More emergency power - generator

D.W. Onan made fine products. Cummins/Onan, not so much. As far as affording them....well, if you could afford to buy a new champion, you could have bought any of the several that I own. The first one(and most expensive), a 6.5NHE cost me $143 about three years ago. The wife and I used it a few days ago. The latest one cost me $65 and is a 4kw unit. They are certainly heavy, but that weight is in overbuilt components(D.W. Onan, not Cummins/Onan) designed for thousands of hours of use before a major service...if it was needed then.

Something of significance with generators is exactly how power is brought out from the gen end. Sometimes it matters more how it's configured at the outlets.The short of it is that some of them on the market are only good for half or so of their rating if using 120v from a 120/240v unit. There is some really good reading on this site: Jan 7 2011 Email of the day, Generator Mods, notes on AVRs, and know your loads.

 

@RickR
I'd add a wood stove inside your home simply because it removes the amperage draw of whatever you use for heating and the blower that pushes the heat through the house.

 

Tikka's suggestion is a good one. My uncle blocked off his fireplace and installed a real wood stove in it's place. Way better at keeping the house warm.

Wish I'd thought of it earlier, but depending on the lay of your land or how ambitious you are, you could install an outdoor wood burner and allow natural convection to heat the house. A fan wouldn't draw much current though.

 

Solar attic fan on the push side to stay cool. Add a battery and charge during the day, discharge at night.

 

I have a Pacific Energy insert. Not much choice as the house has a huge brick fireplace. There are a lot of good inserts and stoves. I like mine for a few reasons. The first it is steel plate so it transfers the heat into the brick fireplace masonry. The second is it adjusts the draft by itself.
Sweep's Library - Pacific Energy's Extended Burn Technology the draft adjusts itself while I am asleep.
Although it is hard to get going. once it does it is fantastic. If it was free standing. I would have went with cast iron or soap stone.
There are a lot of great wood burners so I'm not going to get into the debate which is better.

@kellory
When I lived in Michigan, I had a solar home. It was great; my neighbors were paying over a couple of hundred a month and I was paying $34 for everything. The attic fans were solar. However, all they were was a couple of lame little computer fans. I ditched the panel for a larger one and trashed the fans for bigger ones. The name of the game is moving air

 

Attic fans are not required to do much, they are intended to more to prevent moisture buildup and wood rot.
Yes, you can always upgrade.
I've installed enough of them to know how they works, and what it takes to repair them.

 

Tikka---the way my uncle did his was to use a piece of 1/4" plate steel to cover the fireplace opening, anchored to the brick. It has a connection for the stovepipe from the wood stove he put in front of the fireplace. Best solution short of tearing out the entire fireplace. As small as his fireplace was, I don't think he could have used an insert without major renovation.

 

@Tikka Believe me if I could I would add a wood stove! I have so much wood I don't know what to do with it! I am giving it away as fast as I can find people to take it. The problem is the people who built my house were from California and they put in a propane fireplace. Great! But, the house is small and there just is no room to add a wood stove. We have one corner in the living room where we the television and I have been trying to convince the wife to let me put one there but...no. Strange since we don't have television (no cable, antenna, etc.) but she does watch some video movies now and then.

 

Yeah, even a small one like that would be great as it's a damn shame to have all this wood and can't use any of it. My house is only ~1700 sq ft so even a small stove would really be a big deal. Basically, my property is covered with what is called Jack pines or Lodge Pole pines. These grow really fast and really tall but their root structure doesn't go very deep, pretty much just on the surface so... So they break off or blow over (uproot) in a moderate blow and are always causing a mess plus taking up the sun and nutrients for the other nice trees that we have: red and white fir, blue spruce, ponderosa pines... Every day the sun shines will find me working on the property either falling these Jack pines or clearing up the mess where they have blown down. It's not great wood for a stove or fireplace, as burns fast, but I have a heck'va lot of it. Yesterday I took down one that was over 80 feet high because it would have hit the wife garden.

 

Zombierspndr, I looked at the Oran and around here (Idaho) they were priced from $3500 to $5,000 used. As I stated, they are great machines but I do like the mobility of my champion and in my experience they have/will serve my needs well.

 

Diesel Onans are apparently non existent around here. I have seen exactly two come up for sale, both appeared to be parts machines from the ad.

 

Same here. 5 grand for a used 7k unit.

 

The problem with wood stoves and also cooling is modern houses are not designed to do it. They are designed to live in an insulated world with heating and AC. Our home is older so in Spring or Fall, open windows = cross ventilation or the breeze blows through the house.

Our wood stove generates as much heat as a NG oil furnace; yet I cannot heat the whole house with it. Fortunately, we enjoy a cooler bedroom.

 

Where are you guys looking? I pick them up fairly regularly from scrapyards. Some need nothing and others need a little TLC. Check around for motorhomes that are selling cheap...I've seen a few sell for a few hundred bucks and some that the owners just wanted hauled off.

 

A recommendation I have for any one buying a new unit is to put some hours on it right away, and get potential problems sorted out ASAP.
After 10 hours I change oil and run it loaded a while longer and push the limits just to make sure all thing are as they should be.

 

You do NOT need a transfer switch. I did a nice thread on our new set up and we use the same distribution panels and this system works great. Slide isolation plates on the panel covers prevent both Grid power and generator power from being on at the same time. Save a lot of money and dont buy a transfer switch. Here is what we did, The new Power Panel thread | Survival Monkey Forums

 

I just retrieved that thread with all the pictures for our new guys and gals.