Poll regarding generators. *APPROVED BY MODS*
Posted by Electrical_Law_4753@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 31 comments
This poll is anonymous.
This poll is being done for a college project, and with no association to any products or companies on the market.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Tin_Foil_Hat_Person@reddit
Done and just for the record, I mega do not understand why so many prepper seek their luck with Diesel generators and such, Solar is much simpler / more reliable.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Our main well is AC, no way our 8KW solar array will handle that regularly, but our 12KW China diesel will, and it has a way better chance of surviving EMP than our solar arrays.
Low RPM, easy maintenance and diesel stores a lot longer and safer than gasoline. We were getting 10-15 years on off road diesel put up in the late 90's.
Big difference from the little contractor or homeowner grade high RPM gas generators.
rankhornjp@reddit
I'm not sure how deep your well is, but I have a 240ft well that pumps into a 45psi bladder tank which adds another 100ft of head. I can run it on 800 watts of solar. It's a Grundfos 11 sqf-2 pump. It has a max head of 700 feet.
Maybe something to look into for you.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
It's 1 1/2 HP pump.
rankhornjp@reddit
That's less than 1200watts. 746watts per horsepower. An 8kw solar setup should run that just fine.
Mine only uses 1.2-1.4 kwh total per day for a family of 5.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Starting surge of 5,000 to 7,500 watts. The exact wattage can vary based on the pump's efficiency, motor specifications, and voltage, so it is always best to check the motor's nameplate for the most accurate information.
That's from google but I can tell you running it off of my old 4024 inverter and (20) L16 battery bank back in the day that it tanked my battery bank pretty quickly the couple times I tried to run it right off the battery bank.
I'll double check with my well guy, would be awesome if everything I was originally told and experienced was off somehow. It's 240 with a 40 amp breaker so...
The pump was replaced in 2004'ish, not 100% sure of the water level on that one, but our others with a solar submersible and a deep well hand pump were both coming in at around 147 feet IIRC.
rankhornjp@reddit
FYI, I have solar.
The reason why people don't use it is because it is expensive as hell compared to gas/diesel generator. You can buy a whole house generator and have it installed for around $5k. My solar system was $35k.
A 7500w Jackery without panels is $3500 and will only run your house for a few hours. A similar sized portable gas generator is less than half that cost.
IrwinJFinster@reddit
If your house is plumbed for natural gas, you’ll be able to power your whole house cheaper that way than with solar. Otherwise, solar has a number of clear advantages.
BatemansChainsaw@reddit
In all of the last 30 years I've been in this home, through many long term power outages, we've never lost our NG supply. Having a whole home generator with one is a lifesaver. Heck, even having a small one only to keep the furnace/ac and refrigerator/freezers going is great!
MinerDon@reddit
I live off grid in the arctic. How do I use solar during the winter? Please advise.
616c@reddit
Use large battery bank to shine lights on solar panel. Simple!
BatemansChainsaw@reddit
My Goodness, why didn't I think of that?
SaveSummer6041@reddit
Lifetime of no issues with my generators - that’s why I don’t bet fully on solar, only.
rustoeki@reddit
Biggest benefit with solar+battery is that it's not a prep, you use it all the time.
Destroythisapp@reddit
Cost and situation.
My power is most likely going to go out during a snow storm, wind storm, thunder storm, or ice storm. All times when solar is much less effective and requires more immediate maintenance than an ICE generator.
I don’t need to power my whole house, I need to power my Fridge, deep freeze, lights, and maybe an internet router if the lines are still up. Small diesel engines have zero issue running 6k to 10k hours without any issues. Diesel is easy to store, doesn’t go bad like gas, and is one of the first items brought into a disaster zone after the storm.
I have month of diesel use generator wise on hand at any given moment, and grab extra before a big storm.
certifiedintelligent@reddit
But... it isnt...
First off, not everywhere gets enough sun to meet their power needs.
Second, I can buy a generator and transfer switch and be done. Sure I'll have to manage fuel and maintenance, but that's all it takes to get online with a home generator. If you don't need to power the house, you can skip the transfer switch.
Sure, solar+battery may be simpler to operate if it meets your power requirements, but just about everything else is more complicated.
OtherwiseAlbatross14@reddit
The biggest factor is cost. A solar system with enough battery capacity to last potentially days if it's cloudy is at least an order of magnitude more expensive than a fuel powered generator.
Sure you could buy a smaller system for a couple grand to run refrigerators and freezers but at that price you're still at the mercy of the clouds and might not make it through a prolonged outage.
For under a grand you can have a fuel generator that will run the basics plus a furnace for weeks including fuel storage.
I like a hybrid of fuel generator and solar generator so the batteries can be charged with fuel if the sun doesn't come out which saves a lot of fuel and noise.
If you're talking about like a collapse of society, of course solar would be the only way to go, but that's not what the majority of people are prepping for.
Ryan_e3p@reddit
Solar is great. Silent, extraordinarily little maintenance, no oil changes, but even with a great battery bank, prolonged periods of cloudiness can occur. It is an advantage to have one in hand to run for a few hours to charge the batteries and let those batteries continue powering things for days, since that can only take a gallon or two of fuel.
FineWinePaperCup@reddit
Why are you asking about CO2 but not CO? One affects the environment the other can kill you.
Yahya_sindhi1502@reddit
Laughs in South African
TheLostExpedition@reddit
Done. But as others said, price scales with output power.
Furthermore I can make my own fuels and already live 100% offgrid.
rmesic@reddit
How much it's worth is proportional to power output.
616c@reddit
...and desired load. I could get a 500kW generator, which would have lower value for a single 3-bedroom residential home than a 2kW Honda. One burns 40 gallons/hour, the other 40gallons/month.
kkinnison@reddit
poll fails by only offering one power raiting option
need around 1000w-2000w for most households
kkinnison@reddit
please contact me if you wish to use the services of kkinnison consulting services as my time is important and is not offered for free
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Someone doing market research?
mossconfig@reddit
Love Stirling cycle.
certifiedintelligent@reddit
Done, though I do see a possible flaw when asking about price.
Price is highly dependent on output rating. I would only want a 1-2kw generator because I don’t need a lot of backup power. This is going to be very different from someone wanting to power their entire home in an outage. If you don’t control for that somehow, the data isn’t going to be very useful.
OldSchoolPrepper@reddit
to further piggyback on your price answer I will say that I NEVER buy anything brand new, not a house not a car not a generator. So used prices are are generally quite a bit less than MSRP. We have 3 geni's right now (Honda's) and I bought all of them used. So i'm sure my answer on price may skew the results.
bigbruce85@reddit
Agreed, I own a 3500 wat gen, and that’s all I want so my answer is less than $1000. If I wanted a bigger one my price would also go up accordingly
rankhornjp@reddit
Done