Backup power questions

[BeltedCoyote]

Hey all.

The start of storm season here in Indiana plus living out in the middle of nowhere has me thinking about contingency plans since I will have my tank up and running fairly soon.

As such, I have a few questions regarding power and backup.

1) how does one go about calculating the amount of power a tank would draw?

and

2) how does one take the above calculation and then determine which power station or generator would be appropriate

Thanks all. Hopefully others will find this thread helpful as well

 

[Mikedawg]

This may help you: Home generator sizing calculator - Generators Zone

Basically, add up the max wattage of your equipment - heaters, lights, pumps that you want to keep on during power losses. Then compare your "load" with the capability of the many generators you'll find at big box stores, unless you want a whole house unit. I opted for a Generac portable from HD because we take it camping, powering tools off site, etc. as well as having it at the ready during Spring and Winter storms.

You'll also want to get one that won't fry your electronics of course.

$350-$400 for a reliable unit big enough to run the standard equipment on a 120 gallon ime.

Good luck

 

[BeltedCoyote]

This may help you: Home generator sizing calculator - Generators Zone

Basically, add up the max wattage of your equipment - heaters, lights, pumps that you want to keep on during power losses. Then compare your "load" with the capability of the many generators you'll find at big box stores, unless you want a whole house unit. I opted for a Generac portable from HD because we take it camping, powering tools off site, etc. as well as having it at the ready during Spring and Winter storms.

You'll also want to get one that won't fry your electronics of course.

$350-$400 for a reliable unit big enough to run the standard equipment on a 120 gallon ime.

Good luck

Thank you, I’ll give the link a look but all of this was very helpful

 

[Mikedawg]

Thank you, I’ll give the link a look but all of this was very helpful

If you search R2R you'll see several recommendations by price point and features. Personally, I wish I had bought one controlled/monitored by my smart phone so my wife wouldn't have to go out in the cold, rainy weather to check gas level, lol.

Edit: just looked up a few portable inverter generators and see they have gone up in price

 

[BeltedCoyote]

If you search R2R you'll see several recommendations by price point and features. Personally, I wish I had bought one controlled/monitored by my smart phone so my wife wouldn't have to go out in the cold, rainy weather to check gas level, lol.

Edit: just looked up a few portable inverter generators and see they have gone up in price

yeah I’m going to have to convince my missus that it’s a good investment. Then again, I’ve had to do that for this entire hobby so shouldn’t be a big deal.

 

[Mikedawg]

I sized mine with enough capacity to also charge two cell phones, a toaster oven and two lamps - things we really miss doing without during an outage and might help with your "strategy"

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Good idea. The cell phone would go far.

thanks again for all of your input!

 

[Staghorn]

How long does the power usually go out for? During storm season in Florida when we get a hurricane it’s days or weeks. I bought one that will run the refrigerator also. You want to make sure your fish food doesn’t defrost

 

[BeltedCoyote]

How long does the power usually go out for? During storm season in Florida when we get a hurricane it’s days or weeks. I bought one that will run the refrigerator also. You want to make sure your fish food doesn’t defrost

hasn’t happened yet so I don’t know for sure but the place I lived prior to this (20 min away)’s longest outage was about 6 hours. So I’m tentatively guessing 6-12 hours

 

[zalick]

Assuming you want a portable backup generator as opposed to a dedicated with transfer switch, You should be fine with any Briggs & Stratton or similar in the $750 price range. This will give you 5000 watts of running power. The gas tank will last around 6hrs +/- at full load. Just plan on having an extra 5g gas can on hand. That would be plenty to run the tank and power a other household stuff as needed.

for calculating draw, just add up the watts for all the equipment and this will be your peak usage assuming they are all on at the same time.