Have a Generator outlet set up to connect my Welder as need be, as we live Rural and power failures occur almost routinely.  Almost not quite wish I had installed a LP Powered backup.

   Sure am glad I bought my generator before price went that high. Our generator has kicked on and ran and if we're asleep we don't even know it till we get up and the time on the stove is blinking. Of course I worked at Lowe's when I bought mine and go the employee discount when the employee got a nice discount and then the Lowe's card with free interest free for 1 year.

Actually, Jay, you're almost spot-on.

If you want a GOOD system, you have two generators... a small, and a large.

The term 'whole house' is subjective and risky:

Some people use the term to identify a generator which has automatic transfer, and will carry the full load of the whole house.  Others use the term to identify a generator which is not a portable that they have to connect.  Neither term clearly defines what the setup is.

As for cost, you buy a small generator, and you pay for it once when you buy it, and over and over again... when it needs the fuel system cleaned out, when you forget to add oil during long runs, when mice got in while it was stowed away under a bench... and you pay again, when you have an outage, and you can't make it run, so you go buy another one at a locally-inflated price.

When you buy a really big generator, you pay a whole lot for it, and then when it's exercised you pay for regular fuel use, and when it's serviced, you pay for the service company's bill for the professional technician to give it a regular visit, and then, when you have an outage, you pay for it's very hungry diet.

New generators are very effective at generating income for the seller and manufacturer.  They're also shiny, have all sorts of fancy microprocessor control features, and a downloadable app that you can give you something to fiddle with.

Old generators generate sneers from people who can't differentiate between grey iron and forged steel, cast zinc and plastic.  They have simple control systems, simple ignition systems, and nothing microprocessor-based, so that the lightning that's banging holes in the ground around you, is not likely to cause you to wind up without lights and heat.

Generators are hungry, and when they're running, they require a certain amount of fuel JUST to run... at no load, they need fuel to spin, to develop excitation current, to circulate coolant (liquid, or air), and maintain oil pressure.  This consumption rate is called 'base fuel consumption'.  Large generators have large base consumption, small generators have smaller base consumption.  Once a load is applied, the generator's fuel consumption will increase GENERALLY in proportion to electrical load... but not all generators are created equal.

Some have copper windings in the field and stator, some have aluminum.  Portables that are newer than the last two decades, will frequently be aluminum, while bigger gens, and older, will use copper.  Copper has naturally less resistance than aluminum, but it is heavier, and more expensive than aluminum.

Less portable, and higher quality generators have copper windings, and they run cooler...

And cooler generators generate less heat, which is WASTED energy.  Cheaper generators, with aluminum windings, are more frequently less fuel-efficient than more expensive, copper windings... and generators with aluminum windings will draw significantly MORE fuel as load increases, because the windings are shedding more heat at high load, than at a low load. 

So why TWO generators?  Because most of the time, you won't need much power for an outage, so locking out the heavy loads and dialing down to a small unit saves a significant amount of fuel.

Aside from the cost of fuel, a wide-area outage means that you might not be able to GET TO... or BUY more fuel.  An outage that takes down Bob's area, for example, may not be able to be accessed by road... and the only stations he could get to, might not be able to open and pump fuel, because THEIR power is out, too...  so having a great big generator, and a couple 5 gallon cans goes from seeming great, to a nightmare.  Having a 100gal overhead farm tank for agricultural service resolves that, but having a 100gal tank sitting around waiting for a storm, means when that storm comes (if the tank is still upright) the fuel in it very well could be significantly poor due to storage degradation.  Guys with a bulk diesel will be a little better-off,  municipal NG is great if you're not in a seismic zone that gets NG cut off when there's a major event... and finally, a 1000-gal propane tank or two... propane in that tank never goes bad.

The way you REALLY get efficiency out of a generator, under cold circumstances, is to capture the waste heat from the generator, and use it to heat your domestic water, or boost your domicile's hydronic heating.  Not easy to do on an air-cooled generator, but if it's liquid cooled, it's just a little plumbing-exercise a way.

By doing this, you take the entire electric water-heater out of the equation, and you reduce the amount of furnace fuel needed... because the internal combustion engine is ALREADY generating large amounts of heat that's otherwise being thrown away.

Stan's original report of his 7kw (and I only rate generators by 100% duty cycle) at 5 days for 60 gallons of gas comes out to 120 hours, so 1/2 gallon of gasoline per hour.

A gallon of gasoline is around 120,000 BTU of thermal energy.  If he's burning at 1/2gal per hour, that's 60,000btu of fuel energy.  The engine is about 16% efficient... that means that of that 60,000btu, he's getting 9600btu turned into mechanical energy, and the remaining 50,400btu is being thrown away as either noise, or waste heat.  A safe estimate of heat to noise, is about 90% heat... so 45,360btu/hr of heat is being sent skyward, and the rest is annoying the neighbors.

Let's say that Stan's house has an 80,000btu heating system, on an average cold winter-type day, his heating system is in HEATING mode for about 15 minutes of every hour... which means his system is pumping 20,000btu into his house per hour.

That generator's THROWING AWAY over twice as much heat, as his house needs to stay warm.  There's more'n enough heat left after THAT, to take over for the electric water heater, and that nixes the electrical load of those 4500w elements.

But I'm very happy to know that  everyone managed through that squall.  I was blasting  down the road to Albuquerque, made it all the way to Guyton, Ok before having to shut down for the night, woke up to a half-inch of ice, and radio reports of I40 closed at Santa Rosa due to a multi-car crash and traffic pile up.  We didn't even get much of a light dusting, all the heavy action went well south.

You cant ECONOMICALLY use the heat off the generator to do ANYTHING.. Waste of time and money.

No, Lars- I'm not the least bit upset, people SHOULD have backup generators... but they should do what Steve does- pull it out and run it regularly, so that it's always ready... and just as important, know what their house loads are, how much power they need at a MINIMUM, lock out what they don't need, and then size their choice appropriately.  Finally, just having a generator doesn't make for an emergency power solution, it's just a PART of it.  Having a plan that includes all that, as well as fuel source and storage plan, and sticking to the maintenance, it's all part of it.

heck, I added a simple 'heat exchanger' around the B-vent in the garage furnace, I got  15%+- more heat for FREE ! Couple of used 'computer' fans,some wood and screws.

It'd be pretty easy to make a similar unit for a genny. Big deal would be to make sure NO exhuast fumes get into the 'room air'

Hydronic would be GREAT, SAFE EASY way or a SS heatexchanger....

re: When I complained on how much gas we were going through last week my wife just said worth every penny.

sounds like she's a keeper !!!

for the neighbour.. hardwire(NO on/off switch) an LED light into the genny power ,when gennys on...LEDs on

  Howdy All,

  I went thru this all with many different ideas. And used them all. I went right back to the old fashion days for back up. Yes wood cook stove, wood heat stove and old fashion lanterns. All ready to go if needed. Best thing about it, its a lot of fun the old way.  Of course for a short time!

Kurzy