Having just gone 4 days without power here in North Central Mass., I can certainly speak for the benefits of having backup power. I have a 5000 watt generator which kept the house warm, the refrigerator cold, the microwave cooking, the TV, DVD and computer running, and an assortment of lights burning. After the first day of outage, 20 of the 26 homes in my neighborhood had been abandoned with the residents staying with relatives or in motels at $100/night.
There’s no question that Frank’s Guardian standby generator is the ultimate for unattended automatic backup power. But that kind of rig requires either natural gas or a large propane tank to run. And the cost of this will quickly approach $5,000.
But for those of us that don’t have gas service or are on a much tighter budget there is an alternative in the $1,500 range. This consist of a 5000 watt gasoline generator hooked up to a 6 circuit manual transfer switch.
The first thing to do is look at your breaker panel and determine the six circuits that will need to be driven to cover the essentials. If you find that you need additional circuits because of how your circuits are set up, you can pay a little more and get an 8 or 10 circuit transfer switch. Here’s how my switch is set up:
1 Microwave Oven
2 Computer and cable modem, printer, desk lights
3 Refrigerator
4 Furnace
5 TV/DVR, living room and bathroom lights
6 Kitchen Lights
For the generator, northerntool.com has a great buy on a Briggs and Stratton 5kw electric start generator (model #030362) for about $750 delivered.
This unit includes a small battery with a built in trickle charger that allows you to keep the battery charged at all times and ready to start with the push of a button (a must for seniors especially in very cold weather). And it has wheels and a flip up handle so it can easily be rolled outside your garage when you’re ready to fire it up
Next is the transfer switch. There are two ways to do this depending on where your breaker panel is located.
If your breaker panel is located in your garage, here is a picture of the setup:
For this you would want the Reliance Controls model 30261A available from electricgeneratorsdirect.com and you would connect the generator to the transfer switch with a prewired 30 amp power cord (either 25’ or 40’).
Connection of the transfer switch to the 6 designated circuits in your breaker panel should take an electrician less than two hours. Estimated cost would then be:
Generator 750
Transfer Switch 250
40' Power Cord 140
Electrician 2 hrs. 200
Total 1340
If your breaker panel is located in your basement, here is a picture of the setup:
For this you would want the Reliance Controls model 31406CRK kit available at amazon.com
The generator connects to the supplied rain tight outlet by your garage door with the supplied 30 amp power cord. The electrician would then run an 8 or 10 gauge Romex cable from the outlet down to the transfer switch mounted in the basement. This will take about 4 hours if you can assist the electrician to pull the romex cable. Estimated cost would then be:
Generator 750
Transfer Switch Kit 300
100ft Romex Cable 125
Electrician 4 hrs. 400
Total 1575
And last but not least is the gas can(s) used for storage and filling the generator. Most people use those cheap plastic cans with a short spout. But this can be a hazard. Most large portable generators have their tank mounted on the top of the generator and the fill cap is located more or less in the middle of the tank. As you attempt to fill the tank, the gas from the can will come out before you have the spout into filler resulting in spillage onto the tank or even worse if the spillage drips down onto a hot generator! And the same thing happens when you try to stop the flow of gas by tilting the can backwards, more spillage.
The Justrite UNO 5 Gallon Type 2 Red Safety Can solves this problem. You can tilt the can and insert the spout into the filler and no gas comes out until you squeeze leaver. To stop the flow instantly, just release the lever. You can even lay a filled can on it’s side and no gas comes out. They’re available on the internet for about $85 delivered. Expensive, but well worth the safety, if you’re going to store and handle gasoline in your garage. I bown three of these.
Hope this information helps.