[NY10]

People and cook outs are fun but not when it's forced and not when it's raining and freezing outside. It's also not so much fun when it goes on for several days and weeks. A few hours is one thing. I also don't like any of my neighbors enough to entertain them.

My yard is big enough so they will be able pick a far enough place for it.

The only thing that now has me concerned is not having a natural gas connection to my home itself. I know 100% there is one being all me neighbors have it but the fact, they will have to tap into one for my house is what is making nervous. Extra time, extra expense, extra aggravation.

[tony20009]

Originally Posted by NY10

People and cook outs are fun but not when it's forced and not when it's raining and freezing outside. It's also not so much fun when it goes on for several days and weeks. A few hours is one thing. I also don't like any of my neighbors enough to entertain them.

My yard is big enough so they will be able pick a far enough place for it.

The only thing that now has me concerned is not having a natural gas connection to my home itself. I know 100% there is one being all me neighbors have it but the fact, they will have to tap into one for my house is what is making nervous. Extra time, extra expense, extra aggravation.

Well, it's not as though we hosted something akin to "the world's longest backyard picnic." LOL It was just a matter of having the ability to give a little "relief" of sorts and make something positive out of a situation that nobody wished for. It was just a good neighborly gesture, keeping with the principle of "it's the little things that make a big difference."

We already had gas into the house, so I don't have any input on the "drama" connected with tapping into lines. Sorry.

I suggest making sure your contractor is first rate and well experienced. That, from my (ex) wife's perspective and mine was the key success factor to making sure we didn't have any real "drama" in terms of disruption to our lives during the process. After meeting with the contractor, I got on plane and went to work like I usually did.

My (ex) wife mentioned how professional the contractor's team was, being very good about clean up, not leaving trash around, being circumspect and respectful of our home, engaging a gardener to restore the lawn where it dug up, coordinating the overall project (we built a small guest house, had the driveway and front walkways heated, and electrical outlets deployed around the perimeter as part of the same project), etc. We were beginning our interior renovations around the same time and the contractor's people were very helpful to my wife, giving her lots of free input for those things as well -- specific interior designers whom they knew to be very good, how to save money on "stuff," things to look out for before getting fully underway, etc.

We negotiated a fixed price for the whole project. That was great for us as well, although it may have cost us a bit more (there's no way I'll ever be able to know for sure) since the contractor took on the risk of uncertainty rather my carrying in via a time-and-materials contract. That worked for us seeing as I was not going to be around for most of the project. We got all our renovations done over about a year and three quarters, but the whole process was really just super smooth. And frankly, "smooth" is more important to me than getting the absolute lowest price.

All the best.

[zx10guy]

Just to give another data point. My 20KW generator is located about 2 feet off of the side of my house. Granted it's not right next to a living area but more near the garage. But the family room is on that side of the house with a window in close proximity. When the generator starts up doing it's weekly cycling, you can hear it yes. But it's not as bad as you might think. It sounds like a lawn mower in the distance and certainly doesn't require me to crank up the TV in the family room to compensate for the noise. But this is with the windows shut. I would definitely expect the noise to be louder with the windows open.

Another option and something I'm not sure if you want to spend the extra money, but I think Generac has a quieter line of generators. Also Kohler makes generators which are highly regarded and are known to be quieter. But again, you're going to pay a bit more; although the price difference might be better if you're considering having the expense of locating the generator at the edge of your property.

[atinybug]

I don't think it's worth all that money. Honestly I can't remember the last time we had the power go out that lasted more than 2 or 3 hours.

[NY10]

Originally Posted by atinybug

I don't think it's worth all that money. Honestly I can't remember the last time we had the power go out that lasted more than 2 or 3 hours.

You're lucky!

I can't remember the last time we had rain and the power didn't go out for 2-3 hours. Even if it never happens again the piece of mind is enough for me. I know where I live and I know we're in for it a lot more. Even it's an hour I'd rather have power than nothing at all.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by NY10

You're lucky!

I can't remember the last time we had rain and the power didn't go out for 2-3 hours. Even if it never happens again the piece of mind is enough for me. I know where I live and I know we're in for it a lot more. Even it's an hour I'd rather have power than nothing at all.

