Stoker Stove Power Loss

I looked into a generator too. Gasoline generators are extremly noisy and eat gas at an alarming rate. I didn't want to stockpile gasoline. A better alternative is a propane generator with a 100 gallon tank. Propane doesn't go bad and you can store a lot of it in a small space. I have a UPS with two marine batteries for outtages that last from 1-several hours. If I need more juice I can plug in one of two inverters I have and use my car as a generator. I make sure I fillup each car right before a storm. Most outtages last less then 30 minutes in my area so a small battery backup is nice to have.

Propane standby generators are best, but not really an option for everyone due to the price. I have a little 3500 watt gas generator, it will run 12+ hours on 5 gallons of gas. They are $600 new or much less at garage sales, I've seen them for $100-$200 on Craigslist. I figure in the event of an extended power outage I can run the generator for an hour and crank the heat up to 90, then shut it off until the house cools down. It's just as loud as my lawnmower, exactly as loud actually because it's the same engine. Plus it can run the well pump.

I agree on the propane generator and automatic switch over being the best, but to say it would be cheaper....well, I don't think they can say that! Buy a UPS unit on eBay and wire the marine deep cycle battery to it...you should be good to go for awhile.

I think my electrician said they install a box next to your circuit breaker box and double up on the most required things to run in a power outage, refrigerator, freezer, stoker, power vent and what ever else you might need, they can go to very big box's depending on your power source. But I think he told me that the electric work would be around 350-400 bucks, which isn't to bad for something that will always be there for the life of your house. As far as one of those generators being too expensive, just look at one of those tripplite that have been linked to what were they $700 and up? If you go with a propane generator it seems you wouldn't have to worry about the gas going bad or batteries discharging to much and replacing them every 5 years or so and you would have some lights and fresh food in your home along with your heat in the dead of winter.

Thanks for the redirect Woodncoal I should have know this was already discussed on this forum. My fault for shooting off before I did research. Sorry to all for my mistake.

No need to apologize, lucky for you I remembered that thread. There's lots of info on this forum, maybe too much, it's hard to keep track of it all!

If you like the one that Devil liked model 40248 7k watts http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Briggs-&- ... /p889.html there is a similar model at http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servle ... =100645505 model 040298 for just about 200 bucks less which is out of stock right now. They also have one a little bigger that's in stock 10k watts Model 040243 http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servle ... =100645506 for a little over 500 bucks more.

They all seem like very large investments but I would think that they would last for a long long time. Anyone know how long a generator would last if it wasn't being used a whole lot?
How big of a generator does one need to cover their whole house?
Devil did you get yours?

With only very occaisional use, they should last many many years. I've got a 15kw propane air cooled standby generator. I use synthetic oil in it. It fires automatically once a week for 12 minutes. I've only had to use it twice in 3 years. Power is pretty reliable here but I always worry about an ice storm taking us out for weeks at a time like has happened in other areas. Also, frankly I factored in the possible loss of power due to some terrorist act. It will run my whole house. It came with an automatic transfer switch but I didn't use it because it only had 8 or 10 circuits. I bought a 200 amp manual transfer switch. So in a power loss, the generator starts automatically but I've got to throw the switch to go to gen power. I put in a 1,000 gal. underground tank. (yea, I hoard propane too.) I had a 5kw gas portable for years but like others said, you just can't safely keep enough gas around to run it for more than 8-16 hours. Propane is the way to go.

coalkirk wrote:Propane is the way to go.

If you have access to nat gas (like I do) that would give you unlimited electricity for any long term outage. We never lose power around here (famous last words!) so all I have is a cheap inverter that I could run off my car, if need be. (& I have a hand fired stove so I'll always have heat anyway!! )

1,000 gallong of propane is a nice supply to have on hand. At todays prices that is not a cheap investment but a wise one. How long do u think you could go with out power? I'm so jealous!

Well a propane tank can only ever be 85% full. it has to have at least 15% air so the propane can "boil off". So I started with 850 gallons in November of 2005. I paid $1.69 per gallon. The tank including installation was $2,300.00. When I had it installed, we also converted to a gas stove in the kitchen. So in almost 3 years, we've used about 50 gallons. I think I had calculated that at fullpower, I could run the gen for about 3 1/2 weeks if I had to.
I have no idea what propane costs now. I do know that when you own the tank, it is much cheaper than if you lease the tank.

We have a 100 gallon propane tank and I use it for the stove/oven and BBQ. I would say it lasts almost 3 years and then I'm still at about 30%. I was thinking of converting my dryer to propane but with the increases of late I'm not sure it would be worth it. The nice thing about your setup is that even if u never use that generator you'll always feel safe and secure knowing your family has a backup if the lights go out. I just received my UPS. It handles 900 watts. My plan is to get two marine batteries and wire them to output 24v. This should give me many hours of power to run my stoker. A propane generator is also a consideration.

I've got two 100 lb propane tanks I bought a TSC farm store. I use propane for a kitchen four burner gas cook top and clothes dryer. I use about 150 lbs a year. I take the empty tank to the cheapest local source, usually my large construction equipment center. Sometime the welding gas supplier has better prices. In either case the price is not as good per pound as BJ's wholesale club. Unfortunately they don't have the scales to fill 100 lb. bottles, only the small propane grill style.

Here's a source for all kinds of generators, all sizes and fuels.

http://www.centralmainediesel.com/

coalkirk wrote:Well a propane tank can only ever be 85% full. it has to have at least 15% air so the propane can "boil off". So I started with 850 gallons in November of 2005. I paid $1.69 per gallon. The tank including installation was $2,300.00. When I had it installed, we also converted to a gas stove in the kitchen. So in almost 3 years, we've used about 50 gallons. I think I had calculated that at fullpower, I could run the gen for about 3 1/2 weeks if I had to.
I have no idea what propane costs now. I do know that when you own the tank, it is much cheaper than if you lease the tank.

My wife wants a gas stove when we redo the kitchen at some point in our life's and that's want I want to put in is a 1000 gallon tank. It seems more reasonable for us to go with a propane generator even though it cost's more since we will have a large supply tank in the yard. My only problem is convincing the wife we need it and how were going to pay for it.