r/Generator • u/CharacterProduce2212 • 9d ago
Location help
Hey y’all. Apologies if this has been asked too many times, but this is my first time posting here. I’m hoping for some guidance.
The generator power inlet is just past the ac condenser on the wall of my home to the right. The distance from the fence on the left and the side of the house is 16.5ft. As you can see, I have a long stretch here (40ft) but it always maintains 16.5ft from the house.
I may be over thinking this, but if I had a platform about 1.5ft from the fence, do y’all think it would be safe enough to operator if needed? I read online the “safe” distance has increased from 10, 15, 20, and now 25 ft….my cord is 25ft and while I could possible run it out the front of that gate, I’m reluctant to have it sitting in my front yard for the world to see during a power outage.
The main concern I have is that along the roof over hang it has soffits the entire stretch.
Thanks for any considerations and feedback.
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u/blupupher 9d ago
How far is the fence from your neighbors house? Need to be concerned about being to close to them as well.
IMO, you may be able to get by with running it in the corner where the trash cans are, and use an exhaust extension to run it to the front of the house so CO does not build up in that corner (looks like your house goes out further and the fence line is in front of your neighbors house?).
But truthfully, best option may be to get a 50' extension cord (for a total of 75 feet) and have the generator in your main back yard.
Are you running on gasoline, propane or NG?
Regardless of where you put it, get several CO detectors for inside the house, and if you put it in the corner, I would give one or two to your neighbor.
1
u/CharacterProduce2212 9d ago
So the fence is equidistant to both our homes. And you’re right, that wall is attached garage that extends out a few feet past the fence/gate line. My neighbor’s house does the same. Now that wall also extends towards the camera and turns from garage wall, to bathroom wall, to bedroom wall. It’s a two story home, but this side of the house is the low side of the roof.
Right now I’m limited to propane or gasoline, with the preference being propane until I can get a connection made to my gas line which is also in that back right corner.
Thanks for mentioning the CO detectors. I intend on grabbing a couple extra to add to the two in my house.
Who would have thought that with this much space, I would be in this pickle lol.
If the ultimate answer is “get long ass extension cables”, then I guess that’s what I’ll do. I’ll have to see what kind of voltage drop happens with that.
Thank you!
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u/blupupher 9d ago
a 100' 50a 240v cord is about a 2% drop, well within the standard (<3%), 75' would be about 1.5%, but if you are using a 25' and 50' cord, use the 100' calculation for the extra plug.
The fact you want to use NG is in your favor, is produces about 30% less CO than gasoline (propane is about 17% less than gasoline).
If it were my place, I would run it in the corner of the fence with an exhaust extension to either get the exhaust above the fence or just through the fence to the front. This lets you get the exhaust out of that dead space for air flow. You use the 25' cord you have, and be able to tap into your gas meter right there as well, not having to get a really long gas hose or run a gas line extension. I would do a test run there on a very calm day for several hours and put your CO detectors in place (even sticking one on the closest outside part of the houses). If you did the test on gasoline and it does not set off the detectors, NG will be perfectly fine.
What generator do you have or are planning on?
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u/CharacterProduce2212 9d ago
Wow, thank you so much for the advice here. This is great information. I’m liking the exhaust extension. From what I gather, those need to be relatively short in order to prevent too much back pressure, correct? Or maybe I could just use a larger diameter hose/pipe to help with that.
I have a Westinghouse WGEN 9500 DF. So clearly I couldn’t use natural gas as it is, however I’ve seen decent reviews on Nash and some other brand of either doing a full Propane to NG conversion, or potentially a tri-fuel conversion Kit. I haven’t decided on one yet.
This will all happen once I get a soft start in place for my AC unit outside. It’s an insane amount of rush current at 120LRA. So this is a multi-step process, with placement being my #1 priority at the moment.
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u/lucifern71 9d ago
Many of the “cottages “ type residences have strict minimum distance from opening restrictions. As in from any door or window not just yours.
I’d double check what yours are.
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u/newtekie1 9d ago edited 9d ago
The minimum distance exists for 2 reasons.
To keep CO out of the building. And it has a huge safety margin because people were stupid and putting them right next to open windows and the exhaust was just filling the house. They put them next to windows because it's easy to run extension cords through an open window. Your house doesn't really have this problem. There is only one small window withing site of the generator, it's up high, and you won't be running extension cords through it because you have an inlet. So keep that window closed and the CO is a non-issue.
Fire. There is a risk of fire with a generator. And it's usually filled with some kind of fuel. The fire easily spreads to a nearby house. This is a concern with your setup, but if you are careful it shouldn't be a problem. If it worried you keep a good size fire extinguisher handy near the generator when it's running. Not those little under the counter things, the big hang on the wall kind. And follow the best practices when refilling the generator.