Quote:
Originally Posted by bosstones
I had a manual bypass put in w/ when we had our house built a few years ago. It isn't a high amperage one but can handle the fridge, family room, 2nd floor HVAC, sump pump, and water heater. It'd be nice to have some more outlets or rooms covered but it's better than nothing. There's an outside NEMA connection under our 'deck' (4'x6' landing...).Certainly amongst the best $250 I've ever spent since I've actually had to use it.
We unexpectedly lost power for ~3 days last August during some choice, hot, humid weather. I picked up a 10kW (peak) portable generator (Generac) from CostCo, anchored it to our deck support, and fired it up. Loud (although not too bad inside the house) and it required a top off before work, after work, and maybe before bed but worth it to have slept and lived comfortably (air conditioning!), not have food spoil, and for the wife to not miss a beat working from home.
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That’s how I think about it. Aside from the cost of install, the cost of running a standby generator on propane to power the whole house like nothing happened is very high. We went through 3 hurricanes in 2 years in the 2005-2006 range so I studied this then. We wanted at least one ac, fridge and some lights / outlets. My wife insisted on water heater too and having stove and coffee maker is nice, but not essential with the grill available. The only issue with the larger portable is fuel consumption but like I said, we have used it once (knock on wood). Reasonable investment for the security it provides. We now have a condo in NC so if it gets bad here we’ll escape to there but still nice to have generator to run for a few days if necessary given frequency of hurricanes and tropical storms here.