"Rolling your own" power
asked in the Electric Utilities and Y2K Q&A Forum
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Out of all the USENET newsgroups I participate in, alt.energy.homepower is about the best for understanding basics of how the electric system in your house works. A lot of folks these days are opting for a backup power source, for whatever reason, Y2k or otherwise.
A few of the power companies that I work with on Y2k issues have expressed concern that if everyone ran out and bought a generator, there would be a lot of people getting hurt (homeowners *and* electric company lineman being inadvertently electrocuted by improperly installed generators). Running a backup power source in your home is not something you want to do unless you really take the time to learn about what you're doing in advance of needing it.
Here's a post I made today to alt.energy.homepower:
On Mon, 01 Feb 1999 10:24:40 -0800, alwynaubrey@earthlink.net wrote:
(snip)
>Additionally, one of the manufacturers told me that most consumers
>buying these smaller generators (under 8KW) generally "have no idea
>of what to do with them once they've got them."
>
>The problems come from under-estimating the actual power needs of
>your home, according to the manufactureres, causing the generators
>to run for lengthy periods of time, then prematurely fail, while
>simultaneously causing damage to underpowered appliances.
Amateurs and guns don't mix in time of war. Guns kill. That's why the Army spends lots of time and money training foot soldiers for battle.
Amateurs and alcohol don't mix on New Years Eve. Drunk drivers kill. That's why I generally party at home.
Amateurs and electricity don't mix any time. Electricity kills (ask Ted Bundy). That's why power companies such as Snohomish PUD (Washington State) are scared to death of "amateurs" running to Home Depot and buying a generator for *any* perceived power problem, Y2k or otherwise.
From the www.euy2k.com newsroom:
"Snohomish County, Wa. (January 30) - At a recent meeting of the Snohomish Public Utility District Commissioners, the commission was briefed on Y2k progress within the utility. Ms. Julee Cunningham of the Communications and Marketing Department also noted that Y2k community outreach efforts the PUD included distributing instructional brochures on portable generator safety throughout the county; offering generator safety classes; and running quarter page advertisements during early December in local newspapers on generator safety. Generator safety tips are also available on the SnoPUD website. "
Links to SnoPUD source documents are available from www.euy2k.com.
A couple of morals to the story for those new to home power:
1. Understand what you want (and expect) a genny to do before you run right out and buy one as an "emergency power source". Plan ahead of time and do it right; understand your essential power needs to properly size a genny. You might find that you're better off buying a few boxes of candles, extra flashlight batteries, and another cord of wood for the woodstove or fireplace. If you're buying a genny as an emergency backup power source, the object of the game is not to maintain your current lifestyle, but simply maintain minimal essential services (fridge, heat, some lights, water pump, sump pump, etc.).
2. Plan ahead of time. Don't expect to roll your genny out of Home Depot, gas it up, plug in a few extension cords, and maintain the lifestyle you currently have - not without burning down your house or ruining your genny within the first 20 hours of runtime. I suspect that's why many folks in here report low runtime hours before failure, even on the cheapie gennys.
3. It's been said in here many times - electricity can kill you or someone else if you don't do it right. Don't shave a few bucks by using some Rube Goldberg wiring arrangement on your main breaker box. I saw Square D Generator Transfer Switches for $129.00 apiece at Hechinger's (a northeast U.S. home center chain) over this past weekend. Cutler-Hammer makes them, as does GE and just about every other load center manufacturer.
-- Rick Cowles (rcowles@waterw.com), February 01, 1999
Answers
Rick,
I showed my husband the post about "rolling your own". We bought a diesel generator and he just got a transfer switch. He wanted me to ask you this question so I'll just quote it:
"I'm an electrical engineer and have owned an electrical contracting business for over 20 years. I have priced transfer switches and have found that for a 200A load, and 100 Amp transfer load the price is about $350.00. What are the specs on the Square D version you found out Hechinger's. I'm concerned it may be a little light for a house."
Thanks
-- Linda (urloved@hotmail.com), February 01, 1999.
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All,
Here's another useful link for those "rolling their own";
209.52.183.182
I'd like to know about that low cost transfer switch myself.
Steve
-- Steve Kube (realsure@perigee.net), February 01, 1999.
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After suffering through several days without power during the winter in the mountains, I bought a generator, and installed it with a transfer switch. My local electrical supplier only had the large economy size (200 amp, GE) switch, for $350.
But, I was only putting in a 3500 watt generator, to run my furnace, pump, a few lights and a microwave. I didn't need a 200 amp switch, and indeed -- I did not wire it as a whole house switch:
a. pick off the 220 that originally went to the pump, use this as the transfer switch input.
b. wire the switch output to a secondary breaker box, and feed only a few circuits -- mentioned above -- from that box.
Those circuits no longer go through the main breaker, only the secondary braker box that uses either utility power or generator power as the input.
That's exactly how the low priced models operate, except that they include the secondary breaker box. Lowes's, for instance has a model that has the gen transfer switch and four (4) circuits. Not enough to do the entire house, but as Rick noted, that's not the idea of the program.
-- De (dealton@concentric.net), February 03, 1999.
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