How long do you wait before you get your portable Generator going?

I'd have to go buy one first so it would depend on how long the lineups are at the store. So far the power has always come back on before the store opened.

For us it depends. If the power pops off at 10PM when I was about to go to bed anyway then I don't bother with it until the morning.

During the day when we lose it, it will depend on whether our activities "require" power like if we are needing to cook dinner or prepare to go to work/school in the morning. Obviously if I know we are to be out of power for a long long time then I will conserve fuel by cooking over propane and using oil lamps.

In those cases where we don't need the power for anything then either boredom or refer needs dictate and we are most likely in the 4-6 hour range like BG unless one of the offspring decides to open the fridge.

We also like to pop out into the hot tub when the power goes out as a sort of tradition. See, the generator won't power the hot tub so if the outage is long then we might only get this one chance.

The last Winter power outage we had was 4 hours in -40 temps and I just sat by the fireplace while the neighbors were outside messing with their gensets. Apparently they don't start so easy at -40.

At -40 the stove can just barely keep up with the blower running. No power, no blower so the house did cool down some. Cookstove is gas so no problem there.

Had the power still been out in the morning, I would have been standing in line at the store wondering if they sold out yet.

about 30 sec.

haven't lost power since i bought my genset 3 years ago

looking at those transfer switches and they are BIG money so if and when i do lose power it's gonna be extension cords

BrotherBart said:

Until my wife starts going into DirecTv withdrawal. Or until I start going into hearth.com withdrawal.

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+1...to a T!

smokinjay said:

about 30 sec.

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Thats about how long after I get the generator fired up and going. Then the power comes on in 30 seconds!

If I wait 2 hrs to get started. Than the power will be out for 2 hrs and 30 seconds.
If I jump right on it, and get it running. Than we are out of power for less than a 1/2 hr.+ 30 seconds.
Never Fails!

But if the generator willn't start, I bet we'll be with out power for days.

Monkey Wrench said:

smokinjay said:

about 30 sec.

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Thats about how long after I get the generator fired up and going. Then the power comes on in 30 seconds!

If I wait 2 hrs to get started. Than the power will be out for 2 hrs and 30 seconds.
If I jump right on it, and get it running. Than we are out of power for less than a 1/2 hr.+ 30 seconds.
Never Fails!

But if the generator willn't start, I bet we'll be with out power for days.

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lol I jump on it as the gen-set needs to run from time to time anyway, just gives me a good reason to fire it up.My wife calls it part of the toy box but when its need it become a great tool.

BrotherBart said:

Until my wife starts going into DirecTv withdrawal. Or until I start going into hearth.com withdrawal.

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I have a UPS on my wireless router. If the power is out long enough the UPS on the WISP's tower runs out about when my UPS does. The wife can do without TV. I wouldn't want to run electronics on dirty genset power anyway.

I give it 5-10 minutes w/o doing anything. If the power isn't back, I start shutting down the PC's before their UPS units crap out. (I agree with those who say to avoid running electronics on genset juice...)

After that, I will call the power company info line, see if they have any estimates, and look at the outside conditions - If it looks like it will be out for a while, I will start up the genset, if it looks like just a couple hours, I leave it be... I also look at what our power needs are likely to be - again its a case of "do we really need it..."

Probably the biggest determiner is if we are going to bed - the GF uses a CPAP machine and if that doesn't have power, *I* won't get any sleep....

Gooserider

Well, I just build my house. So far the only generator I have is a small cheap coleman with a kind of lawn mower B&S motor sitting on top of it, and yes, it only have a lawn mower size gas tank. The kind of genset they sold at Canadian Tire on sale @ 250$. I hope I won't loose power soon because, I don'T think I can relay ont hat old (Maybe 4-5 year old) bugger. I just use it to build the house. It's taking like 1-2 gallons of gas per hour with 1/2 a pint of oil per tank (Wich is about 2 gallons). But short story, i got it for free.

But I want to put a cak up system on my house, a ferw pv with a grid tie in inverter and I want to buy a diesel genset, or build myself one. My dad say I'm crazy, because al,st time we loose power was in 1998 for approx. 4 hour........ but on the other end, If one day the whole Quebec the grid crash (Something like a major ice storm) I know that the Gaspe Peninsula will be one of the last place where they'Re going to care about..... So, the question is when will IO start the genny.... .in theory, If I have a good system with a decent battery bank, and if we're really trying to save power, it should take from 24 to 36 hour before I need to start the genset to recharge the battery bank.

I don't do anything unless the power is off more than 12 hours. Then out comes the generator.

I have a small generator that I bought during the 1998 ice storm . . . back before I had a woodstove. Now that I have a woodstove I can't really think of any real reason I would need power if it wasn't coming back on in 6 or so hours . . . I mean I can cook with the gas stove/woodstove and stay warm . . . and well, as for entertainment. . . . I can entertain myself for hours . . . by watching the fire . . . get your minds out of the gutter.

It takes me a couple of hours of naggin before I dig out the generator and get it all hooked up.....but I think the longest time for the power to stay out once I got the gen hooked up is 3 minutes.

BrotherBart said:

A hard, fast rule with generators is no matter how long or short your wait time by the time you fire it up the power will come back on just as you get every thing running.

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Very true . . . usually. But during the Ice Storm I was lucky and managed to buy a generator after Day 4 or 5 . . . that was when I realized we might be without power for a bit longer than I thought originally . . . when my wife had the power restored (I actually went south to Emmitsburg, MD for the Fire Academy) we were on Day 14 . . . so we had gone 9 or 10 days on generator power.

First I test it every month. So it is always ready for duty.

I run it after an outage in excess of 6 hours, for the
refrigerator and freezer. It depends on the season.
The wife likes the challenge of using the Oslo griddle
in the winter. The outdoor cooker in the summer.

After a few days, any outage is a real pain. So we try
to always be prepared for one.

Like BeGreen, for us it's all about refrigeration and the freezer. In '98 we went w/o a genny for two weeks post ice storm. But our house was tiny then, we had back up heat, and it was cold enough outside that a cooler buried in some snow sufficed as a fridge. Two/three years ago when the Patriots Day storm knocked out power and the meat we had in the freezer was worth more than the price of a genny we had to scramble (found one down in NH). Now with 1/4 a cow, 1/2 a pig, 40lbs of blueberries, 20 lbs of scallops, a few chickens and 12 quarts of sauces down in our freezers, after 6 hours or so we start thinking about getting the generator going. But even then, it's only for short spells.

All the plumbing in the house empties into a transfer pit, so i've got a honda eu 2000 to run the pump sitting right there. so how long to run the genny? depends on how long ago did I last go to the loo!! aS for the fridge its two eu 2000 parallel kit to 4000 at 27.5 amps. never needed to run the fridge off them, just the campers.

One of the honda 2000s will run a fridge just fine. Those are wonderful gensets.

Amazing that your whole house sewage runs through a sump pump. Usually when I've put these in there is a pretty large sump to allow some time between when the power goes out and when the sewage backs up. If not, you can always add a surge tank.

Highbeam said:

One of the honda 2000s will run a fridge just fine. Those are wonderful gensets.

Amazing that your whole house sewage runs through a sump pump. Usually when I've put these in there is a pretty large sump to allow some time between when the power goes out and when the sewage backs up. If not, you can always add a surge tank.

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My dad sewer system needs a pump too. But it's to take the liquid from the septic tank (Wich is almost 10 feet underground) and push it into the draining field. So even if he loose power, he can go for a while before the septic tank is full......