Generators

Looking at purchasing a generator, its either going to be gas or pto driven, new or used. Just wanna hear from people that have used either one and the pro cons of them.

Seems our power goes out for anywhere from one day to a week about once or twicew a year, I would not be without one. Beats having all your food go bad in the fridge, and sitting in the dark with no TV. Keep about 20 gallons of gas on hand at all times just in case. I have a 5500 watt Briggs and it will run 2 fridges, freezer, the furnace (propane)our well pump and a few lighting circuits, all we need to survive.

After having to replace most of our "modern" appliances that
have electronic controls; refrigerator, dishwasher, cookstove,
etc., by using a home generator, 6500 watt, we purchased an
inverter type generator that produces clean sine wave power
and stable 120 a.c. voltage. We found prices comparable.
The old generators will run lights and maybe a furnace blower, (no electronics) but anymore, that's about it. My 2 cents.

Mounted my 11000 kw PTO driven on a Three point.Handy around the place if you need power. ran the whole house including 3 ton A/C during hurricane Rita and hurricane Ike.

I've got three portable ones, a coleman 5000 watt cont. run, a 3000 cont. and an old coleman 2200 watt. The big one will take care of everthing but the 220 things in the house. The 3000 runs the shop lights and furnace fan along with one string of plugins, the old one gets taken to the field if needed. But one thing with the portables, you need to keep them filled when not in use, and either once ever two weeks start um up, or turn the gas off and run them till they quit. I change gas in mine ever 3 months, I make a good part of my grocery money cleaning carbs on other peoples generators.

I've run portable generators a lot in my business. If power goes out at home, no big deal. I simply fire up the generator, and power what is needed. However, about a month ago, we had a whole house generator installed. That's the way to go. Power went out for 3 days during "hurricane Sandy". Whole house generator automatically kicked on, and run for 3 days straight. It was like never loosing power. The electric came back on today. Generator automatically shut off. Expensive to buy, but nice.

(quoted from post at 17:23:49 10/31/12) I've got three portable ones, a coleman 5000 watt cont. run, a 3000 cont. and an old coleman 2200 watt. The big one will take care of everthing but the 220 things in the house. The 3000 runs the shop lights and furnace fan along with one string of plugins, the old one gets taken to the field if needed. But one thing with the portables, you need to keep them filled when not in use, and either once ever two weeks start um up, or turn the gas off and run them till they quit. I change gas in mine ever 3 months, I make a good part of my grocery money cleaning carbs on other peoples generators.

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Good advice. I like to start up all my gas engines at least once every 3 months or so and run them up to full operating temp.

I have a 6300 it will run the whole house on the 220 circuit. I
put it out behind the shop and plug it into where my 220 table
saw is. Throw the main breaker to not feed back down the
mainline. My buddy has a PTO setup but he hasn't had a
chance to use it yet. He bought a thing on the Internet that
won't let the main breaker on when he turns on the feed for the
gen. Simple but works and cheap.
Walt

Since nobody else really answered your question I'll chime in. I've had a portable 5000watt gas powered one and now have a 17kw propane powered whole house with auto on/off. As noted below it's sweet, will come on whether I'm home or not if there's a power outage. biggest problem with pto generator is if you need the tractor for something else, like clearing snow. Depending on the tractor, they can use a lot of gas, too.

I had a pto generator that ran off a Horse model Troy Bilt tiller and I sold it and bought a Troy Bilt generator in 2003 that was rated at 7550 watts. It was dangerous fueling that in the dark trying to lift 5 gallons of gas and holding a light. When we had a tornado to touch down in June 2012 and was only a few miles from us we decided to buy a standby generator.

We bought a Kohler 14kw generator that will run on LP or NG. We have NG and the generator cost $3699.00 and the plumbing for the gas line, electrician, permits and programming the generator with a lap type computer was close to another $3300.00.

When the brunt of Superstorm Sandy hit we lost house power and the Kohler engine started and our lights came on again. Power was restored after 26 hours. Both refrigerators and freezer
had power. So did the furnace during the outage. Our neighbors across the street still don't have power. They lost power before we did. I sold the 7550 generator. I think we have 13 circuits on the transfer switch that's wired to the generator. One circuit feeds 120vac to the generator for charging the battery and is regulated at 2 amps. There's probably a rectifier located somewhere on the generator. Hal
PS: The shipping was free and no tax from AZ.

