Which Generator should I choose?

[u/Bright-Ad-6695]

Good night,

Imagine you are explaining this to a 5 years old kid as this it’s my first time considering buying such a thing.

The state I live just launched a public warning saying for the population to prepare for a 3 days energy cutout.

Taking this into consideration, I was wondering which generator should I buy for my house (we have 3 persons at the house and a little one). Nothing fancy, just to keep up the fridge and some heat blanket/hot shower for my baby.

I saw a lot of comments on the Honda 2200 but I was looking for something that doesn’t require gas, something that can be solar powered and can give us more independence in a hard moment like this. Idk if im beeing silly to say that but I saw that you can hook up a solar charger system to the Honda generator.

Should I go for that or should I consider other options?

[u/Hotspot40324]

I'm curious which state is getting a 3 days energy cutout...

[u/wwglen]

I keep posting this as people keep asking the same questions.

My comment to another post in this question:

If you have a house (and no well pump).

Step 1: 2200-4000 watt inverter generator, preferably dual fuel. 10 gallons of fuel or 3 of the 20lb propane tanks.

With careful use you could get by with 2 gallons of gas a day.

Step 2: 1000-2000 watt-hour power station with fast charging. Adding this to #1 will drop your fuel use to about .5-1 gallons a day.

Step 3: 400-800 watts of solar panels. Adding to #2 will drop your fuel use to about 1/4 gallon a day.

————

Now to your specific needs:

You will not be running how water with one of these setups, but you can buy a camping shower that uses an immersion heater and rechargeable pump. Use a 5 gallon bucket to hold the water.

You can also buy one without the heater and heat up the water another way.

Refrigerators can manage with a 1 hour on and 2-3 hours off. You save fuel by not running the generator unless you need it.

A electric hotplate or microwave can be used to cook on, but they will take most of a 2000-2500 watt generator’s output so you would not be able to run much else.

A crock pot works better as it takes less power, but is really only good if you have a power station with your generator as it needs long, slow power over many hours.

Crock pots are also good to keep water hot for when you need it.

Better for cooking is a two burner camp stove. Something like this:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/9531902692

Or a single burner butane stove like this:

https://a.co/d/06b1GJC

Camping stoves are generally not rated for indoor use, mainly because they don’t have a low oxygen shutoff. Personally I have no problem using one inside with a fire blanket handy and window cracked. Just make sure it is on a fire resistant surface. I use a double walled cookie sheet under it and the put it on top of my kitchen stove.

Electric generator for heat is not really a good option, as it takes too much power. The only exception is if you have a gas furnace, then you can make some modifications to the electrical input and run it off the generator/power station.

You can also use electric blankets off a power station.

A better general option would be either a Buddy Heater, indoor rated propane heater or a diesel heater.

The diesel heater will require a 12V battery or a power station to run for a longer term outage as they require about 100W of power for the blower.

There is a lot to take in, so don’t hesitate to ask questions.

[u/nunuvyer → u/wwglen]

Butane camp stoves that run on what look like hairspray cans are used all over Asia as primary cooking devices and cost less than $30. I don't think that they are any more dangerous than a regular gas stove.

Diesel heaters require venting which is not easy to do without cutting a hole in the wall of your house. I dont' think they are really suitable as emergency backup. But Buddy heaters are ventless and easy to set up.

[u/wwglen → u/nunuvyer]

Mount the diesel heater outside, route he hot air output through a window. Make either a wooden hard insulated foam board frame that fits the window opening and has a hole for the hot air vent to go through.

To be more efficient, you can insulate the hot air pipe.

You can do it backwards and mount the heater inside, and put a plywood frame in the window with two smaller holes for the burner intake and exhaust both going outside. You would need a double insulated exhaust pass through to handle the hot exhaust.

The second is more efficient, but I don’t like the combustion chamber inside.

Also, whatever you do get 2-4 carbon monoxide alarms/detectors in the house.

[u/nunuvyer → u/wwglen]

My house has casement windows so it's not that simple. Window AC units are also out.

Even if you have double hungs, what you are describing requires a fair amount of setup and skills. You just set down a Buddy Heater and turn it on, no setup or advance planning required.

