Hurricane Irma

[Remington]

I have a 2-200amp service panels. One of the has all the important stuff in it, fridge tv main lights ac etc. And the other has the less important stuff like closet lights etc. I have the 22kw generac generator running off natural gas with transfer switch hooked to the more important panel. It's pretty cool how it works, the only way I would know if the power is out is if I hear the generator running. Someone was wondering earlier how loud the generator, it's about as loud as a lawnmower. It automatically comes on by its self every Thursday at 2oclock and runs for about 10min to keep it lubed up.

Nice! And to run it's on board computer diagnostics. Sounds like a nice set up bud!

 

[Smitty335]

Im the lead generator tech at our shop, I've ben certified by Generac for over 12 yrs. Most of you are correct with your generator pricing. Roughly 7-12,000 for AIR cooled stand by. That's an 8kw (don't recommend 8's) through 22kw. Installed correctly is a HUHGE key. Gas line size and proper meeter size for natural gas and proper tank size along with gas pipeing for propane this is a common issue. Also cant stress enough to use only hard black pipe not ward flex (flex pipe) for gas sizing and flow it's not the same volume as hard pipe with the consumption to generators and will eventually cause your generator to run lean and Catastrophic failure. When using propane your kw on air cooled gowes up 1full kw. Also with a standby the "sine wave" is much cleaner than portable gas generators. Gas portables should NOT be used to operate any large refrigeration compressors A/C's And HP's due to this dirty power that is very hard on the start up to these motors and some DC motors eventually causing catastrophic failure. All this makes it extremely important to have the Standby sized and installed correctly so these things failures don't happen. In some cases a load shedding transfer switch to be installed. I see these problems all the time, dosnt happen right away, it creeps up on you slow.
One last thing, it's also Murphy's law than when you buy a stand by, you seam to not loose power as much as you use to good luck with your purchases gentleman.

Same with pool heaters, I'm a plumber who knows how to use sizing charts! Seen guys/plumbers hook up 800,000 BTU demand to a 1 inch line w/ 14 inches of water column before demand, REALLY? They work for a while??????????????????????

 

[sharp]

Nice! And to run it's on board computer diagnostics. Sounds like a nice set up bud!

We love it. When we built our house it was something I didn't care if we had or not but the wife said we had to have it. Lol she likes the sense of security of having it.

 

[Remington]

Same with pool heaters, I'm a plumber who knows how to use sizing charts! Seen guys/plumbers hook up 800,000 BTU demand to a 1 inch line w/ 14 inches of water column before demand, REALLY? They work for a while??????????????????????

You obviously can relate to what I was talking about with sizing. Unbelievable what people think they can do. "Ahh it will work!" Lol

 

[Smitty335]

You obviously can relate to what I was talking about with sizing. Unbelievable what people think they can do. "Ahh it will work!" Lol

It's huge! To do it right it takes regulators in the right places and a 2 to 5 pound gas meter, depending on the load and gas service size.

 

[Remington]

It's huge! To do it right it takes regulators in the right places and a 2 to 5 pound gas meter, depending on the load and gas service size.

That's so true!
It's definitely not a job for the "I learned it on the internet" people lol. Size maters

 

[Smitty335]

That's so true!
It's definitely not a job for the "I learned it on the internet" people lol. Size maters

And it goes on and on, 6 bath home on a 3/4 inch water service, can we fix the water volume, SURE!

 

[DMH]

Once storage drops to a price where you can see a payoff in your lifetime we will pull everything over to solar, except pool pump or something, State of Alabama requires by law connection to local power utility. Generator will see use after multiple cloudy days to refill battery bank if it gets too low.

Doesn't say you have to use it for day to day use.

With solar you would definitely want to be grid tied. Both you and your energy provider benefit from it.

I figured about $7,000 for battery backup would work for us. Tied with solar it should be fine for our hurricane seasons. Plus tied with solar our payback would be faster.

 

[ohanacreek]

With solar you would definitely want to be grid tied. Both you and your energy provider benefit from it.

I figured about $7,000 for battery backup would work for us. Tied with solar it should be fine for our hurricane seasons. Plus tied with solar our payback would be faster.

AlaPower only gives you .03 per kWh but they charge .13per kWh, net metering is BS!!! They use the excuse that they have to maintain the grid more when net metering is in effect.

AlaPoCo just started trying to push GREEN kWhs by charging you MORE for the fuzzy feeling of using that you're using GREEN energy.






Alabama REQUIRES you to be connected to Public power utility, TAXES!

(2) 2Ton HeatPumps take a good bit of panels and batteries for off-grid.