Is everyone in your neighborhood also having outages? I live in FL and we have plenty of short outages but what you are describing is beyond extreme. You are sure there's no wiring issue in / to the house, right? Has anyone complained to the state's energy commission? It is ridiculous to lose power for hours every time it rains.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by atinybug

I don't think it's worth all that money. Honestly I can't remember the last time we had the power go out that lasted more than 2 or 3 hours.

Yep. Count yourself lucky.

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Is everyone in your neighborhood also having outages? I live in FL and we have plenty of short outages but what you are describing is beyond extreme. You are sure there's no wiring issue in / to the house, right? Has anyone complained to the state's energy commission? It is ridiculous to lose power for hours every time it rains.

Read my original post on this. I'm in a new housing development with underground lines and I lose power all the time. Even with a power substation right across from my development which is right next to a data center. I've even lost power although it was a blip during perfect weather with clear blue skies. I've had a couple of these this year. I've even had a power surge due to some vehicle hitting a utility pole crossing some power lines. The surge was enough to trip a couple of breakers in my house and fry a surge protector. My neighbors didn't fair as well as me as they lost thousands in electronics. While I can't really blame the power company for this, it has happened on their lines which I've never had with other power companies where I've lived.

I'm also in the camp that the piece of mind is worth the expense. After living through days of an outage with the last one when the weather was cold out and I'm sitting in the house freezing to death. Unfortunately, all of my gas fireplaces require power to ignite and these units don't have a battery backup igniter that my vacation property has. Also, I now have a little baby and not having to worry about power with her in the equation is also worth the expense.

[RickFLM4]

Well, hurricanes and people hitting poles affect power everywhere and as you stated not much to blame the power company about in those circumstances. Otherwise, I didn't really see anything in your prior posts that explains why power is going out so frequently or whether or not there is another serious problem going on outside of major storms / accidents. Power outages every time it rains is not remotely close to normal. If that is what's going on I guess an investment in standby power makes sense, but I'd also want to know what else is going on and I'd install a whole house surge suppressor (which I did in FL due to frequent surges). Also suggest talking to an electrician about running electronics (such as flat panel TVs) off generator power.

[TomHudson]

I'm surprised your fireplace needs an electric igniter. Most of them use the pilot light and a thermocouple for ignition. I'd double check that..

I have the same concerns, so the gas fireplace is a must have for power outages...

[NY10]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Is everyone in your neighborhood also having outages? I live in FL and we have plenty of short outages but what you are describing is beyond extreme. You are sure there's no wiring issue in / to the house, right? Has anyone complained to the state's energy commission? It is ridiculous to lose power for hours every time it rains.

Yes it is not just my house. It is my town or half the town.

There are massive trees that the wires are wrapped around the braches. I kid you not, yesterday when restoring 2 fires around the block the electric company had to replace poles with wires 70-100 years old on them. There are also old wires that are still hanging with very very old poles. Old enough that a good gust of wind can take them down.

After Sandy devastated our area there was major talk but no action. I will say on the main roads/streets they trim branches, added stronger taller poles but on the residential streets nothing was touched.

When I've called to complain I was told the trees are my issue as a home owner and I've have to remove them myself.

I don't want to remove the trees being they add shade and privacy and are nice. I did trim branches but me doing it alone doesn't do much help.

[tony20009]

I'm glad I have the standby generator largely because when I am home, I still have to have connectivity. At the most basic level, yet also most essential level, for the telephone. I try not to let my cellphone run low/out of juice, but it does sometimes, and when it does, and I'm home, I charge it or use the house phone. Also, now that Verizon have converted everything to FIOS, when the electricity goes out, the phone would also go out but for having the generator.

The reality of my life is that I manage it and my time based, among other things, around the assumption that when I'm home, there will be electricity there. Just like most places, big storms -- snow or rain -- happen in D.C. I bet they happen pretty much everywhere on the East Cost and like many folks, I work from home, at least a bit, when I'm home, and that requires electricity. It's worse still if you have a wife or kids at home and you're not when the power goes out.

If you're like me and away from home a lot, there's a huge peace of mind that comes with knowing your home security systems are still running even when the power is off. There is often nobody at home -- kids went to school in New England, now married and living elsewhere or in college elsewhere -- and I'm usually outside U.S. There's been plenty of times when the power went out and I didn't find out about it until I came home weeks later.

For folks who live somewhat as I do, 2-3 hours is too long to be "out of pocket," and it's longer than the APS and backup batteries last. It's also not long enough to want to bother with traipsing out into the rain/snow/wind, starting up a portable generator (assuming you were prepared and had fuel and fuel stabilizer on hand), and running all those damn extension cords all over the place, only to have to have power for a couple hours and then have to put it all away just as you're getting over all the noise and "upset."

