pump, water heater, lights) The inverter is very quiet and it's pretty efficient since it scales depending on the load. I like the idea of having a 50A outlet inside that I could power with one of those large battery stations you mentioned. I believe Anker makes some pretty powerful stations on wheels that can be run in series. |
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Originally Posted By taliv: Your well pump isn't running all the time right? Maybe an hour a day? If not that takes you down to something like 37kwh for 24 hrs? Don't forget lights |
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Originally Posted By PA452: Thanks for all the replies and info everyone. Finally getting to address some questions and comments. To correct myself, this wouldn't be a "large diesel generator", I just meant something capable of running pretty much everything I want to keep going versus a smaller generator that could be used just for recharging a battery system but not big enough to handle my outage needs alone. Things I want to keep running for sure: Well pump Water treatment pump Fridge Two freezers Wood stove blower Things that are not essential but would be nice (though not sure if practical): AC unit (heat pump) Propane furnaces Water heater I think I could borderline heat the house with the wood stove as long as the blower is running and/or I could run some fans too. We don't usually see major storm damage here, hurricanes don't usually make it here. About a year ago we had a really bad wind storm in the area. I know some people were out of power for close to two weeks. We are pretty fortunate in that the power company seems to get this area back up and running pretty quick usually, but we live way off the road and our power lines run through some woods. If something comes down between here and the road, we will be a very low priority. This actually just happened recently. Here's some wattage requirements I'm coming up with: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/39064/Watts-3788658.png Missing one key bit of info... How long do you want to run. Once we have that, we can talk options. |
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Originally Posted By PA452: Thanks for all the replies and info everyone. Finally getting to address some questions and comments. To correct myself, this wouldn't be a "large diesel generator", I just meant something capable of running pretty much everything I want to keep going versus a smaller generator that could be used just for recharging a battery system but not big enough to handle my outage needs alone. Things I want to keep running for sure: Well pump Water treatment pump Fridge Two freezers Wood stove blower Things that are not essential but would be nice (though not sure if practical): AC unit (heat pump) Propane furnaces Water heater I think I could borderline heat the house with the wood stove as long as the blower is running and/or I could run some fans too. We don't usually see major storm damage here, hurricanes don't usually make it here. About a year ago we had a really bad wind storm in the area. I know some people were out of power for close to two weeks. We are pretty fortunate in that the power company seems to get this area back up and running pretty quick usually, but we live way off the road and our power lines run through some woods. If something comes down between here and the road, we will be a very low priority. This actually just happened recently. Here's some wattage requirements I'm coming up with: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/39064/Watts-3788658.png Do you have a method of transferring the power to the house? Have you actually measured the starting and running watts or are the estimates? Some of your numbers look a little high to me. Not crazy high but in running similar loads, my actual numbers are a bit lower for individual things. If you can do without the electric water heater, at least the large heat pump, and the dryer, you should be able to run your house on 4500 watts on the low end (probably have to space out your loads when the larger loads are running) and 6500 watts. The only issue there for running diesel is the EPA has mostly killed the small air cooled diesel generator market. I bought mine in 2008 so got in before the restrictions by the EPA. So, if you want diesel you’ll probably have to go pretty large. If you do, you might be able to run everything although your fuel bill in a long term outage will not be small. Not sure if that matters to you or not. If you want diesel, I’d probably look strongly at the military diesel generators. Civilian generators are usually rated at the top capacity of the engine/generator combo. Military generators are rated well BELOW the engine/generator combo. If you just want to run min loads, a MEP-831a would be great. It’s a quiet, air cooled diesel powered generator (Yanmar engine). Rated for 3000 watts. A MEP-802a is a considerable step up. It’s a liquid cooled diesel rated for 5000 watts (very conservatively rated). The next step up is the MEP-803a. It’s rated for 10000 watts but lots of people have found they can pull a bit more from them. Since you have propane, I’d look closely at the propane inverter generators. Champion makes a 6500 watt inverter generator that can produce 240v. Runs on either gas or propane. I realize you would prefer not to use house heating