Was $40k before install. Rather have a P1K

 

[JTW]

AlaPower only gives you .03 per kWh but they charge .13per kWh, net metering is BS!!! They use the excuse that they have to maintain the grid more when net metering is in effect.

AlaPoCo just started trying to push GREEN kWhs by charging you MORE for the fuzzy feeling of using that you're using GREEN energy.

View attachment 53977

View attachment 53978


Alabama REQUIRES you to be connected to Public power utility, TAXES!

(2) 2Ton HeatPumps take a good bit of panels and batteries for off-grid.

Was $40k before install. Rather have a P1K

Require?? Wtf!!

 

[ohanacreek]

Require?? Wtf!!

REQUIRE...Condemn your house and have you removed by force...REQUIRE... Florida is the same.

 

[JTW]

REQUIRE...Condemn your house and have you removed by force...REQUIRE... Florida is the same.

Wow... that's f***'n crazy!!

 

[DMH]

AlaPower only gives you .03 per kWh but they charge .13per kWh, net metering is BS!!! They use the excuse that they have to maintain the grid more when net metering is in effect.

AlaPoCo just started trying to push GREEN kWhs by charging you MORE for the fuzzy feeling of using that you're using GREEN energy.

View attachment 53977

View attachment 53978


Alabama REQUIRES you to be connected to Public power utility, TAXES!

(2) 2Ton HeatPumps take a good bit of panels and batteries for off-grid.

Was $40k before install. Rather have a P1K

I am glad our provider is local and not one of the big energy companies. Those guys do not want rooftop solar competition. Here in florida, the big utility companies tried to pass some BS amendment last November to "Protect" us. Luckily there was a lot of pro solar groups educating people and it got knocked down.

They spent around $26 million to try and get "Consumers for Smart Solar" through: Florida voters say no to misleading solar amendment

The only real hiccup I can see with us doing solar is a peak demand time charge for energy used in a certain time period. But, if we go with a small battery bank for hurricanes it should take care of that.

I looked into it quite a bit at the beginning of the year. We put it on hold because of us needing a new roof (really need one now) and planned to have that done in October. Once our roof is done will be looking back into it. Should work for us.

 

[ohanacreek]

I am glad our provider is local and not one of the big energy companies. Those guys do not want rooftop solar competition. Here in florida, the big utility companies tried to pass some BS amendment last November to "Protect" us. Luckily there was a lot of pro solar groups educating people and it got knocked down.

They spent around $26 million to try and get "Consumers for Smart Solar" through: Florida voters say no to misleading solar amendment

The only real hiccup I can see with us doing solar is a peak demand time charge for energy used in a certain time period. But, if we go with a small battery bank for hurricanes it should take care of that.

I looked into it quite a bit at the beginning of the year. We put it on hold because of us needing a new roof (really need one now) and planned to have that done in October. Once our roof is done will be looking back into it. Should work for us.

This is just PARTS to run our house with no gen or grid for recharging and 2days with inadequate sun.

 

[DMH]

This is just PARTS to run our house with no gen or grid for recharging and 2days with inadequate sun.

View attachment 54002

Holly cow. If ya don't mind me asking how much power do you use a month? How often do you lose power?

We very seldom have two straight full cloudy days here and probably only a handful of days that it's cloudy all day long. If we did on those times we would buy extra power from the grid.

Battery backup for us would really only be needed to get us through the night and offset the peak hours if the panels aren't producing enough.

 

[DMH]

Finally, the last big chunk of our fallen tree is on the burn pile.

Used the winch on the pioneer to drag it over. Worked good.

Only problem I didn't think about how I was going to get the chain off it once it was in the hot coals. Guess it's staying there for a while.

 

[ohanacreek]

Holly cow. If ya don't mind me asking how much power do you use a month? How often do you lose power?

We very seldom have two straight full cloudy days here and probably only a handful of days that it's cloudy all day long. If we did on those times we would buy extra power from the grid.

Battery backup for us would really only be needed to get us through the night and offset the peak hours if the panels aren't producing enough.

Based of winter time sun average of 2.75hrs a day, PEAK in summer keeping house at 68F is 2500kwh, at 73F 1800kwh.

That is if we went 100% off grid.

 

[DMH]

Based of winter time sun average of 2.75hrs a day, PEAK in summer keeping house at 68F is 2500kwh, at 73F 1800kwh.

That is if we went 100% off grid.

Aahhh, the 2.75 hours a day thing. That's why it sounded strange to me.

 

[ohanacreek]

Aahhh, the 2.75 hours a day thing. That's why it sounded strange to me.

Yeah it's the 100% off grid that caused it. It's double coverage for summer use.

 

[DMH]

Yeah it's the 100% off grid that caused it. It's double coverage for summer use.

And me not thinking how the rest of the world lives.