Ok. I'm moving into the house I grew up in (bought it from my dad) and I'm looking to get a generator for it. My question is how big? My goal is to basically run the whole house. Not sure of the square footage at the moment, but for heat I have a wood stove that will be are primary heat with electric heat back up. My goal is to NOT run the electric heat. Anyway, I will need to run a 220 well pump hot water heater is propane, fridge, chest freezer, tv lights and stuff like that. My budget is 2k and lower. If you need more info let me know. Also I already have a hook up to the main fuse panel for the generator, basically pull the main breaker coming in and then turn off the breakers you don't Wont to run buy again like to do the whole house. Oh this might help to don't need to run the washer, dryer. Stove/oven would be nice, but I can get away without it. Thanks for the help.
generator size help
- Thread starter zbadass28
- Start date
Alchymist
Well-known member
You just opened yourself up to a lot of questions and comments. I'll start:
How about a more complete description of the part in red? Are we talking backfeeding or transfer switch? How is it wired?
foolishpride
Well-known member
Here we go again. If you really intend to back feed your panel with a generator, get one of these interlock kits.http://www.interlockkit.com/
Or have an electrician install a transfer switch.
Alchymist
Well-known member
theoldwizard1
Well-known member
Highly unlikely unless you are buying used.
Backfeeding. I want no part of this discussion.
RCStocker
Well-known member
You are in stom country. I woud go to a whole house generator that comes on automaticly and switches over evertime the power comes on.
Costoc has a huge Honda moter 7000 watt generator for a thouand dollars right now. You can put in a sub pannel and hook it up direct or with a heavy extention cord. I do that. Just pull the main breaker and fire up the generator.
After 35 years of smaller generators I went to the automatic generator. They cost 3 grand and up but well worth it. If you have animals or live stock it is a must. I can live for days off the water in the hot water tank if the power goes out. It is never out for so long that you need the well. Like I said if you have farm animals then you need the pump. a small generator will work the pump just fine. I have a honda 5000 watt that ran the well pump, freezer, refer, tv and some lights with no problem. Thins don't runn very long
Costoc has a huge Honda moter 7000 watt generator for a thouand dollars right now. You can put in a sub pannel and hook it up direct or with a heavy extention cord. I do that. Just pull the main breaker and fire up the generator.
After 35 years of smaller generators I went to the automatic generator. They cost 3 grand and up but well worth it. If you have animals or live stock it is a must. I can live for days off the water in the hot water tank if the power goes out. It is never out for so long that you need the well. Like I said if you have farm animals then you need the pump. a small generator will work the pump just fine. I have a honda 5000 watt that ran the well pump, freezer, refer, tv and some lights with no problem. Thins don't runn very long
jtbinvalrico
Well-known member
You really gotta get the proper transfer switch setup for this, it's only a few hundred bucks. Without it, you run the risk of killing the guy working on the pole down the street trying to restore power to your neighborhood.
I found one of those setups on a house we bought. It was a plug straight into the main panel via one of the breakers.....I couldn't tear that **** out of there fast enough.
Might have been fine for the PO, but what about the next guy who comes along and just jacks his genset into it.....
I found one of those setups on a house we bought. It was a plug straight into the main panel via one of the breakers.....I couldn't tear that **** out of there fast enough.
Might have been fine for the PO, but what about the next guy who comes along and just jacks his genset into it.....
RustFarmer
Well-known member
Your well is a large starting load. I don't think most inverter generators will handle it. Deep well submersible pump? What size breaker for the pump? If your well pump is a 1/2 horsepower with a 15 amp breaker, 4KW would be the smallest I would recommend, 5KW would be better. This will handle a few other smaller loads concurrently with your well starting.
Generators require 2HP per KW. 5000 watt generator means 10 horse motor.
Generators require 2HP per KW. 5000 watt generator means 10 horse motor.
Burtonrider10022
Well-known member
Get a Kill-a-Watt meter off amazon.com for $18 w/ Prime. Go around and add up the wattage of all of the items you want to run. Take that total wattage, add a bunch more to it "just in case" you want to add some more stuff, and to account for the things like lightbulbs that you forgot to add in. And that's the size you need. Make sure you account for start up watts as well.
Now that you know how many watts you need, use the search feature and read any of the 40,714 threads on generators here over the last week.
Now that you know how many watts you need, use the search feature and read any of the 40,714 threads on generators here over the last week.
Alchymist
Well-known member
Ok, I'm not 100% sure what my dad had installed for hooking the generator to the fuse panel. All I know is it was done by a certified electrician. I will look further into it and if it is not up to par it will be fixed!!! I'm not out out to hurt anyone, or cause damage to the house. With that said, let me add some more info here. As far as running the well I will unhook some things, I'm not looking to run all the lights the well and tv all at one time. I will cycle things as we need them. Just looking for advice, on a good size. The one we use now is my neighbors and we run my entertainment set and his, his fridge, my fridge, his chest freezer, and mine, my two fish tanks (3 filters and two heaters) a space heater in the reptile room, some lights. He will also unplug the fridge and a few other things and run his stove. Thanks for the help so far and again about the back feeding that's me just assuming that I will get more info when my dad and I can talk about it right now both our schedules are a mess.
jack stand
Well-known member
If you can just add a little to your budget, $1000-1500, I think that you could be looking at an automatic whole house genny that has the switches and will excersise itself that is very important. I just had this discussion with my cousin, a liscensed elec. that just put one in. I think that he said that it was a Generac like Northern sells.
I don't think that when the power goes out, and that thing starts itself within seconds, that you would be sorry for spending a little more.
I don't think that when the power goes out, and that thing starts itself within seconds, that you would be sorry for spending a little more.