Got'er did, now I sit waiting

[Rick]

I bought this house 3 1/2 years ago with a pretty good size to do list, I've been checking things off that list ever since and the list just gets longer.. It's an all electric house on a well so one of the things on that list was a stand by back up generator, if the power went out I couldn't even flush the commode. Finally checked it off the list, installation was completed the day before yesterday. It's a Generac 22kw full automatic switch over. If the power goes out there is a 10 second delay before the motor starts then another 5 second warm up and it switches from utility power to generator power. The installers ran it through several tests and all seems to be as it should and it seems it'll run the house fine.

As an all electric house there was no gas here so part of the generator installation was a 500 gallon propane tank, 400 gallons of propane and it's installation. Now that there is gas at the house I may add a propane heater to take the heat pump load off the generator should there be an extended winter power outage. In this part of the country the gas is more expensive than electric so the heat pump would still be the prime heat source in winter.

So here I sit waiting for my first power outage.

 

[Brad]

Bet Winelover can arrange that....

 

[Rick]

Bet Winelover can arrange that....

Na . . . No way! Winelover is plenty smart to know how bad and long lasting payback can be.

 

[Brad]

Maybe run a propane line to a permanent lead smelting set up?

 

[Rick]

Na, no need for that. I have better than 500 pounds in 5 pound ingots all ready to go. At my current amount of shooting that will be good till I'm about 185.

 

[Brad]

Oh? Til next year?

Bet that since you have the generator you never lose power. That is how this stuff works. If you didn't get the generator you would lose power this fall in a major snowstorm.

Fate is a fickle one, isn't she?

 

[Ian]

Na, no need for that. I have better than 500 pounds in 5 pound ingots all ready to go. At my current amount of shooting that will be good till I'm about 185.

So what's that, a couple of years?

 

[Ian]

Dangit, Brad beat me to it by three seconds!

 

[Brad]

Dangit, Brad beat me to it by three seconds!

You snooze, you lose.

 

[Ian]

I just got to thinking, 22KW is an incredible amount of power for a house. I could run my HVAC, three refrigerators, an upright freezer, the dishwasher, my water system pump, and my dual 3K element water heater all at once and still have power left over to run a welder. Our diesel generator only outputs 9.5 KW continuously, and with some strategic circuit breaker ballet, would get us by for a while. You won't be having to do anything except mark time for 15 seconds and then it's back to business as usual if the public power supply dies.

 

[Rick]

Exactly! Right after I moved in here we had a huge thunderstorm, the back of my property is a fairly steep up hill and water comes down the hill in sheets right to the back of the house. I spent my first summer here building a retaining wall, no such rain storms since so now I've been telling people that I am responsible for the fact that Mountain Home will never again have an ice storm & major power outage. Two years before I moved in here there was an ice storm that had the power out here for 2 weeks.

 

[Ian]

It's like a carry gun, carry one and PRAY you never need it, and most likely you won't, especially if you have it with you 100% of the time. Using reverse-psychology on ol' Murphy gets expensive, though, and I'll be you paid more for that APU and install than I spent on my house. Still, can one put a price on peace of mind?

 

[Rick]

Ian, I'll still need to do some power management. Running flat out it uses 4+ gallons per hour. Not running it under full load and using 3 or a tad under gallons per hour that 400 gallons is only good for about 5 and a half days of continuous operation. I would shut it off at night, only run the water heater when needed & shut it back off. Lighting in my house is minimal, every single bulb is LED. Sounds like a lot of power but it's also a lot of propane so for extended outages such as an ice storm power management is important.

 

[Rick]

I suspect it wasn't as expensive as some people think. Had some friends over last weekend from the Fort Smith area, he guessed $12,000. Actually it was under $7,000 for the generator, the automatic transfer switch, tank, propane and installation of everything.

I did get the generator at a great sale price which is what prompted me to do this now. I shopped everything from installation to propane so I think I came out ok.

 

[Rick]

So, you built your house for $7,000?

 

[Ian]

There is no free lunch, is there? At least your propane supply will last for years if you don't use it. Though my diesel unit benefits from having much higher energy per gallon, the stuff goes stale in short order....and I don't have any diesel vehicles to use for "rotation". I don't usually burn more than five gallons a year in my Bobcat.

 

[Ian]

The "house" part cost about 45K for 2700 SF with 12' ceilings on both stories. If I'd had a contractor do it, I'd probably be sitting on a 225-250K mortgage just for the living space. I'm amazed you got that unit for under 30 grand installed. The attached garages and shops cost more than the house, and still have a long way to go with "utility" space before I'm finished. Probably another 3K and the house itself will be finished, and then I get to build an enormous retaining wall and put up the woodworking shop and large store-room/harvest prep area. One paycheck at a time.

 

[Rick]

That's the whole purpose of using propane, doesn't go bad. I can also do pre-buy on the propane, I bought this tankful at $1.29 a gallon. I'll do a 400 gallon pre-buy that I can have delivered anytime within the next 12 months. If I don't use it I'll apply what that cost to another pre-buy next year. In other words if I don't use it and next year propane is $1.99 I'll owe them an additional 0.70 cents a gallon and they will still owe me 400 gallons for another year.

 

[Rick]

This is the generator I got listed here at full MSRP.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_637588-24212-6553___?productId=50252561&pl=1&Ntt=centurian+generators

According to the Lowes store manager I talked with Lowes had this unit on sale, at the end of the sale there was to be another sale on them at 10% off. Someone at corporate advertising screwed up and ran a newspaper ad for it at 10% off the sale price. I just couldn't find it in myself to say no, I got it for $912.00 off MSRP.

 

[smokeywolf]

Sure appreciate what you've done there Rick. Now power outages is something I won't need to concern myself with when we make the move to your area.

Seriously, aside from powering a backup generator, we'll have to have propane because Mrs. smokeywolf has been cooking with electric for 20 years and says when we move a natural gas or propane stove is high on her want list.

One of my needs is 220-3 phase, so I can get away from using my rotary phase converter. The electric meter smokes when I fire up the phase converter and a 5 HP lathe.