Woodburners and generators

It's not that simple... if it were, then the opportunities for arbitrage would be ginormous. I might buy a truck myself and drive it to the next state. I think either your company is gouging you or there are regulations and taxes at work. Also, propane prices haven't moved here much since gas started to be drilled. Maybe it has partially made us immune to inflation in that sector, but again, you're only a state away, so arbitrage should solve that for you.

Crazy isn't it. Propane is big bucks in my area. My Fireview cut fuel costs by $2000 the first year we had it.

It's also above $4/gal in our area, and I'm not even a state away. Most companies around here will charge a very different rate, depending on whether you're using it as a primary heat source or not.

In a case where a emergency exists I wouldn't really consider the cost so much, however you look at it it has to be done. My consumption concerns were more for run time for each type of fuel and what is available when refilling is needed. I know LP needs no electricity for filling but gasoline does. And LP doest get stale over time like gas. There's a lot of pros and cons.

$4.85 propane was too much for us. Put in a standard electric water heater and cut cost in half.

Most filling stations for LP are electric powered unless it's mounted on a truck. While it may be technically possible to fill a tank without electricity, I'm betting there's a good chance that the business that sells LP in small quantities isn't going to be open during a power outage. Gas stations around here have hookups for generators to run the pumps.

Your best advantage for going LP is going to be that you can sore large quantities of it on-site if you get a large tank installed. 100 gallon will run a 10Kw genset for a long time before it needs refilling. Plus you could plumb in for cooking purposes as well.

Pen's point on LP being a b*^&$ in very cold weather is well made. I do however know of several LP fueled home standy-by generators around here that do not have trouble starting in our typical winter temps. Maybe because they have power to the carb heater right to the point of when they are needed. I agree that a portable unit like the ones that have been popping up in every catalog lately could be a challenge however.

Been a long time since I had a gas grill, I take it long gone are the days they put the tank on a scale and plug in the filling hose to fill & weigh?

If I was going to run a entire house fixed backup I would get a natgas unit and have it plumbed into our city gas. Probably the cheapest runtime of all (discounting upfront), but we don't have power outages any where near often enough to make that investment worth it. Even if we had 5x the outages it wouldn't be worth it.

What are you guys talking about, I can start my propane genny when its in the single digits. Cold weather is not a problem at all. Diesel doesn't start in cold temps, but propane is fine. Propane boils at -44*F. I don't know the exact rate of consumption, but its under 1 gal/hr. So I could run my generator for like 10 days straight off of my 100 gal tank if I needed to. Good luck storing (and stabilizing) that much gasoline.

If I were in that situation, i'd call a company up north and tip the driver $30 or whatever it took for them to drive me down a delivery. Or if I were really enterprizing, i'd start a competing propane business there and undercut the competition.

That's some funky math if the price is almost half as much with the distant company.

I know 2 places that still fill that way but the fill pump is electric at both of them.

That's a hoot. 3000+ miles away and Suburban is still considered a "rip". And I've yet to talk to an even halfway satisfied customer.

4k gas Generac.
Sure the stove heats the house just fine, but having some lights, TV, etc is kinda nice too.

Natural gas one would be handy in the fact that its relatively cheap, but if we ever had an earthquake that shut the lines down (could happen) then it'd be useless.

I'm keeping my eye open for a decent priced diesel unit as I have a diesel tank at home (275 gals) for other equipment.

I just bought a Honda EM6500SX because I refuse to deal with no water and no electricity again. I have a well so no power means no water. I lost power 2X last year, once for 4 days and then for 6 days as well as losing power for 2 -3 days at a time in previous years. Honda was running a decent promo discount offer plus zero percent financing for 18 months. I got the generator and a 10 circuit transfer switch for $600 off of list which is pretty much internet prices as I began looking on-line several weeks. I bought from a local Honda power equipment dealer which is really what I wanted to do anyway (support local small business). Just knowing that I will have power if the grid goes down is a very comforting feeling. It's not too often that you feel good about spending a decent chunk of $$$ but the peace of mind is well worth it.

Have you made sure the generator will start your well pump? I was surprised at how much juice my pump required.

That's one of the problems with using a generator to run your household directly. It needs to be big enough for the biggest load, e.g. starting your well pump, but that often makes it over-sized for the average load, and thus it burns through fuel too fast. It's going to be a little more expensive, but putting a battery bank between your generator and your house would allow you to right-size your generator and also not need to run it as often. I.e. just charge up the batteries and run the generator again when they get low.

I'm having my transfer box installed this Friday so I have not actually tested the generator yet. It's rated at 7000 start up watts and 6500 continuous watts (5500 watts if longer than 30 minutes of continuous heavy use) which should be more than enough to power the well pump, furnace for hot water, fridge, freezer, some lights and intermittent use appliances. I powered a TV and several lights/appliances with a small 1000 watt inverter generator during our 6 day outage back in October 2011. I can always alter my use patterns if needed but just having back up power (and knowing it!) is a real good thing.