Power outages

We are at 38 hours without power due to sever weather. Might not get power restored until Friday.
Our old Coleman 4000 watt generator is working great. Will be doing an oil change after the next tank of fuel.

Power is on!!
39.5 hours.

Oh boy. Sorry you had to go through that. I'm glad to hear it is back on.

It was a pain in the a$$, no AC. Now the girlfriend wants a bigger better generator!
Looking at 9000 watt or bigger.

A lot of folks around here are installing generator sets. We don't have frequent power outages but they do happen from time to time. In addition to storms/accidents, I think a lot of people are concerned about the reliability of the grid and imposed outages.

I have a 3400 watt generator for the travel trailer. No way to plug it into the house. I guess I could use extension cords to keep the fridge going in a pinch.

My parents have a whole house generator 14KW, that how I ended up with their old Coleman.

I had similar length outage about 10 years ago. I spent a lot on gas keeping that noisemaker going. The price of grid electricity is a deal.

3 years ago we lost power for almost 5 days.
Installed a secondary panel and bought a 9000 watt generator that summer. It will run most of what i want, going to put the hot water heater on it as well, just havnt got around to it lol. I have an air tight for heat and well for water but now i dont have to dip water with a bucket.
Start it up every couple months or so ut atleast it should work when i need it.

The girl friend wants to get a new 9000+ watt generator.
49 hours and there are still generators running one block over.
Did a 5 day outage at my brothers a few years back. I rigged up my 12 gallon boat tank laying on it's side to work as a gravity feed tank.

60 hours and I still hear generators.

I'll bet. Those large open frame generators are pretty loud.

Mine is an inverter style and pretty quiet. I put it in an ugly homemade soundbox and achieved 51.5 dB from 20' away. I'm a little concerned the generator will overheat in the enclosed soundbox, even with the exhaust fan I installed. Time will tell I guess.

Of course, my little generator running a coffee pot while camping is a lot different than those big ones running a whole house.

There are about 8 ComEd sub-contractor trucks on the next block including a trailer with new poles and a remote controlled crawler that pulls the old poles out of the ground and carries the new poles and set them in the ground.

I hope you guys are over the worst and can get back to normal.

Seems like I remember they ran out of telephone posts along the east coast after hurricane Sandy.

I don't hear any generators.

I want a generator, and every year just before winter I start researching and pricing and what not. I Still haven’t decided what to get after 15 years. LOL!


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I got a quote for $12,000 for a Generac natural gas generator that would do practically the whole house plus the second panel and auto-switches installed.

They need to start up once a week and boy, they are still loud even from blocks away! Thing is … neighbor has one, the frame rotted out from non-use, says we haven’t had an outage lasting more than an hour since he installed it …

I just bought a 9000/12000 watt generator from Menards. 4 120 volt gfci outlets, 1 30amp 240 volt and 1 50amp 240 volt outlet.
It should run the whole house. I will be setting it up to hook the 50amp into the panel with a disconnect so it won't back feed.

DaleH said:

I got a quote for $12,000 for a Generac natural gas generator that would do practically the whole house plus the second panel and auto-switches installed.

They need to start up once a week and boy, they are still loud even from blocks away! Thing is … neighbor has one, the frame rotted out from non-use, says we haven’t had an outage lasting more than an hour since he installed it …

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I think my parents paid $5000 for theirs all hooked up. I built the pad it sits on and ran the gas piping. Had an electrician wire the transfer switch in to the panel.

We bought the A-i Power SUA 12000E 9000/12000 watt generator at Menards for $799.99 with 11% rebate brings it down to $711.11.
We also considered Harbor Freights 7250/9000 watt generator for $789.99.
The A-i power comes with the battery for electric start, the wheels and a 2 year warranty all things you have to buy separately for the Harbor freight generator and it has a lower out put.
The A-i power is discontinued at some Menards and listed as seasonal at others. I will be driving 60 miles round trip to pick it up.
All of the reviews I have read are 4 or 5 stars except for a few that were damaged in shipping and then the generators still worked perfectly.

After comming out of surgery with a double lung transplant in August 2021, I'm getting the farm where I don't have to struggle so hard. Whole house generator was out of my price range, plus permits, and propane scheduling, maitiance etc. I put my gas Honda 8500 watt on back up at the barn & purchased a Westinghouse DP (dual purpose)15000 watt, remote start. Runs on either propane or gas, with a flip of a switch. Up graded my electrical wiring and breakers to 50 amp, and have two 100 lb tanks at the ready, plus plenty of non ethanol fuel standing by. I can always rotate the fuel to the outboards, if I feel the need.