propane for running a generator. Just a thought….how about getting another propane tank? Backup to the backup when the power is on. That’s what I have. I have a mini split and a propane furnace for my shop. Because of the mini split, I don’t use a lot of propane to heat the shop. Before the mini split, I was using 80-120 gallons of propane per year. Now I’m down to maybe 50 or so gallons of propane per year. But, I have a 325 gallon propane tank just for the shop. Whenever I switch from using diesel to propane as primary backup electricity source, I’ll run the generator off the shop tank and save my house tank for house only. And, the generator can also run on gasoline so if I have a long term power outage and the propane tank is getting low, I switch to running on gasoline. I took a 2 generator solution to backup power. The bigger diesel generator runs the big loads but not constantly. The smaller generator is an 2500 watt inverter generator and it’s set up to run constantly (hooked to the house propane supply). The small generator only runs the essential loads (refrigerator, furnace, deep freezers, some lights, etc). I do plan to replace my diesel generator within the next year or so with a Champion 6500 watt inverter 240v unit. |
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Originally Posted By jaqufrost: I went full home solar. I now have 70 solar panels, three 6000w parallel inverters, 90kwh of batteries, and a 9kw generator to fill the batteries if the sun is covered for a few days. Jaqufrost- What do you think about the Growatt inverters? I "upgraded" to this about a year ago and it's not done a lot of what it claims to do. Talking to an old friend that's also been off grid forever, he told me he had one had issues and returned it. You seen any issues with these? |
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Originally Posted By Lowdown3: Jaqufrost- What do you think about the Growatt inverters? I "upgraded" to this about a year ago and it's not done a lot of what it claims to do. Talking to an old friend that's also been off grid forever, he told me he had one had issues and returned it. You seen any issues with these? |
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Originally Posted By R2point0: Diversity is a thorny problem for calculating demand in any scenario. For instance, what you say about the well pump is true, but *when* does it run? If it kicks on when there are either high loads, bad things can happen. One option is manual management - literally turning the pump on and off by hand and making sure other loads aren't running. But don't forget, or you risk burning stuff out due to under-voltage. Same as the water heater and HVAC. you'd need to factor in that concurrent usage for sizing your inverter, but for sizing the batteries, like i was adding up, a day's total usage doesn't change based on devices running at the same time or not. obviously, you need to make sure the max current out of the batteries supports it, but unless your batteries are very small, that's highly unlikely. similarly, you want to check what the max charge current is on your batteries. it's unlikely you'd really exceed it even with a diesel generator, BUT consider that there will be a difference in battery life if you charge at C vs .1 C like most solar does. |
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Originally Posted By jaqufrost: I don't have experience with them. I've been using EG4 (signature solar's house brand). Well so far the Growatt has been "less than stellar" LOL. Considering it truly isn't doing anything more than my Magnum inverter did. Cannot get the 220 to output, 110 works fine however. Cannot get power in from a generator. 5+ hours on the phone with retailer, hours wasted on the "app" as well. We first thought it was the push in connectors and that we didn't do that right- sent them video of me tugging on the wires so hard I almost strained and they said "no it looks like they are in there good." I prefer the old type screw the screw in to lock the wire down connectors not this push in and hope it connects BS. And they will not under any circumstance release when you do exactly what they tell you to do to release. Should have seen about getting them to replace it, surely spent enough time on the phone with them with all the issues. |
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Originally Posted By PA452: Now I'm not sold on that entirely, but I'm reconsidering my plan. Does anyone here use a setup like this? A large battery system like the Jackery 5000 and then a generator to charge that? On a much smaller scale, but yes. During our extended power outage from hurricane Helene, it kind of made sense to simply run the generator during portions of the day where the noise was masked (we are semi-rural and our generators can't be heard at the main road at the end of our driveway). At night, I didn't need to worry about the bigger generators (we ran the small camping one to power a couple fans and portable AC unit to our bedroom), the "solar generators" (batteries with built in inverters essentially), powered all the small things and did it quietly. I don't have a setup large enough to power the fridge for very long, but for smaller stuff that you really don't want to waste fuel on, they're perfect. While the generator(s) run during the day, you just charge up them up. Portability is nice as well. We used one to operate our 12V/propane tankless hot water heater and small water pump (we use for boondock camping) and we had hot showers every night. The smaller solar generator was just much more convenient than needing a generator. That's the purpose now for running the Starlink Mini at in the evening. ROCK6 |
