The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Anyone here have a standby Generator? If so, what have been your experiences?

_________________
"I don't own any watches, I just lease them"

I do...Id never be without one. When Oklahoma had the big ice storm, I ran everything in my house. Of course, mine is a big diesel welder/generator...

I'm interested in a natural gas unit. I was wondering how reliable they are, from the research I've done if they are properly exercised and maintained yearly they should be extremely reliable.

_________________
"I don't own any watches, I just lease them"

I have a diesel one - no gas out here in nowheresland, wired in to the house to kick in automatically. Have had no problems with it, but make sure that you go big enough to give yourself some margin on the amount of draw that you need - I know a couple of people who thought that they were buying 'big enough' to save some money and now can really only run things like fridge / freezer and a couple of lights. Think about what you will need for extended periods without power - things like ovens and furnace forced air fans can be big draws.

I knew you'd have one out there in the middle of nowhere. I am going to get a 20kw natural gas generator. I have a small home, only 2k sq ft and I'm being told by a number of dealers that 20kw should be more than enough to power the whole house without having to worry about what were using. I told them that I do not what to think about what will/won't work, I want it to be as if the power never went out. Th consensus was 20kw. The only problem I can think of is if the natural gas supply goes down then we're screwed.

What brand do you own?

_________________
"I don't own any watches, I just lease them"

I have one of these - http://www.auroragenerators.com/generat ... t=13428980, probably overkill for most but literally everything in our home needs electricity - well pump, heating pump, etc

Holy cow that big enough to power an office building!!! 58 gallons of fuel, do you have a truck come to your house to fill it up? And how many hours of power does 58 gallons give you?

Here's the one I'm looking at:
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R ... reId=10051

_________________
"I don't own any watches, I just lease them"

I have a farm diesel tank anyway for the tractor so can pump from that and up here farm diesel is untaxed - you get it delivered like heating oil when needed. It's rated to burn 243 g/kwh (grams per kilowatt hour) which is a very bizarre consumption value used only for generators it seems. It basically equates to about 1 gallon per hour for each 14kw/h of draw. I don't know what our average draw is but would guess that a full tank would keep it running for about 36 hours straight.

We had a Generac natural gas unit in our past house that could power most everything in the house and it kicks on when power goes off pretty quickly. We liked it enough and have been meaning to buy one for our current one. The permanent ones are expensive but nice and it usually does up the value of your home when you sell it. The mobile ones are often quite loud and you are limited on what you can power. If you have a gas line near you, IMO natural gas is a great way to go...the units themselves are very low maintenance and very quiet. To my understanding, there are some models designed to take multiple types of fuel from natural gas to liquid oil to diesel to propane, etc. Depending where you are at that may be worth looking into if you have regular supply shortages at peak months.

My dad is putting a 20K unit in right now. I have a buddy who installs them. I know his will be a Generac, running on natural gas and is supposed to be extremely reliable.

_________________
--
sco
Breitling Chrono Superocean
Omega Aqua Terra 8500
Rolex Submariner Date Ceramic

You reckon?

That thing'd probably power most of my street.... for a year... on one tank!

_________________
Driver8

Site Moderator