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Looking for a Generator

1K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  hairy 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Just this past weekend the east coast and in particular here in NJ we had a very bad storm that caused much water damage and wind damage. Although I did not lose power this time I got to thinking if I lost power like so many of my neighboring towns I would have taken on alot of water in my basement. As it was I had to add another sump pump to keep up with the flow. If power went out I was dead. So I am looking for a generator and have been meaning to get one for awhile and keep putting it off. Well time is now. I can lso use it to power tools away from the home so what do you all have and why and how noisy are they?
Also are they putting out clean power to be able to run electronics
? I am not looking to get a whole house generator because I will be moving in 4 years and will let the new owners deal with that. We do not lose power alot but it has happenened and this last storm was an example that I am glad I did not have to deal with. Thanks for the replys.
 
#3 ·
JT,

In our area we had a couple major storms predicted that didn't turn out to be as bad as thought. Even the local small hardware store put in an inventory of generators that are, I suspect, going to see a dramatic price reduction soon. We're a small town and they only have two bigger generators left but I'll bet other areas have retailers in the same situation. My guess is that there will be some good sales on generators in a month or so.
 
#4 ·
We just did this a few months ago. We had an electrician come in and install a new circuit breaker box. This box has an interlock device, where you can switch from grid to standby generator incoming power. It is not automatic, you have to move a switch, similar to the main circuit breaker.

Another feature is a box mounted on the outside of the house. This is where I plug in the generator to provide the power to the breaker box. He also made up a power cable to connect the two.

The generator was purchased at Sam's club. Here's a link to generator:

http://www.watercannon.com/pc-1510-63-7000-watt-8750-surge-black-max-generator-13-hp-honda-recoil-electric-start-bmhg7000-es.aspx

That link doesn't go to Sam's, but it's the same generator. Even when I bought it, it was not on their web page but was in the store.

We desperately needed the upgrade on the circuit box, we had plenty of service coming into the house, but there were no more circuits available to use.That is no longer a problem.

The electrician is an old friend. I wanted a standby whole house unit. He recommended this, saying it's what he has at his house. Whole house with automatic transfer switch would have been more than $8,000. He charged $1600 for everything except the generator. The generator was $1000.

This is for emergency use. If I need it , it will power the essentials, furnace, sump pump, refrigerators and freezers, lights, tv etc. My water heater is gas . My stove is electric, he recommended not trying to power it, but I have other options there. He told me A/C would require a very big generator, because of the startup load.

I hope I never need it. We had a situation here when we caught the tail end of Hurricane Ike. Most of the area was knocked out, some for 2 weeks.
 
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