[ssmit132]

Be careful that you don't turn that into a rocket.

[Blue Lion]

That was just the first hit off google, but point taken. I will not do that.

[Liberator]

Mythbusters busted that one a while back, it's more likely to explode than turn into a rocket.

[ssmit132]

That's where I got that off in the first place. You would probably have to deliberately turn it into a rocket.

[Mongoose]

Mythbusters busted that one a while back, it's more likely to explode than turn into a rocket.

You mean they episode where they showed that, with a malfunctioning thermostat and safety valve, a hot water heater had the potential to rip through a built-to-code roof like butter and fly a few hundred feet into the air?  Because that didn't seem much like a "bust" to me.

[redsniper]

That.... was an awesome episode.

[Nuke]

my inlaws out here use a big diesel generator to power a few buildings on their property out in the bush. they only run it for a few hours a day, turn it off at night and bring it online again when everyone gets home from work. during the time its running they use the excess power to charge two forklift batteries, when the generator goes off the inverters come on and it supplies enough power at night to run a few lights and some computers. for being completely off the power grid they manage to keep their buildings powered quite well. im not sure what the fuel costs are, or any of the technical details. heat is usually generated with wood or propane stoves, and one building has a propane water heater, but ive seen them use a few small electric heaters during the day time.

[Blue Lion]

There is a reason people pay for power instead of running their own generators. It's damned expensive. I'm sure they spend a lot running that thing.

[Nuke]

its not the only expensive thing they run. they also have a gravel crushing operation and probably own at least 4 big diesel generators that i know of. they have one in the shed where , their house and shop is, one at their gravel pit (and their rock crusher also runs on its own engine), one at their loader and one on the barge they use. on top of that they have several pieces of heavy equipment to maintain. but without that income from their gravel business, im sure the cost would be impossible.

[Blue Lion]

They probably have a fuel tank somewhere then that it runs off of. Either through fuel lines or they do it manually.

I can't believe they go to the local gas station all the time for fuel at that point.

[Nuke]

well we did once load up about 30 gas containers in the boat once to take out there. but i think that was regular for the vehicles and whatnot. i think they get their diesel fuel from somewhere else. the house generator has a pretty large fuel tank attached to it.

[Stealth]

Stealth, about how much did it cost to rent something like that?  And how did you tie it into your house without paying up front for a transfer switch etc?

about $1350/week.  And yes, that sounds ridiculous (and it is), but when you're splitting it several ways, it becomes more managable.  That was for a 40KW generator.

You don't need a transfer switch to tie it into the house - the transfer switch is only necessary if you want it to be a failover, where it's already wired into the house.  The generator comes with a good 60ft of cables, so i just ran it from the generator, to the feed into the house.  the main circuit breaker (outside where the electric meter is) has its own breaker.  i flipped that to 'off', and then connected the wires directly to each other.  that way when main power went live again, it wouldn't "back feed" through the generator.  that would be REALLY ugly.  

In theory, you could just plug the generator right into any of your outside power outlets, but you'd be limited to running only what that wiring of the internal outlet could handle.  That would be OK if you were only going to be running, say, your hairdryer, coffee maker, and toaster, and you'd just control what got power and what didn't from the house's main circuit breaker panel, but in our case, in order to run any device in the house (lights, A/C, fridge) it had to be connected to the house feed.  Plus if you use this method, you have to worry about combining phases, and that can be ugly too.

If you plan on doing this, don't do that i did - i didn't do things the "code" way.  The only way to stick to code, is to have a doublepole doublethrow transfer switch.  doesn't have to be automatic of course.  i now have one, but at the time, it was necessary to just get power back.  If you're planning this, i definately suggest you do it the right way.  Not only will it be legal, but it will make hooking everything up a lot easier when you actually have to power on the generator.

[perihelion]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.  At this point, I'm leaning more towards a compromise where we still have some modicum of comfort without the horrendous waste of a generator with the capacity to run the entire house.

The master bedroom is probably the best insulated room in the house.  It is on the south-east corner, but it is in some measure of shade starting in mid-afternoon.  I can get a portable A/C unit (kind of like a window unit, but more manageable) and close off the main A/C vents in the room.  Something like that shouldn't need more than 1200 W to run.  Add 800 W for the fridge, an additional 300 W (massive overkill) for lights, and 1000 W (again, overkill) for the microwave, and I think we're in decent shape again.  We can wash and dry clothes the old fashion way for awhile.  That makes a 4kW generator look pretty well up to the challenge.  We could run everything off extension cords.

[colecampbell666]

Might I suggest (if you want to invest 30000$) buying a solar/wind/geothermal combined system to power and cool your house off of the grid?

[Stealth]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.  At this point, I'm leaning more towards a compromise where we still have some modicum of comfort without the horrendous waste of a generator with the capacity to run the entire house.

The master bedroom is probably the best insulated room in the house.  It is on the south-east corner, but it is in some measure of shade starting in mid-afternoon.  I can get a portable A/C unit (kind of like a window unit, but more manageable) and close off the main A/C vents in the room.  Something like that shouldn't need more than 1200 W to run.  Add 800 W for the fridge, an additional 300 W (massive overkill) for lights, and 1000 W (again, overkill) for the microwave, and I think we're in decent shape again.  We can wash and dry clothes the old fashion way for awhile.  That makes a 4kW generator look pretty well up to the challenge.  We could run everything off extension cords.

bingo
if you live in Houston (do you, by the way?) and are just worried about the occasional (read: once every 2 or 3 years) hurricane that will knock power out for a week or so, then that's definately the way to go.  shoot, since you're saving so much money, get 2 generators, identical, so you can load balance

[colecampbell666]

And also, get compact fluorescent lights, the curly ones.

[perihelion]

bingo
if you live in Houston (do you, by the way?) and are just worried about the occasional (read: once every 2 or 3 years) hurricane that will knock power out for a week or so, then that's definately the way to go.  shoot, since you're saving so much money, get 2 generators, identical, so you can load balance

I grew up in Houston, so I'm quite familiar with the occasional hurricane, but in the 18 years I lived there, I only recall one hurricane that actual caused us to lose power for more than a day, and that was Alicia in '83.  It was only recent years (Rita and Ike) that I've actually started thinking that kind of preparation might be worthwhile, and I don't live there anymore.  I did move back to the coast again after roughly a decade, but I'm down in Corpus Christi this time.  Corpus hasn't had a major hurricane in almost 40 years (Celia, 1970).  We're kind of overdue.

@colecampbell666:  I switched most of my house over to CFL's a couple years back.  The only places where I haven't been able to are the ceiling fans.  I want to shoot whoever mandated a switch to candelabra sockets for ceiling fan light fixtures.  It makes it almost impossible to find bulbs that will fit and still create enough light to be worthwhile.  Still, most of the house is fairly efficient for light.  I'm a bit of a heliophile, so I particularly like CFL's because I could switch from a 60W incandescent to a 75 - 100W equivalent CFL (<22W) and get more light for 1/3 the power or less.   

[colecampbell666]

And in 3 years I`ve yet to see one die in our house.

[Liberator]

Avg lifespan is about 5 years, but you gotta get the ones with the right spectrum, or it feels...wrong...

[perihelion]

I'd say they've done a pretty good job of fixing the spectrum problem, its just that you cannot make a good judgment on the spectrum until the CFL has been turned on for at least a couple minutes.  Both the intensity and the overall color change an awful lot in the first couple minutes.  They are getting better on this front as well.  No joke, the 1st and 2nd generation CFL's were just awful.