Any generator experts on board?
The house I built on my hunting property (which I call the woods house) has a portable generator plug and main power interlock.
We had a power outage last Thursday through Saturday, a big storm blew through and knocked down lots of trees...
Anyway, I had a portable 4K watt gas generator at the woods house which I bought in 1999 for Y2K. I used it to keep the well pump, fridge and light circuits going which worked fine.
However, a few years ago I bought a used 7.5K watt stand alone genset that runs on propane. I got it from a retired Generac technician who picked up old gens, refurbished them and resold them. Usually they were smaller ones traded in for bigger ones. I thought since it used propane and was probably test once a year it would be a good deal since my woods house used propane.
Anyway, he had it hooked to a battery and a propane tank and was able to test start and run it with a load. It was pretty inexpensive compared to comparably sized portable gensets.
So this recent power outage reminded me that I need to hook it up. My thoughts being that I would simply run a cable/cord/plug from it to the plug on the house. Basically use it like a portable genset. Of course that would require wiring a cord directly to the genset.
And I need a 12 volt battery to start it and a trickle charger plugged in all the time to maintain the charge if one isn't built into the genset. It's been awhile since I took a look at it. I'm not currently at the woods house but am going back in a couple days. Maybe need an on off switch as well as a way to start it. I don't remember how the guy who sold it started it.
And a propane line which I need to tap into the house line or run another line directly from the tank. And I probably need a regulator and probably an on/off valve.
Bottom line is that while it wouldn't be directly connected and automatically start when the power went off, I could still use it by plugging it in, turning on the propane and starting it.
Has anyone done this and if so what am I forgetting?
The house I built on my hunting property (which I call the woods house) has a portable generator plug and main power interlock.
We had a power outage last Thursday through Saturday, a big storm blew through and knocked down lots of trees...
Anyway, I had a portable 4K watt gas generator at the woods house which I bought in 1999 for Y2K. I used it to keep the well pump, fridge and light circuits going which worked fine.
However, a few years ago I bought a used 7.5K watt stand alone genset that runs on propane. I got it from a retired Generac technician who picked up old gens, refurbished them and resold them. Usually they were smaller ones traded in for bigger ones. I thought since it used propane and was probably test once a year it would be a good deal since my woods house used propane.
Anyway, he had it hooked to a battery and a propane tank and was able to test start and run it with a load. It was pretty inexpensive compared to comparably sized portable gensets.
So this recent power outage reminded me that I need to hook it up. My thoughts being that I would simply run a cable/cord/plug from it to the plug on the house. Basically use it like a portable genset. Of course that would require wiring a cord directly to the genset.
And I need a 12 volt battery to start it and a trickle charger plugged in all the time to maintain the charge if one isn't built into the genset. It's been awhile since I took a look at it. I'm not currently at the woods house but am going back in a couple days. Maybe need an on off switch as well as a way to start it. I don't remember how the guy who sold it started it.
And a propane line which I need to tap into the house line or run another line directly from the tank. And I probably need a regulator and probably an on/off valve.
Bottom line is that while it wouldn't be directly connected and automatically start when the power went off, I could still use it by plugging it in, turning on the propane and starting it.
Has anyone done this and if so what am I forgetting?
