SMF

We had two major hurricanes this year, Florence and Michael. We lost power for 48 hours during Florence. We’ve had two 100-year floods in the last two years (thankfully, our house is not in a flood-prone area). I got to thinking about the rising temperature in the Atlantic and decided to pull the trigger on a standby generator that runs on natural gas and will power our entire house. I might never need it, but it’s nice peace of mind.

Jim, I admire your foresight. I have been wanting one of those since I first heard about it.

I put one in two years ago. Its been the best (housewise) thing ive ever done. First is the peace of mind and second is having everything work while the rest of the neighbourhood is dark!

Im very envious of your access to natural gas...I had to have a 500 gallon propane tank installed (bit of an eyesore to say the least) and the propane industry is one giant scammy industrial screw up, but all that being said, I still wouldnt want to be without my generator. Crazy is not wanting to have one

clive

Jim, we had an icestorm years ago that brought our area to the ice age (literally) decades ago. I built on an addition to the home for a wood stove (I love wood heat), but I also installed a PV electrical system with battery backup and a whole house gen'. The gen' can charge the batteries and so can the sun. Now when we get outages they only last for seconds before I switch over and if they last for a week it's a walk in the park as I have plenty of fuel in the tank and only run the genny when I can run it efficiently for high loads and to charge the batteries.

OK, my system can literally switch over in one power cycle (1/60th of a second) and take over if I have it configured that way. It's literally a whole house UPS if I have the switches set that way. When configured that way we see a minor blink in lighting and we're running on batteries. I designed it and it's been in use for 20 years and has worked fine. Very soon I need to replace the batteries. I have upgraded some of the components since it's first iteration.

Brian, that’s quite an installation. Battery technology is the missing link for greater adoption of renewable energy. I’m hopeful of a breakthrough that can help end our dependence on fossil fuels. I hope your new batteries aren’t too expensive.