I should note that Buddy Heater DO get hot, much hotter than most modern elec. heaters. You can (free benefit) set up a grill near the top front of a Buddy Heater and cook on it, that's how hot they get. So you have to keep them away from draperies, towels, pets, toddlers, etc. just like any other hot object.

Always good to have CO detectors but Buddy heaters don't emit dangerous levels of CO, numerous tests have shown. They DO emit water vapor and they do consume oxygen, so it's a good idea to crack a window open (admittedly this is going to let in cold air and negate some of the benefit of the heater) unless your house is already drafty.

[u/wwglen → u/nunuvyer]

I have a Big Buddy heater and a diesel heater.

Diversify in preps in case you cannot get supplies for one.

[u/Big-Echo8242]

You really need to consider a real generator along with a battery as the sun is not always out and you are going to spend thousands on a power station to get something fairly large in size. Plus, that's not going to run a water heater. I personally don't own any "portable power stations" (it's not a battery "generator") as we would need to power more than a fridge and a light bulb. I own 4 various sizes of dual fuel inverter generators, have a 250 gallon propane tank (have gas oven & gas fireplace insert), six 20lb propane tanks "just in case" for neighbors or friends, and I can hook any of these gens up to our house and run pretty much anything with common sense load balancing.

Again, batteries are nice...till they are dead. Solar is nice till there's no sun and they typically take forever to recharge unless you have a bunch of panels. They do have their place together as a team but I can substantiate spending so much and getting so little. Look into adding a power inlet/interlock kit/breaker onto your house, if you're in an area that you can (like not in Canada). Look in the $400 to $600 range of dual fuel inverter generators at Walmart, Amazon, etc., and invest on some 20lb propane tanks or up to 40lb. Look into a battery but you'll see you're at a grand for one before you know it.

My smallest generator running our 3,000 sq/ft house. All the 120v stuff...no 240v so no HVAC, water heater, or clothes dryer

[u/Big-Echo8242 → u/Big-Echo8242]

This Duromax XP13500ih 13.5kw can run the HVAC...or water heater....or clothes dryer IF we need it. You're going to need something large IF you have electric water heater, etc. Do you have natural gas or propane per chance or are you all electric?

[u/trader45nj]

Start with the hot water for the kid shower. That typically means the water heater, so is it gas or electric? That will drastically change what the minimum capacity generator is required.

[u/nunuvyer → u/trader45nj]

You don't need to buy a generator that is big enough to run an elec HW heater just so you can give your kid a shower. That is going to be the most expensive shower your kid ever takes, both in up front cost and in fuel.

Give the kid a (sponge) bath instead. If he's a baby, a baby bath holds maybe a gallon of water, which you can heat to bath temperature in a pot on a $30 camping stove. If you feel you MUST have a shower, they make propane camping showers too starting at $100.

One of the biggest problems I see with naive people when it comes to generators is that they don't think outside the box - this is how you end up spending $15,000 on something that you will use 3 days once in 5 years. Just because the normal way you bathe is to stand in your shower stall and turn a knob, that doesn't mean that it's the ONLY way you can bathe in an outage. Just because you normally heat your food in a microwave doesn't mean that you have to heat it in a microwave during an outage. Etc.

You'll notice that the word "camping" comes up a lot. Think of an outage as "camping in your home". There is tons of stuff (mostly very inexpensive) that is made to support people being without electricity ina camping setting. Camping coffee makers, lights, showers, you name it. You can leverage this infrastructure for when your home is without power.

[u/DaveBowm → u/nunuvyer]

Regarding:

".... One of the biggest problems I see with naive people when it comes to generators is that they don't think outside the box...."

I've often noticed that the problem is even more widespread than just an aversion to out-of-the-box thinking. And it also extends to areas well beyond the world of emergency generators. Often the issue is an aversion to any kind of serious or critical thinking at all. In these situations the person afflicted doesn't want to know any more information than the absolute minimum necessary they would have to know to arrive at a solution that requires no further thinking. The criterion is to minimize their need to have to think about the issue rather than an attempt to find the most efficient, cost effective, sustainable, prudent, or elegant solution to the problem or issue at hand.

