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Posted by Rich on March 29, 2008, 6:02 pm
> Rich wrote:
>> I'm in the market for a portable generator and just need it to run the
>> fridge the furnace and just small things after that. I went on a few web
>> sites and they seem to be geared to running your whole house instead of
>> just a few things to get past the storm or what ever. I live SW of
>> Chicago and the longest I've been without power was 3 days when a tornado
>> came through. I would like to buy one that would get me by for a day or
>> two at the most and only run the basics. What I'm having trouble with is
>> sizing the unit to my needs. Sump pump, furnace, fridge and some lighting
>> but I have all compact fluorescents.
>>
>> Thanks for any advice, especially from someone that has this basic setup,
>> Rich
>>
>>
> How do you expect to connect into the circuits of these few things?
> The easiest way is to plug into your dryer outlet and back feed to your
> electrical box (with the mains off of course). That way everything will
> run normally as always. A 5000 watt generator should do you. None of them
> will run for 2 or 3 days without refueling. You'll have to gas it up every
> day if you don't run it all night. Now you can get a small diesel
> generator and hook it up to your oil tank and it would run until the tank
> is empty. That will cost you much more. 5kw will give you about 30 amps,
> the rating of your dryer cable and breaker. In the US anyway.
>
> --
> Blattus Slafaly ? 3 :) 7/8
Thanks I didn't mean to run 2-3 days without refueling I meant the longest
outage I've seen is that and prepare for that. The online guides I saw
seemed to be geared toward bigger switch over units. I planned on making an
extension cord with male on both ends and back feeding the system but as you
pointed out doing this at 220 would make more sense as I don't have to make
sure or put everything I want to power on one leg of the 110, 220 would do
this for me.
5K or more it is then and I think I'll run that 220 line to the garage after
all and back feed with the main off to the whole house. I have all my
expensive electronic devices on UPS's already so they should be OK with the
transition I just have to see how it all works when needed.
Thanks for the help, Rich
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