Generators Home Use
Keeping up with the NEIGHBOR down the STREET may be a GOOD idea if he has a Backup generator and YOU don't.
This is because a generators home use model can provide unparalleled comfort for your young family when the next power outage or emergency strikes. We know that you're safety conscious. Everybody in your household has been taught to perform CPR, you keep one emergency 72 hour kit inside the trunk of your car and another in the cupboard at home, you've practiced emergency drills so that your kids will be prepared to act if they ever must be utilized. You know how to contact the police and fire departments, how to send for an ambulance if there is a serious injury, how to successfully apply first aid if the injury is not so serious - but do you have that elusive source of emergency power? With natural disasters increasing in both volume and ferocity, when your household can lose its utility power for days or weeks, no family should be without a backup generator. In other words, go ahead, keep up with the Jones's - not only is it okay, you may end up being thrilled that you did.When Hurricane SANDY rolled across the EASTERN seaboard, a STAGGERING 8.5 million RESIDENTS found themselves without ELECTRICITY.
As an event, Hurricane Sandy was unprecedented in her impact. Individuals who had worked for 40 years in the field of backup power never witnessed such a demand for their products. Maybe it's no wonder, several months later, that those products remain heavily back-ordered. What is perhaps more disturbing than 8.5 million people being without power is that, days later, 4 million of those in affected areas remained in the dark. Residents learned that carefully-amassed emergency food, supplies, and rations offered limited relief when there was no electric power to back them up. And the news got worse. In no time, looters were roaming the empty streets in search of unprotected valuables. Those who had been forced to leave their residences because the premises lacked power were able to take very few possessions with them. There were also people - comparatively few it's true - who did not evacuate impacted locations. Instead, they leaned on generator power for safety, and security.
No good backup PLAN is COMPLETE without a PROVISION for standby POWER.
T-Rex Generators ardently believes that emergency preparedness must include standby electricity. Identifying the amount of electric power you will need in a pinch is going to be among your biggest decisions when considering a generator. Knowing what you wish to operate during an outage will help determine how large a generator you should install. If the size you have identified turns out to be in line with your budget, then you are ready to begin shopping. If you aren't certain what size generator is best for an application, don't be afraid to consult a qualified electrician. Standby generators - even some modern portable units - require a substantial investment, and choosing the right machine is just one means of protecting that investment. You should also be aware that a standby generator, once installed, will frequently become a fixture - like any other improvement made to a property. In other words, if the property is sold, expect the generator to be included in the package. In the last three to five years, we've noticed an increase in the number of original generator owners who elect to take the standby and its transfer equipment to a new residence. This is primarily done with small air-cooled models. The size and weight (in excess of 1000 lbs - probably by a healthy margin) of liquid-cooled generators home use products makes them a real chore to transfer. Best quiet generator for you.
Another PRIME consideration in GENERATOR selection is the AVAILABILITY of your Desired fuel.
When you have pinpointed the capacity of the generator your application will require (by listing those rooms, circuits, or specific appliances you believe you can't get by in an outage without), focus your attention on the unit's fuel source. If you go with a portable machine, chances are that you'll be relegated to employing standard gasoline. Gasoline's availability can be problematic in some emergency situations - like a hurricane - where supply routes have been compromised or supplies themselves heavily damaged. Ask some of the northeasterners who were without power following Hurricane Sandy. They ended up in long lines, were forced to wait for hours, and then could obtain only limited amounts of the fuel because government rationing was in effect. Storing gasoline in large enough quantities for a major disaster or emergency is difficult - partly because of its sheer bulk, also due to its abbreviated shelf life (the shortest of any backup fuel), and flammability. Gasoline is simply not a good fuel to hoard. Natural gas is a great fuel source because, as long as the application is already fixed with an NG feed, supplies will theoretically never be interrupted. No worries abound regarding fuel storage. One of the drawbacks to natural gas, however, is that generators produce less output on NG than they will burning any other fuel. You may find that a generator you believed was perfectly sized is suddenly too small for an application. We can also imagine at least one potential disaster that could affect the availability of natural gas - an earthquake - which could damage or sever underground NG lines. How about propane as your fuel of choice then?
Looking at PROPANE or LPG as a BACKUP fuel source.
The nice thing about propane is that it harbors an almost unlimited lifespan. Propane will simply not deteriorate or become unstable in typical storage conditions. However, propane is extremely flammable (like gasoline) and (also like gasoline) it is bulky to store in large enough quantities for effective emergency purposes. Our Winco tri-fuel generators, and the propane-burning standby units we offer must be connected to a large propane tank (40 to 50 gallons at a minimum). As outside temperatures in an area plummet, the size of the tank required will increase dramatically. In Los Angeles, Miami, or Honolulu, you could make do with a modest-sized propane tank and still weather just about any emergency or power outage you encountered. In Fairbanks, Alaska, the necessary tank for generator operation at the area's average low January temperature could easily be seven or eight times the size of a warm-weather tank - as well as five or six times larger than a tank used right at freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit). You get the idea. There are some credible generators available which utilize a smaller barbecue-grill sized propane tank - Generic, for instance, currently has two in its lineup, a 3500-watt unit and a brand new 6000-watt model. Unfortunately, those small tanks, while convenient to obtain and to handle, tend to empty quickly (the bigger and more powerful your generator, the less run time you'll receive from one of those small propane tanks). For emergency purposes then, multiple tanks in storage would be mandatory. Here is another tip: if gasoline is your fuel of choice, an over size fuel tank that affords at least four to six hours of operation between refills can be a very nice feature.