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Originally Posted By PA452: Now I'm not sold on that entirely, but I'm reconsidering my plan. Does anyone here use a setup like this? A large battery system like the Jackery 5000 and then a generator to charge that? You may want to Google "Peak Shaving". I was working on this concept for my camper nearly 20 years but the components were too heavy and too expensive. I wanted a battery system that handled most things but could also support the A/C. Clearly an A/C won't run long on battery but I was thinking that I could run a really small generator if the battery/inverter handled the startup load. By the time that everything was said and done I would have three times the weight and twice the price of a Honda EU2000I so I want that way instead. The idea with Peak Shaving is that the generator handles the base load with enough extra to keep the batteries charged. Then when your demand exceeds the generator's ability to provide power, the battery covers the shortage. After the peak demands is over the generator begins recharging/top-off whatever is depleted from the battery. But reading through your question again, that may not be what you are talking about. There are a number of off-grid systems that are popular in Alaska where the house is powered by solar, fed through a battery/inverter and supplemented by a generator. It the batteries are depleted to a specific level then it starts the generator to begin recharging them. https://solarguyspro.com/products/sungoldpower-5000w-48v-solar-charger-inverter?currency=USD&country=US&variant=49690047021338&stkn=16e1c6ad8403&tw_source=google&tw_adid=&tw_campaign=21718867154&tw_kwdid=&gad_source=4&gad_campaignid=21712459110&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3qLSBhDaARIsAFTiVh5tfMeVf2-m2EV9cxL4ScGwm_kNiCwSMh__rbLhOODEcfzxivDrIiYaApjtEALw_wcB You could use this same setup without having the solar component. |
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In regards to a power station, among other things, I'm a boater. Long distance boating is all about power management. You learn on a boat to run every electrical you can on 110v ac. Just like back in the day of Edison Electric, you learn resistance in wiring and DC is just a waste of power. I have more inverters than I do generators and I have three generators. They vary in size from the small 100 watt cigarette lighter plugs to 2,000 watt on my boat. The 2,000 has an low voltage alarm which tells me time to switch batter banks or charge. Next, utilize what power you are using anyway. Got to run the boat/car, charge a battery/batteries. Back in my very early camper days, I use to swap out my truck battery. IMHO, greatest power invention in the last 30 years is solar. Even the multi million dollar trawlers now come with panels. Just to give you an idea, they rate them by how often and how long you have to run a generator to recharge. One hour a day is considered a very good setup. Best setup I have is my truck camper. Unlike a pull behind, it's designed to be off grid. Everything that can is run off propane and with just 160 watts of solar, I literally never have to charge. I supplement the roof panel with a folding panel so I don't have to park in the sun. One tank of propane last a week which is about the same time I need to dump my waster tank. Compared to my boat which requires a daily engine run, it's amazing to go a week sitting still without charging. I bought a new Champion gen to run the AC, but it's still in the box. I mostly camp either right next to the water or up in the mountains. I don't care for campgrounds. They're alright for traveling but to me it's like slumming in a trailer park. Like my boat and camper, at home when the power goes I do as much as possible without using electrical power. Every little bit helps. Finally what I do is I replace my car batteries every 5 years even if they are still fine. I keep the good ones and if I have it trade in a dead one I have my garage. This gives me a battery bank to use with my inverters. I also only buy AGMs knowing eventually I'll run them really low. Std vs deep cycle vs Li Ion is a totally other topic. Short version, deep cycles are great for motors but suck for delicate electronics and Li Ion requires different charging/maintaining. Now for the climax, "Buy a massive generator and you power will never go out again." Don't ask why I say this. LOL Tj |
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I always wanted/should have bought an Army surplus 20k. They were very inexpensive several years ago and I’d planed to have one of my generator mechanics show me how to inspect, use, and maintain one. Never got around to in and now they are pricey. Growing up on the ranch, we had a PTO driven one with a dedicated small block Chevy hooked up to it than ran on propane. It could be hooked to a PTO on a tractor as well should the need arise. |
“That’s not how it works. You buy more tools and power than you need and as you fuck everything up you gain the knowledge to become a better carpenter.”
