Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

Eugen wrote: ↑Mon Sep 27, 2021 9:41 am Great simple solution, I like it! I might have a problem setting something like this up at our place, we have baseboard heaters at 3000 watts a piece and no generator yet but considering getting the 9000W champion generator from Costco. Not sure yet how I'd hook up the heating.

Timj wrote: ↑Mon Sep 27, 2021 4:04 pm I'm with Dave, running electric heat would be costly.
I'm from the"BE PREPARED" camp. Not a boy scout, not a way out there "prepper", but a how am I going to take care of my family when something happens kinda guy. 14 years as Fire Chief kinda reinforced that thinking.

We don't have outages often, but we've done a couple of multiple days in recent years after wind storms and a tornado. Went 7days in 2001.

They are nice, but I can't justify needing or the cost of a standby generator.

Summer time keeping the fridge and freezer going is the main concern. During winter heat is the concern, keeping you and your home from freezing gets important.

We have wood as our secondary heat after natural gas. It would be enough to stay comfortable for an extended outage if we closed off some of the house.

I am fortunate to have 8000, 10000, 11000 watt for my business that I can grab when needed. The down side to these is they can go through some serious gas. We picked up a smaller 6000 watt new in the box, cheap at an estate sale a couple of years ago, haven't needed it to see how it works, but should use less gas.

Some random thoughts,
*How often do you loose power
How long is it normally off for
*Calculate how many watts you actually need
Tell the kids they don't need everything on
*Don't buy way bigger than you need
*How much gas are you going to keep around
*Now you have another engine to maintain
Will it start when you need it to
*Be safe about it, CO cautions, grounding,
transfer switch/separate circuits

Timj wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 1:59 pm @Eugen your not missing anything, back feeding like this will work. As long as you always remember to turn off the main and don't exceed the 30 amps the circuit is wired for. That said, most places codes require a transfer switch. This makes it fool proof that you don't send power back into the grid.

Eugen wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:07 pm

Timj wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 1:59 pm @Eugen your not missing anything, back feeding like this will work. As long as you always remember to turn off the main and don't exceed the 30 amps the circuit is wired for. That said, most places codes require a transfer switch. This makes it fool proof that you don't send power back into the grid.

Yes, the code , I know. But perhaps it's ok if you exceed the 30A because the breaker on that circuit should trip. Of course, this is just a thought experiment, I would not actually do it like this, I'd install a transfer switch.

Eugen wrote: ↑Fri Oct 01, 2021 1:23 pm As usual Dave, from almost nothing, you put together a full solution! Very neat work there and I will copy your doing when the time comes and we get a generator! Thank you for sharing your work with us!

Yes, I've been thinking about a propane based heating system.

Depending on your building design you may consider propane fired boiler / hot water radiator system which looks and works in each room similar to electric rads and can be converted to natural gas easily if then come available. This is a great option if forced air is not a viable option due to design .
Anything that runns on a fuel need far less power to run the system , There are more options than you can shake stick at in a month of Sundays .
The question is what will work the best for you in your budget.
Dave