Does your electric co have a solar option now? SC just passed the law a
year or so ago allowing home solar systems to tie into the grid and now
various companies are doing leases with no upfront costs. Not too many
in yet but those who have done them report they are saving money on
electricity what with the panels and sell-back to the utility. If you
have 200ft2 of good clear roof space, and whatever on your house, you
could probably get by with solar and batteries, unless of course the
storms destroy your panels... in which case you would need some
fuel-based generation anyway. You would have to look at demand on your
HVAC to see what solar/battery could do.
As far as the water pump, any small generator could get that thing
running, HF or not.
BTW I had a very nice expensive Milwaukee battery drill blow up in my
face once while up about 25ft on a ladder working on a gutter. THAT was
a fun experience, I seriously thought someone had shot me. I contacted
Milwaukee and they were all over that like a duck on a frog, fedexed a
new battery pack and a box to send mine back in. Sometime later I saw
there was a recall on the batteries for explosion hazards. NiCd or
NiMH, I forget which, tended to generate hydrogen into the closed
battery pack and a good load would cause an arc and BAM! I took my 2
back for replacements, never had any problems with them other than they
pretty much failed after not long. With HF stuff I figure if it has
more than one moving part it will fail sooner rather than later. That
said, I have had a $20 recip saw I have beat on extensively and it is
still going strong. The $200 tile saw is pretty decent too, no problems
with it.
--R
On 5/10/15 1:58 PM, OK Don via Mercedes wrote:
Rich and Mitch - thanks for the input. While today is a no heating/cooling
needed day, we get below 0 and over 100 here every year, plus the tornadoes
and earthquakes. I do have a 500gal. propane tank that is only being used
for the gas grill now, so propane is an option, but those 10 - 12 KW
generators suck the liquid propane at a high rate, and propane is an
EXPENSIVE fuel. I also keep 55 gals. of gasoline on hand for the airplane,
as well as the gas in the plane and truck tanks, so I'm thinking gasoline
is the better fuel source now, but being able to use either and demand
would be even better.
The well pump is submerged 300 ft. down a hole, a belt won't run it :-) I
can do without the electric hot water, and use the gas grill for cooking,
so the major loads are the 1/2 HP well and the geothermal heat pump. I need
to get a soft-start kit installed on the heat pump, the initial
starting load is pretty high.
A generator runs regardless of the load while the grid is down. I'm
thinking that the battery would run all the time, and the generator only as
needed to charge the battery. I also have the roof of the 40X50ft. hangar
to mount solar cells on. Maybe between solar, a generator, and a battery, I
can lose the electric company all together?
After having the ½" HF drill burst into flames in my hand while mixing
mortor for a floor tiling job, I won't be buying any more power tools from
them, and I'm putting their generators into that category.
A big tank on a stand is a good idea - I have a food grade plastic 55 gal.
tank that my wife was going to use to collect rain water for the garden in.
Just need to get it up and in the system. Maybe mount it on top of the well
house.
On Sun, May 10, 2015 at 12:25 PM, Rich Thomas via Mercedes <
mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:
I have a generator on wheels that the PO of our house left us, last time I
used it was when my temp power panel was arcing and sparking and it took
awhile to get the powerco here, but it fired right up after not using it a
coupla years. (I know I should really tend to it...). It has 220V and
110V output and is like 6000W or so, so it can run a fridge and other stuff
easy enough, maybe even one of my mini-split units now as they are not too
much of a load. I'd think having a generator like this would be fine for
your occasional needs, and doesn't cost $3k or whatever those Tesla
thingies will be, plus whatever the install cost is. Harbor Freight has
those little units for not much, if all you need to run is a well pump.
Most work you could have to do is rig up a switch on your well pump to run
it off mains or your generator with a cord. Or just put a belt on it and
run it off a little engine? Or put a big tank on a stand!
If you are located in serious weather area though, it might make sense to
install a whole-house backup system running off propane or diesel or
whatever. I looked into those a coupla years ago, a number like $10k is
what I recall. Out here where I live at the end of the grid on the coast I
should probably look into that again, but there are always other
priorities... if worse comes to worse I guess I could just rough it or get
by with the occasional generator run if I need power for something.
--R
On 5/10/15 12:59 PM, OK Don via Mercedes wrote:
Is anyone paying attention to these? A power outage of 2.75 hours this
morning got my attention.
We are "on" a water well, no power, no water. We have threatened to
purchase and install a back-up generator for three years now, but always
hesitate when it comes time to size one, and realizing that we want it all
- which costs a lot to purchase, and more to operate.
I'm wondering if installing a "powerwall" would allow a smaller generator
to run periodically instead of continuously, thus lowering the operating
costs. If a generator is auto, or on demand starting, it would only run
when it sees the powerwall losing capacity, charge it up, and shut off. I
guess the generator would have to be able to both power the house and
charge the powerwall, so might still have to be big?
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