AllisG,
First you need to tell us what you plan to do with the generator.

Second you need to consider how much it's going to cost to operate it.

Third and most important, do you have a large supply of diesel, LP or gas on hand? Florida was hit with a large hurricane and was without electricity for 3 weeks. So were the gas stations. No large supply of fuel on hand, no generator.

Fourth, do you want a noisy portable generator? If not look into a small 3000 watt RV generator. They are designed to be quiet.

A small portable RV generator at half power is said to use a gallon every 3 hours, 8 gallons a day @ $4/gallon, $32 a day. That's for a small generator. How much do you want to spend a day to operate a generator? I'm sure other generators may be cheaper to operate if they run on diesel or LP.

How much do you want to spend on generator?

How often are you going to use it?

Do you want to be able to transport generator to other locations? Not easy to move a large LP tank or tractor.

There are many decisions you need to make.

I decided to buy a cheap throw away used RV generator. I figured I could buy many throw away generators for the price of one Brand Name.

It's a 3500w RV generator. Only weighs 100 pounds. Very quiet and very easy to start. I plan to use it to power my 3/4 hp well pump when I lose power and to power a 4 peak hp electric chain saw.

The part I didn't think about, but will in the future, is the RV out is 120 volts and 30 amps. I like that feature. Some generators have 15 amp or 20 amp 120 volt out. The single 30 amp out has very little trouble starting the well pump or electric chain saw.

I have no plans to buy a generator to handle the entire house. It will cost way too much to operate. Lucky to lose power once a year for any length of time.

George

Have a 6500 Coleman portable that's about 9 years old and an
Onan diesel 19 Kw as well. Don't use either every month but
run them nonetheless.

A pto job would be great if there's a chance you might use it
away from the house (welding pipe fence, etc.). Otherwise you
are tying up a tractor

Keep you eye open for an auction where someone is
upgrading their generator (like Purple Wave). I got the diesel
from the phone company that way. Didn't have many hours
and had been taken care of.

I have both a standby propane and a PTO unit. The propane one auto starts and has a 800 gallon reserve tank. It is a PITA getting tractor and PTO unit up and running in the middle of a night during a storm.

I bought a Generac, motor was just replaced under warranty, I would get a Kohler next time.

I have had a back up generator for the farm since 1980. it is a 25 kw pto unit. It is a winco, all copper wound, so it only needs to be exercized yearly. I have a connection box and switch at the main pole to hook it up. A good farmall M will handle the whole farm, But it makes him snort durning Milking. Yes, it's a pita to hook it up during a storm, But I have to be out in it to take care of the cattle anyway. When the power is out for a long strech, I generally run him for milking and feeding. then shut him down for 4 to 6 hours, the house stays warm with a small fire in the wood burner and the freezer and fridge are alright for that amount of time too. I have a 3800 watt gas generator that I carry in the truck bed for the camper when in remote campgrounds for long peroids. I could use that in an emergency too if needed, but it would never run anything in the dairy barn.

Walt

You know better to do that and you can afford a proper transfer switch. Lets not imply in any way shape or form that a double male cord. And a main switch without an interlock is acceptable. You could get some poor smuck killed or crippled with such advice.
Another thing. Your 240V saw has no neutral connection.

A consideration now, that was not a problem in the past, is gasoline. It goes bad so fast that you can't leave gas in a generator, so it will be a matter of having enough fresh gas on hand to run it when the time comes. And you can't keep a good supply of gas around, or IT will go bad as well.

I'd sure look at diesel power, so you can just fill it and not worry about fuel deterioration.

For conversation sake; Our 500 gallon propane tank was filled to 80% just before Sandy. Whole house generator ran 3 days straight. Also cooking on gas range. Tank now reads just below 75%.

Wonder how many times you would have to fill the gas tank if you had a gas or diesel genny?

Wish someone would do a break down on cost/kw-hr to make your own electricity using different fuels.

My best estimate is that it will cost be about 8x more using gasoline.

That's why I purchased a small protable propane heater for backup. It's about 20% more using a 17 lb tank. I'm sure is I had a 500 gallon tank LP would be way cheaper.

George