Tveddy
Tveddy
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Something else took at if you have central AC/heat pump and you do want to run it is your "Locked Rotor Amps" - the starting draw. Our house doesn't have a huge unit, but I calculated my draw to be about 16kw, which is more than most portable generators can supply. The solution to this would be installing a soft start kit that knocks the starting draw down significantly. I'm kinda considering this option. |
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TX, USA
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Originally Posted By Pennsilfaanisch: Something else took at if you have central AC/heat pump and you do want to run it is your "Locked Rotor Amps" - the starting draw. Our house doesn't have a huge unit, but I calculated my draw to be about 16kw, which is more than most portable generators can supply. The solution to this would be installing a soft start kit that knocks the starting draw down significantly. I'm kinda considering this option. I had calculated the number of KW for my home a few years ago. We have a well, sprinkler pump, septic system, and pool pump. Using the STARTING amps of the AC we had at the time brought my total for everything past the 20k range.. And no, I would not run everything simultaneously but wanted my system to be somewhat overload proof in case I was deployed and there was a hurricane or other disaster. I did not configure for that as it was very difficult and expensive. A few years later we replaced our central AC with a 2 speed unit. Tonnage was just as big or maybe even greater, but it does not have the large surge capacity of the unit it replaced. Now I have a gas/propane 13 K and it will handle it easily as long as the sprinkler and well pump is not running simultaneously. TLDR? New AC units require far less starting amperage. |
“That’s not how it works. You buy more tools and power than you need and as you fuck everything up you gain the knowledge to become a better carpenter.”
Tveddy
Tveddy
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Originally Posted By DoctorCAD: Get the interlocks installed. I did it 5 years ago and we have not had even so much as a power blip since. My generator is dusty and I have to keep draining and refilling the tank. Interlocks are apparently magic. Installed Friday so I'm good there. I imagine I'll still be at risk for outages until I buy a generator/power station though. |
Gotta enjoy the little things.
Meowdy!
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EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 is my primary back-up. 4000W and 120V/240V so I can run my well. I usually recharge with a dual-fuel generator plumbed to my 500 gallon propane tank... or if I really had to, I could break out the solar panels (nice to have options). The absolute best thing about the solar generator is I get to sleep at night, or better yet, hear the bumps in the night. My neighbors are not super close, 10+ acre lots, but when we have outages I can hear them. I like the thought no one exactly knows what I have going except when I run my combustion generator for a couple hours the middle of each day. Wasn't cheap, but I have zero regrets with the 240V EcoFlow with as many outages as we get here. If you need 240V, after EcoFlow, I'd look at the Bluetti brand, hear really good things. |
Where There Are Sheep, Wolves Will Always Thrive
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Originally Posted By LoneMouser: EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 is my primary back-up. 4000W and 120V/240V so I can run my well. I usually recharge with a dual-fuel generator plumbed to my 500 gallon propane tank... or if I really had to, I could break out the solar panels (nice to have options). The absolute best thing about the solar generator is I get to sleep at night, or better yet, hear the bumps in the night. My neighbors are not super close, 10+ acre lots, but when we have outages I can hear them. I like the thought no one exactly knows what I have going except when I run my combustion generator for a couple hours the middle of each day. Wasn't cheap, but I have zero regrets with the 240V EcoFlow with as many outages as we get here. If you need 240V, after EcoFlow, I'd look at the Bluetti brand, hear really good things. That just can't be said enough. Solar with battery backup as a standalone total solution is large, expensive, and vulnerable. A smaller version of that concept partnered with other solutions is a really good way to go- and the nocturnal security of running silently cannot be overstated. |
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I live rural but not too far from town. Neighbors are pretty tight for the most part and outsiders are immediately identified and watched. Everyone has generators and when the power occasionally goes out, everyone fires theirs up. My main gripe to my diesel generator is how loud it is. It’s pretty unpleasant so I want to replace it with an inverter generator. Running it on propane instead of gasoline ensures it’s always ready to run. Also, propane runs cleaner than gasoline so you can extend run times during a long term outage. If I was to run it for an extended outage and propane is running low, I could easily run on gasoline to finish out the outage, then run the generator dry of gasoline, flush the lines and carb, and be ready for next use. So far where we live, the longest outage I’ve had was about 2 days. In a past house I lived through a 5 day outage. |
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things."