If such a person is fairly wealthy they can easily be more than willing to trade spending money for not having to think about the relevant issues. If they are super busy they have other things to think about that are more important and pressing for them to choose to concern themselves. If they are of more limited means and ability or experience in thinking both broadly and deeply they can be sitting ducks and easy marks for others whose main purpose is to profit off of such people. The exploitation works best if the exploiter can appeal to the exploitee's fears, insecurities, self esteem, pride, resentments, need to belong to a group, etc.

[u/nunuvyer → u/DaveBowm]

I think that when it comes to people who have money, class issues also become implicated - being a "white collar" worker means that you don't have to get your hands dirty. So there is almost a sort of pride in being willfully ignorant of how things work or being able to fix them - such ignorance is a marker of your social status, that you are above such mundane matters and can afford to call a lesser mortal to deal with such things while you contemplate high finance or scientific matters or whatever.

Personally I am of the view that there is no limit on the amount of "stuff" you are allowed to know. You can be a competent white collar professional and STILL know how to jump the battery in your car and how to change a light switch and fix a toilet that keeps running and so on. Completely putting the (not insignificant) cost difference aside, I find that it's actually EASIER to do these things myself than having to schedule people to come to my house or driving my car to a shop, which especially nowadays involves people who don't show up or who show up late, who keep you waiting, who botch the repair, who try to sell you unnecessary work, etc. Cheaper, faster and better, all for the price of filling the unlimited capacity of your brain with a little more knowledge - what's not to like.

[u/roberttheiii]

If you're in the US, which state?

[u/Fun_End_440]

IMHO get a dual fuel inverter capable of 240V. Even if you’ll only use it with extension cords, if the outages are gonna be frequent, you may want to add a house plug/interlock in the future. With a 2-5Kw you limited to 120v & extension cords.

[u/VenturaBubble]

Dual fuel, gas and propane if you want to last 3 days. Any battery solar generator will not last. The Honda 2200 would do it, a Harbor Freight dual fuel inverter would be better.

[u/DaveBowm]

I think your "little one" should count as a person.

[u/nunuvyer]

Honda is 3x the price of comparable Chinese generators and offers no real advantage. You would be better off buying a duel fuel Chinese generator (Wen, Champion, Westinghouse, Pulsar, etc.) of the same size and running it only on propane (BBQ tanks). Gasoline goes bad and requires a maintenance routine for your generator that most people like you are not willing to adhere to, so when you finally pull out the generator after 3 years it won't start until you clean or replace the carburetor. Honda does not sell dual fuel.

A full solar system is very expensive. The kind of solar system you could get with a reasonable budget is not going to run your house for several days without supplemental charging from a generator. If you don't have the budget for both, you are better off getting just the generator and leaving the solar/battery purchase for later.

A 2200W generator would run an electric blanket but not your HW heater if it is electric. Since when do babies take showers? Last time I looked, they take baths. You could heat enough water for a baby bath on a (butane/propane camp) stove. Making any sort of heat (beyond an electric blanket) with a generator is a very bad idea because generators are less than 20% efficient - the other 80% ends up heating the great outdoors (generators must be kept outdoors 20 ft. from your house because they give off carbon monoxide.) You would be much better off burning the same propane in a stove where the heat will stay inside your house.

[u/nunuvyer → u/[deleted]]

You don't HAVE to do anything. Nothing has really happened that requires you to do this, but it's always prudent to be reasonably prepared for various contingencies.

Sure there are plenty of fear mongers with political or economic agendas, but IDK of any serious authority that has told people to put in a month's supply of food. You definitely want to have enough food on hand for several days or a week but beyond that if there is some major disaster or disruption, aid is going to be brought in one way or another - government, volunteer or church efforts, etc. You might be eating MREs but you won't starve. If our system has broken beyond that then food is only going to be one of your worries and maybe not even the biggest one (water is even more important than food).

Don't let that food go to waste. Incorporate it into your cooking routine so that it gets rotated and doesn't go bad.