Standby generators aren't the least expensive way to ensure one has emergency power, but they are by far the most convenient. But then I didn't build a career and reach a certain level of wealth to save money. I did it to enjoy the fruits of having done so. I suspect you feel much the same way. I think you'll love having the thing. You'll especially love it when the power goes out and your life continues on as if it hadn't.

So, anyway, OP, I see you've "pulled the trigger." I'm sure you'll be more than thrilled you did, and it won't be long before you are seeing how often you mention you have outages.

All the best.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

... and I'd install a whole house surge suppressor (which I did in FL due to frequent surges). Also suggest talking to an electrician about running electronics (such as flat panel TVs) off generator power.

Good advice. Whole house surge protection is pretty inexpensive and can save a lot of grief. Anything electronic tends to be pretty tolerant of 'dirty' AC. Their power supplies often accept a wide range of voltage and frequency as input. Even so I run all of my stuff of value through a battery backup system, which acts as a surge/brownout suppression source and saves the electronics the pain of abrupt power loss. They don't cost much these days and work very well.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Well, hurricanes and people hitting poles affect power everywhere and as you stated not much to blame the power company about in those circumstances. Otherwise, I didn't really see anything in your prior posts that explains why power is going out so frequently or whether or not there is another serious problem going on outside of major storms / accidents. Power outages every time it rains is not remotely close to normal. If that is what's going on I guess an investment in standby power makes sense, but I'd also want to know what else is going on and I'd install a whole house surge suppressor (which I did in FL due to frequent surges). Also suggest talking to an electrician about running electronics (such as flat panel TVs) off generator power.

Did you not see my statements about power outages just happening just because? The latest was this past Noreaster which we only had heavy rain and no reports of anything happening to the grid. Yet I lost power. A number of times this year with no storms and clear blue skies without any situation where there was significant loading on the grid to cause brown outs, and I lost power. In a development that is 14 years old with underground power, this is an indication the power company has issues not the wiring in the development nor my house wiring. Also we're the first to lose power before the development next to mine which is at least 5 to 10 years older. One time I lost power before the backup generator was installed, I lost one of my servers in my VMware cluster. Thank goodness, the datastores were still intact and I only had to reload the hypervisor.

With regards to a whole house surge suppressor, I installed one myself right after that power spike that tripped breakers and fried one of my surge protectors.

[RickFLM4]

^ I was mixing you up with OP.

Well, I have to say I thought our power delivery was poor but both you an OP sound far worse off. You'll both have generators but hopefully the power company makes some upgrades eventually too.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by tony20009

For folks who live somewhat as I do, 2-3 hours is too long to be "out of pocket," and it's longer than the APS and backup batteries last. It's also not long enough to want to bother with traipsing out into the rain/snow/wind, starting up a portable generator (assuming you were prepared and had fuel and fuel stabilizer on hand), and running all those damn extension cords all over the place, only to have to have power for a couple hours and then have to put it all away just as you're getting over all the noise and "upset."

Uhhhh, my gas generator has a nice fat cord that plugs into it, which I then plug into my house. I start it, plug those plugs in, go inside, and flip two switches. 5 minutes tops. Twice a day I add gas. Last week I helped two neighbors hook theirs up and get them going; I had never seen either of their configurations before and I had them both lit up within 15 minutes.

No it is not as convenient as a standby. But I don't have natural gas running down my street so my option is propane. And I'd rather throw the chainsaw into the bed of my 4WD truck and go find gas, downed trees and closed roads be damned, than sit inside my house and pray that the propane truck can make it in.

Situations differ. And gasoline generators need not be complicated or difficult to use. The point is to choose the best option for your particular situation and needs.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by wdb

Uhhhh, my gas generator has a nice fat cord that plugs into it, which I then plug into my house. I start it, plug those plugs in, go inside, and flip two switches. 5 minutes tops. Twice a day I add gas. Last week I helped two neighbors hook theirs up and get them going; I had never seen either of their configurations before and I had them both lit up within 15 minutes.

No it is not as convenient as a standby. But I don't have natural gas running down my street so my option is propane. And I'd rather throw the chainsaw into the bed of my 4WD truck and go find gas, downed trees and closed roads be damned, than sit inside my house and pray that the propane truck can make it in.