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
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I just made my first jump into backup power. My main goal is to keep fridge and freezer powered for as long as possible. I picked up a Jackery 3600 with panels on Prime Day. Haven't opened it yet, getting it via FedEx was a long ordeal due to Jackery requiring signature. But I've had good luck with smaller 2000 Jackery I got my girlfriend along with an electirc cooler. My plan is to next get a dual fuel inverter generator, probably a Wen 3600 or 4000w, to charge it. Saw some good reviews on youtube. I belive it was City Prepping or the Urban Prepper that showed how to use a light timer (the kind you use to turn your lights on/off like you're home) to run the fridge for 30 min on/3 hours off while hooked to the Jackery. He kept the firdge going for over 2 days without needing to recharge. So I will do a test on that setup later this month. |
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Originally Posted By 2Hut8: You may want to Google "Peak Shaving". I was working on this concept for my camper nearly 20 years but the components were too heavy and too expensive. I wanted a battery system that handled most things but could also support the A/C. Clearly an A/C won't run long on battery but I was thinking that I could run a really small generator if the battery/inverter handled the startup load. By the time that everything was said and done I would have three times the weight and twice the price of a Honda EU2000I so I want that way instead. The idea with Peak Shaving is that the generator handles the base load with enough extra to keep the batteries charged. Then when your demand exceeds the generator's ability to provide power, the battery covers the shortage. After the peak demands is over the generator begins recharging/top-off whatever is depleted from the battery. But reading through your question again, that may not be what you are talking about. There are a number of off-grid systems that are popular in Alaska where the house is powered by solar, fed through a battery/inverter and supplemented by a generator. It the batteries are depleted to a specific level then it starts the generator to begin recharging them. https://solarguyspro.com/products/sungoldpower-5000w-48v-solar-charger-inverter?currency=USD&country=US&variant=49690047021338&stkn=16e1c6ad8403&tw_source=google&tw_adid=&tw_campaign=21718867154&tw_kwdid=&gad_source=4&gad_campaignid=21712459110&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3qLSBhDaARIsAFTiVh5tfMeVf2-m2EV9cxL4ScGwm_kNiCwSMh__rbLhOODEcfzxivDrIiYaApjtEALw_wcB You could use this same setup without having the solar component. "Peak Shaving" is when you use peaking units specifically to avoid using utility power during peak periods because of demand charges. For instance, a factory will fire up a generator in the afternoon because their electrical rates might doubled during that time due to the overall load on the grid. Done properly it takes specialized controls in the transfer switch. A public service message from your friendly Internet pedant.  (Look it up you pervs!) |
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
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Originally Posted By DoctorCAD: Get the interlocks installed. I did it 5 years ago and we have not had even so much as a power blip since. My generator is dusty and I have to keep draining and refilling the tank. Interlocks are apparently magic. |
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
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Originally Posted By Pennsilfaanisch: Something else took at if you have central AC/heat pump and you do want to run it is your "Locked Rotor Amps" - the starting draw. Our house doesn't have a huge unit, but I calculated my draw to be about 16kw, which is more than most portable generators can supply. The solution to this would be installing a soft start kit that knocks the starting draw down significantly. I'm kinda considering this option. One trick I heard many years ago was for using a bench grinder to help small generators deal with motor starting loads. Basically fire up the genny and plug in your bench grinder and your motor load on the same circuit. Switch on the grinder and let it spin up and stabilize. Leave it on and switch on the motor load. When the inrush current pulls hard on the generator, the grinder's induction motor acts as a tiny generator itself, driven by the grinding wheels as flywheels. It only does that very briefly, probably under a second, but provides enough to keep the breaker on the generator from tripping. |
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
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Didn't go the direction I originally planned. Yesterday I bought a Honda EU7000iS gas generator. Pricey but hopefully worth it. Haven't used it yet other than to run it a bit, but the first thing that strikes me is how shockingly quiet it is. Still looking at battery power stations as well. |
Gotta enjoy the little things.
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Originally Posted By PA452: Didn't go the direction I originally planned. Yesterday I bought a Honda EU7000iS gas generator. Pricey but hopefully worth it. Haven't used it yet other than to run it a bit, but the first thing that strikes me is how shockingly quiet it is. Still looking at battery power stations as well. The inverter generators are super quiet. Was camping last weekend. Established campground. We had power but a nearby site didn’t. They were running their camper the entire weekend on a 5500 watt Champion. Minor sound in the campground but not at all offensive. Add a propane conversion and never worry about gas going bad. They make kits for your generator either fuel injected or carbureted. https://store.nashfuel.com/products/gen-kit-710-171-4-eu7000is |
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things."
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt