Do you have natural gas lines in your part of the neighborhood? You can always make a fitting to run the generator on the natural gas that runs from your house's line instead of propane. Infinite power, just as long as you have gas coming from the house.

I should've guessed when you mentioned you have a heat pump. You could always get a large 420 lb (holds 100 lbs of liquid propane) propane tank installed inline to the generator. Might be overkill, but we had that setup as a backup when I lived on the outskirts of York, Montana for a time. The tanks aren't terribly big. Maybe 4 feet tall and 3 or 4 feet in diameter? They hold enough where you can keep it filled for emergencies, and you won't have to worry about shipments or small tanks running out fast.

I picked up my dual fuel Champion at Costco, its been amazing for the money its not as powerful as the the XP12000E. I only run on propane. Gasoline fuel degrades and causes carb/needle issues when it sits too long even with stabilizer, I was tired of messing with it on my older gen.... since I don't have use it often enough. Propane, I only have to worry about the tank freezing. But if I need to run on Gasoline when propane runs out or freezes, or if more power is needed, its a win win. So many good options esp... electric start, but still has a pull cord just in case. Ran my break-in on the cheap oil that came with it and changed it ASAP with good oil, runs over 5 hours on a small 15-17lb propane bottle at lite to medium load.
Costco had it on sale for like $599.99 I don't remember why, but I was like this too good to pass up. (love my membership any issues, I can return if I am not satisfied) I bought it in club, so no damage at all for shipping, so far its been great fires right up even comes with battery maintainer to keep the battery topped off. Oil change is super easy, has its own drain tube at the bottom. Had all the features I wanted for $600 plus tax. Some users run it on natural gas. If you need more power they make better models just not available at Costco.
Only con I can think of is its yellow, however it looks good next to my Dewalt tools.
https://www.costco.com/Champion-7000W-Running--9000W-Peak-DUAL-FUEL-Generator-wElectric-Start.product.100220385.html
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Added over 6 years ago: correction $549.99 it was on sale, they run this sale 1-2 times a year.

Dual fuels are awesome. Only thing better than gas/lp are the diesel/kerosene/jet models. Depending on how you use it(or don’t).

I bought a Honda generator, and had a connection to house installed so it powers the entire house if necessary via the main fuse box, including pins. Very quiet (for a generator) too, and auto-powers down when power not being drawn. I'd recommend it.

7kW.

http://www.honda.co.uk/industrial/products/generators/inverter/specifications.html#eu70is

It's best to conserve energy in a power outage. Have two Champion 73536i 1700 watt inverters to run the basics. Quiet and more efficicient than standard generators. Also have a 15kw pto generator that we hook up to our Kubota tractor.
Diesel is much easier to find than gasoline during storm preparedness. Propane is super expensive.

Finally bit the bullet and purchased this in November of last year

I got it at Harbor Freight for like seven hundred and fifty bucks and it's awesome. It's quiet and powerful enough to run quite a few of my electronics including the portable AC unit and a pinball machine.

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That should be able to run a dorm fridge, small room air conditioner, flat screen tv and lights. Oh yeah, and a few pinball machines.

I finally got a Generac 16KW standby about 1.5 yrs. ago. It's been put thru its paces several times and has worked like a champ. 7 yr warranty finally closed the deal as I was also considering a Kohler. Had a nice 4KW (5KW starting) portable one that came in handy, but if I happen to be on travel, the better half likely could never figure out how to work it. With a finished basement, just didn't want to take a chance (Murphy's Law, you know). We live out in the boonies, so we are not the first in line for the repair work when needed...I'm guessing they hit the most populated areas first when restoring power.

I bought one of these last year when it was on sale. I used my rebate on top of that and it ended up being around $400. I added a natural gas conversion so I now have tri fuel capability. I already had a natural gas line run outside but I had to upgrade it to 3/4" to be able to run the generator. So I'm now ready for an extended outage and don't have to worry about fuel unless it got really bad and NG couldn't be delivered to our home.

The only bad thing about this generator is it is LOUD. Amazingly loud.

I have the home set up so I can easily run the furnace and the fridge to keep from losing food. I can also run my mini split in the shop if the outage was during summer and we wanted to stay cool and sleep out there.

The reality is I'll probably never need it. But for a short outage it would keep me from losing all the food in the fridge. We've lived in our home for almost 13 years and during that entire time we've only had a couple outages worth mentioning. The longest was a little over 8 hours. My subdivision is fed from some pretty major lines so if there was a bad storm our power would probably be restored fairly quickly. But having the backup capability is nice. It just takes one bad storm or ice storm to make it worth having.

Power outages here are a couple of times a year. Trees fall down in storms, that happens living in the woods. We have a 9 kw gas burner. I feed back into the transfer switch with a 50 amp circuit. We are on a water well so the first outage made for a grouchy wife. I had he 1.5 kw unit in our camper . It would take care of the freezer working in shifts. 120 vac output no go on the well.
The 9 kw will run the newer of the 3 ton heat pumps on the house. The newer unit starts the compressor , fan, and blower one at a time. The old unit has too much inrush. All motors start at once, the generator cannot enough reactive power for the start. More than enough to run it just can't start it.
Long term plan a natural gas/gasoline automatic standby unit.

LRA (locked rotor amps). Is a good way to size the generator you need to start yor air conditioner. My 2 ton package unit is 43 amps. 43x240 = 10320. Which means I'll need a 10kw generator to start it.

Start kits work better with reciprocating compressors than scroll in lowering start up amps. I'd first go down to Grainger and buy a 3-5 ton hard start then spend $250. I think they're about $25. Needless, you need an amp probe to check what your start up amps are before you decide on a generator.
I once installed delay on make relays on my condensor motor and blower motor to get the amps needed to start the compressor. That was after hurricane Jean.

This might not be relevant since I'm comparing it to my Generac, not your XP1200. But I will toss it out anyways as 'food for thought'. Our Generac has a smart switch wired into our hot tub. It simply monitors the frequency of the generator's output, not the voltage. If the 60 Hz deviates too low (i.e. the generator is being loaded too heavily), it will trip the smart box and disconnect the load. After awhile, it will reconnect and power the load, if the frequency is maintained within the proper range.

Perhaps there's an aftermarket unit you can incorporate into your system.

I'm not sure why an A/C manufacturer wouldn't incorporate the appropriate sized capacitor for a softer start, except for the minimal increase in cost (a few dollars, likely)...but I've have seen the mods advertised.

Pass on the generator. Get yourself a nice power inverter setup instead

www.invertersrus.com

www.spartanpower.com

And power the inverter with what?

Sorry to rain on everyone's parade but I am in the gas station/fuel delivery business. Gas stations and refineries do not have backup generators so when you run out of your initial supply, after that you are screwed. Better build a cabin in the woods with a pot-belly stove and shotgun. Just saying.....

I actually have a z-wave current monitor installed in my breaker box to monitor current when the sump pumps runs in the finished basement (yeah, I'm a geek, lol). And a couple for the whole house and one on the pins. Would be interesting to do the same on the heatpump and see if the inrush current actually is less with a different cap. Let me know if you want more details and I will post!

I picked up one of these from Sams Club back when we lost power during an ice storm a few years ago.

I was easily able to run my fuel oil furnace, refrigerator, several lights, TV/Satellite and it didn’t even break a sweat. Having 14 hours of run time on one tank is also a plus.

I’m pretty sure if I wired my breaker box with a cutover, it would probably run everything in the house...maybe minus the electric stove.

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Be careful, too many watts lowers voltage which could lead to burnt wires. Might want to stick to extension cords.

Hi MC,

I tried to paste a SnipIt of one of the current probes just so you can see what it captures. More of a fyi than anything... I can see when the hot tub runs, when the heat pump runs, electric stove, fridge, etc. I too run Samsung SmartThings.

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Just picked up my first generator in our last 3 day outage.

Bought a Generac GP5500 and it worked flawlessly. It is loud but I ran my oil burner , lights , microwave , and tv hooked up with a good surge protector

Trying to find out what the THD is on the unit but they don’t say. I’m wondering if it’s safe to run electronics with it Also would the surge protector make it ok if the THD is greater than 5%.

Also just finishing hooking up a transfer switch to make it easy next time.

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Hoby1,

If you really want to know the distortion, the simplest (and cheapest) way to measure would be w/a modern scope that has that feature or a math feature which is called 'FFT' built it. I won't go into the details unless you want to know. You can just 'YouTube' it if you want to know. And it probably changes depending on the load. I did look at the 5500 spec sheet which mentions less than 5%, but of course, it didn't go into the test conditions. But the data sheet does mention it's safe for electronics. You can see it here: http://gens.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/content/all-products/portable-recreational-power/0180710sby-portable-full-line-catalog.pdf?ext=.pdf

Regarding the surge protector - a surge protector usually clamps a high frequency spike in the nano second range, and the surge is a high voltage event (higher than the 120V). Distortion is a harmonic of the line voltage (i.e. 2nd harmonic is 120Hz, 3rd harmonic is 180Hz, etc., if line frequency is 60Hz), and the hamonic is much, much lower than the 120V line voltage. What might be the biggest concern would be if you load the generator too much by running to many appliances, the 60Hz could drop in frequency, causing some power supplies to be less than 'happy'.

Just my 2 cents - hope this clarifies things a bit.

Mark

Square D makes some that simply snaps into an empty slot in a beaker box. You just need to connect the ground wire (keeping it short). Might save you some time installing.

Here's mine:

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I have the transfer switch for most of the home but no connection to the well pump breaker. Thinking of getting a small generator just to get the well 220 running for water. Anyone know of a switch to wire into a well direct to the pump?

Good deal MC. I didn't have access to the sides since my garage has peg board installed. So going internally was my best bet. Try to keep the wires as short as possible since those will look inductive (meaning it will make the surge spike less prone to actually being clamped by the transient protector).

I still use surge suppressors throughout the house as a second line of defense since you can never be sure where the spike sneaks in at. That could happen with a nearby lightning strike - could get picked up by the wires in the house, and not come in thru the mains at the fuse box.

Playing around inside a live breaker box - fun, eh? LOL

JB,

Before I ended up finally going to a whole house generator, I had a 2nd, smaller, breaker box for the primary circuits I wanted to run. Sumps, well, fridge, some lights, etc. When the electrician installed, they used like a teeter-tot piece between the mains and the 120V from the roll-around generator. It's just a piece of metal that pivots to one breaker or the other, but not both. This prevents you from accidently back-feed the generator into the mains since only one breaker could be on at a time.

Might not completely fit your needs, but something similar might be appropriate. Just get a small breaker box for the well pump that can switch between the breakers - one for the normal 220V, the other for the generator. And the metal piece prevents 'bad things' from accidently happening. You can see it in the pic below. Make sense?

Good luck!

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I actually have a 2nd breaker box in the basement, fed by the main box in the garage. That powers all the basement stuff - rather nice. So I also installed one down there too since it was easy. Sure is nice to have the 2nd box since I can add another breaker for more pins!

Mains always hot - LOL. Same on my end. I took a piece of cardboard and covered the feed lines into the house for when I accidentally do something stupid.

If your panel is full then look into quad breakers.

I bought the discontinued Aeon current probe (maybe $20-$30). It ONLY measures current in amps. You can set the voltage for a default value (i.e. 120V) to estimate power (Power = voltage x current). The newer clamp also measures the voltage, which I believe allows you to directly measure watts and apparent power (without being too geeky, this is what happens when current and voltage is out of phase). I wasn't worried about that, so the cheapie version was fine by me.

Hope that answers your question, I can go into more detail if needed. Just holler if needed.

Looks like you are almost there!