Lost our power again here in the great NW

[70charginglizard]

Well. another storm rolled thru here last night and knocked the power out again here.
It was the straw that broke the camels back. I finally went out and purchased my first emergency generator.
Pretty nice one. Has all the necessay outlet and 4000 peak watts.
I'm glad I did it and they were even on sale today....bonus!
Come on mother nature...give me whats you got!

[RECHRGD]

We've been pretty lucky over here so far (northeast Washington).  I've had generators for years because of frequent outages in the winter and the well pump needs power or no water.  We had a bad ice storm in '96 that had our power out for 17 days straight.  I was running the generator full time for all 17 days.  It finally gave up the ghost about 1/2 hour before the power came back on.  Bob

[70charginglizard]

Yeah now I just need to figure out a way to dirrect connect it into the house fuse box so it can just kick on if another outage occurs so I don't have to run a bunch of extension chords all over the house.

Anyone know what an electrician will charge to do something like that? and how big of a generator typically do you need to make this possible. The one I bought may not be big enough to do this for the whole house.

[Charger_Fan]

Yeah now I just need to figure out a way to dirrect connect it into the house fuse box so it can just kick on if another outage occurs so I don't have to run a bunch of extension chords all over the house.

Anyone know what an electrician will charge to do something like that? and how big of a generator typically do you need to make this possible. The one I bought may not be big enough to do this for the whole house.

If your generator can only be moved by forklift, you may be able to power your whole house...otherwise, you'll just need to run extension cords to the basic things. Microwaves & coffeemakers suck a LOT of juice, BTW.

[RECHRGD]

Lizard, I use a transfer switch manufactured by GenTran (www.gen-tran.com).  It wires into selected circuits in your house panel.  Mine has one 240 volt circuit that I use for the well pump and four 120 volt circuits that I've wired into my freezer, refer, and critical outlet/lighting loads.  You plug in a cord from the 240 volt output from the generator right into the unit (usually mounted right next to the house panel).  You have to know how much current each phase of your generator will handle, but with the selected circuits you'll be able to load shed as needed.  Ideally, your house panel should be located in the garage.  Otherwise the installation and generator location (OUTSIDE) will present a problem.   Bob

[70charginglizard]

Lizard, I use a transfer switch manufactured by GenTran (www.gen-tran.com).  It wires into selected circuits in your house panel.  Mine has one 240 volt circuit that I use for the well pump and four 120 volt circuits that I've wired into my freezer, refer, and critical outlet/lighting loads.  You plug in a cord from the 240 volt output from the generator right into the unit (usually mounted right next to the house panel).  You have to know how much current each phase of your generator will handle, but with the selected circuits you'll be able to load shed as needed.  Ideally, your house panel should be located in the garage.  Otherwise the installation and generator location (OUTSIDE) will present a problem.   Bob

What did that transfer switch end up costing you? I went into that site and couldn't seem to see a place indicating how much they charge for them.
My fuse box in in the garage so it should be too much of a problem routing a connection from the generator outside to a transfer box next to my fuse box as they show in the illustration. I really only want to hook up my Fridge,washer,dryer,tv,living room entertainment (tv,sterio) and maybe the lights.
You guys thing that might exceed the 4000 Watt rating of the generator I bought?

[RECHRGD]

Well, 4000 watts won't even run the dryer.  Is your water heater electric?  It's most likely 4000 or over also.  Your generator should be fine for a few light circuits and your refer & freezer.  You need to prioritize what you really need.  Trying to run your whole house like normal will run you more than a '68 R/T.  Make a list of what you HAVE to have for a couple of powerless nights and you can probably make your generator fill the bill.  Remember, with the gen-tran you can have more circuits wired in than your generator will handle and just turn on what you need at any given time.  I bought mine about 14 years ago and really don't remember what it was back then.  I would assume that they are in the $200.00 range for a small one like mine.  I think Home Depot or Lowes carries them.   Bob

[70charginglizard]

Well, 4000 watts won't even run the dryer.  Is your water heater electric?  It's most likely 4000 or over also.  Your generator should be fine for a few light circuits and your refer & freezer.  You need to prioritize what you really need.  Trying to run your whole house like normal will run you more than a '68 R/T.  Make a list of what you HAVE to have for a couple of powerless nights and you can probably make your generator fill the bill.  Remember, with the gen-tran you can have more circuits wired in than your generator will handle and just turn on what you need at any given time.  I bought mine about 14 years ago and really don't remember what it was back then.  I would assume that they are in the $200.00 range for a small one like mine.  I think Home Depot or Lowes carries them.   Bob

my water heater is a gas water heater. and I have a gas fire place that runs when the power is out so I don't need to depend on the furnace to heat the house.
I take it I'll probably do what you said and wire into the gen trans only the things I really think I might need that I know won't go over 4000 W by them selves alone and only use things as I need them. Gonna have to be careful though hu? Dont want to go over. That wouldn't be good.

[RTPTRON]

It takes a lot of power to run a house.  My RV has a 5500 Watt unit and if you are running both air conditioners and you try to use the microwave the rear air conditioner will automatically shut off until you are no longer using the microwave.  A 4000 Watt would not be enough to handle the demands of an RV, let alone a house.

The good news is that what you have is a damn site better than no electrical power at all.

[70charginglizard]

Well during that last power outage I had the fridge, microwave & tv running...off extension chords of coarse.

[RTPTRON]

Well, you had all of the most important things of life.  Cold Beer, Hot Food and Foot Ball (Entertainment).

Sounds like you are pretty well set for tonights storm.

Good luck to all in the great North West.

[70charginglizard]

Yep looks like were in for another one.

Well see how it goes.