Situations differ. And gasoline generators need not be complicated or difficult to use. The point is to choose the best option for your particular situation and needs.

This is my set up with a large portable as well and I also have no gas lines nearby. Giant plug to run a panel, no extension cords. I just don't consider running it unless power is out for an extended period - would never turn it on for an hour or even a few hours but it's there if power is out for days after a hurricane.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

^ I was mixing you up with OP.

Well, I have to say I thought our power delivery was poor but both you an OP sound far worse off. You'll both have generators but hopefully the power company makes some upgrades eventually too.

Not holding my breath. I had to resort to some extreme measures with protecting my servers and storage at my house. My job deals with selling enterprise IT equipment. I use the equipment at home to both learn on and to do live customer demonstrations. I can't afford to have corruption in any of the systems I have running. With that said, I got my hands on a 3750W 5000VA UPS to keep the critical systems powered. The other less critical stuff I have on two 1500VA UPS'. When the power went out that corrupted one of my servers, I had a UPS on it but apparently it went longer than the 15 minutes or so that the UPS was able to provide. And again this happened when there was no storms. Now with the big UPS I have protecting more running equipment in my lab, I have about 30 to 40 minutes of run time. But fortunately, my backup generator will be running well before the UPS runs out of power.

I tolerate the power issues because fortunately my cost per KW is pretty cheap. If I was paying top dollar with the utility in a neighboring county, I would be livid and on the phone constantly complaining. Plus I'm investing solar but that's another discussion and it doesn't serve as a means of backup power.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by wdb

Uhhhh, my gas generator has a nice fat cord that plugs into it, which I then plug into my house. I start it, plug those plugs in, go inside, and flip two switches. 5 minutes tops. Twice a day I add gas. Last week I helped two neighbors hook theirs up and get them going; I had never seen either of their configurations before and I had them both lit up within 15 minutes.

No it is not as convenient as a standby. But I don't have natural gas running down my street so my option is propane. And I'd rather throw the chainsaw into the bed of my 4WD truck and go find gas, downed trees and closed roads be damned, than sit inside my house and pray that the propane truck can make it in.

Situations differ. And gasoline generators need not be complicated or difficult to use. The point is to choose the best option for your particular situation and needs.

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

This is my set up with a large portable as well and I also have no gas lines nearby. Giant plug to run a panel, no extension cords. I just don't consider running it unless power is out for an extended period - would never turn it on for an hour or even a few hours but it's there if power is out for days after a hurricane.

I'm considering this option for my vacation property. There's no need for me to power everything in the house during an outage. Here's the funny thing. The vacation house is near the coast and during Sandy only experienced a blip on power. Yet my primary residence much further inland lost power for 3 days. Go figure.

[tony20009]

Originally Posted by wdb

Uhhhh, my gas generator has a nice fat cord that plugs into it, which I then plug into my house. I start it, plug those plugs in, go inside, and flip two switches. 5 minutes tops. Twice a day I add gas. Last week I helped two neighbors hook theirs up and get them going; I had never seen either of their configurations before and I had them both lit up within 15 minutes.

No it is not as convenient as a standby. But I don't have natural gas running down my street so my option is propane. And I'd rather throw the chainsaw into the bed of my 4WD truck and go find gas, downed trees and closed roads be damned, than sit inside my house and pray that the propane truck can make it in.

Situations differ. And gasoline generators need not be complicated or difficult to use. The point is to choose the best option for your particular situation and needs.

I have a gas generator for my cabin in the mountains. Not as sophisticated a setup as you have -- I would have to do the "extension cord" thing to use it -- but then I've never had to use it either.

Red:
Agree 100%.

All the best.

[P1]

My father has a large Honda portable generator, and that thing was not used for over 10 years. We were working on the cars over the summer, and my dad told my brother and I to dust it off and get it running again. Mind you, it still had ten year old fuel in it. It only took three pulls and that thing was running like a top. Pretty unbelievable...

[NY10]

A second contractor called me back for an earlier appointment. He's coming tomorrow to assess the house.

The best news was that my gas company will run the gas line for free instead of the $2,000 to $3,000 they usually charge.

With that cost out of the way I'm going for the entire house hook up so I'm looking at full price for generator plus installation. They handle all phone calls, permits and install. The whole thing should be a 4 week process.

Just in time for winter.