Quote:
Originally Posted by Aragorn
Since installed around five years ago our generator has come on around once or twice a month for sometimes hours or days. Add up the cost of spoiled food in the refrigerator and sourcing gas in times of panic and a whole house generator is not only cost effective but good piece of mind.
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That is precisely right.
I have both gas and diesel (powered by my tractors PTO) generators that will run everything in the house except the heat and cooling. The key for me was peace of mind on sump pumps, refrigerators, water, cooking and being able to communicate (the sat antenna and internet are powered) is worth it a thousand times over.
I had a plug installed in the house grid that allows me to plug the gens in and switch over manually. Very easy and there is a light that comes on when the power grid is back up.
Last night was a perfect example: Big storm, power knocked out for 9 hours. About twenty minutes into the outage, I went to the garage, started the gas gen (Honda powered), plugged it in, went to the electrical panel and switched the circuits I needed over. Nine hours later I did the reverse.
Since I am on a farm I keep over 150 gallons of each in tanks so running out isn't too much of a probability.
In the almost twenty years I have owned this place we have been without power for days at a time (longest was 6 days) so not having a gen back-up is out of the question.
The auto systems are really nice and I looked at getting one but I also use the generators remotely on the farm so it made sense to stay manual. If I didn't need the gens remotely, I'd be all over the auto systems.