Generators | Page 8 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Generators

mimico_polak said:
How are you using the EV for power?
Click to expand...

Big tripp-lite pure sine inverter I removed from our 5th wheel before selling it.

Quick trip to Princess auto a few years ago for two 36" lengths of heavy gauge welding cord, 2 alligator clamps (designed for booster cables) and wired it up for a "quick connect" to any 12V battery.

Then you just ensure the EV is charged up before any impending storm. In the case of the Volt, gassed up as well.

If/when you need power, when the Volt is on the DC to DC converter is capable of keeping up with the inverter up to about 1800-1900w of consumption.

In turn the car on, turn off all the lights and dim the dash down as low as possible (so it doesn't appear to be on to passers-by), and then a rubber band on the shift lever button stops it from powering-off after an hour.

The car then automatically keeps the 12v battery in the back charged up as the inverter uses power.

Once the traction battery reaches zero, the engine will then start (and cycle on and off) and maintain things that way.

Between both Volts we have about 25kwh ready to go at any point in time. With the Ioniq previously, we'd have had about 40kwh.

But with a full tank of gas we could theoretically power the house for probably 2-5 days easily from each car depending on how power hungry we wanted to be.
 
Opening an old thread....has anyone here installed a "Power bank" type battery backup for their house?

My wife complains about our noisy portable gas Generac generator as the back-up. (Manual Transfer Switch).

Looking for alternative solutions/or quieter generator options.
 
Sky_high said:
Opening an old thread....has anyone here installed a "Power bank" type battery backup for their house?

My wife complains about our noisy portable gas Generac generator as the back-up. (Manual Transfer Switch).

Looking for alternative solutions/or quieter generator options.
Click to expand...
They are a great concept. ESA clamped down really hard on them with a ton of regulations. While I'm not going to say the regulations are completely out to lunch, they did substantially limit the cost-effective alternatives. No batteries below grade, entire system must be a commercial packaged and certified system etc. I think there is something in there too about batteries needing to be outside of conditioned space. If you dig around a bit you can find the pdf with the rules.

Since the cost-effective solutions have been eliminated and commercial solutions (powerwall and competitors) have very high cost, a good middle ground is an EV with bi-directional charging. Some kias do this. It costs more than a power wall but you get an EV and home battery system that works most of the time.

As for quieter generator, any invertor generator is a huge improvement. Honda has a 5.5 kw continuous (marketed at 7 kw). If you want lots more power and have space multiquip whisperwatt packaged units are pretty quiet but I assume very expensive.
 
Last edited:
Sky_high said:
Opening an old thread....has anyone here installed a "Power bank" type battery backup for their house?

My wife complains about our noisy portable gas Generac generator as the back-up. (Manual Transfer Switch).

Looking for alternative solutions/or quieter generator options.
Click to expand...

other than an inverter generator which is much quieter, something like this is your best bet.

EcoFlow Whole-Home Backup Power Solutions | EcoFlow CA

Keep your family safe and your home running smoothly during any outage with our affordable whole-home backup power solutions.
www.ecoflow.com www.ecoflow.com
 
An inverter generator is the way to go, no question. Cheap open frame contractor style generators are certainly cost effective, but yeah, noisy as hell.

If you're regularly needing backup, then spending the money on an inverter generator is the way to go. Take a hard look at the Champion lineup as they're darned good generatos - I've owned more than a few over the years. On a decibel-to-decibel comparison they're not quite as quiet as the Honda or Yamaha options, but notably less expensive, and reliable.

Also consider how many watts you really need. If you have baseboard heating or whatever, and also want to run all your heavy 240v appliances or things like your central AC, that's going to be a lot different need than just wanting to run the fridge/freezer, and power some basic lights, internet, etc. For the latter, honestly, a 2000/3000w generator will get the job done at a lot lower cost than a 10kw monster inverter. People typically way overestimate their needs when it comes to backup power, unless you absolutely insist on living like the grid is on, when the grid is out.

If the backup is only an occasional thing for once or twice a hear and you can't justify the cost of an inverter vs what you have, well, there are simpler and cheaper solutions.
 
An "Inverter" is akin to the alternator on your car, which reacts to the load you put on it, more load? The thing revs up to handle it. Less load, it idles down.
The old style generator, you set the RPM and it chugs away, outputting what ever the revs tell it to, wasting tons of energy.
So unless you have a non-changing load (you don't) an inverter is the way to go. Batteries and an inverter is even better... but then you get into charge controllers... but if you have charge controllers adding solar or wind power is easier... just tie them into the controllers
The price of inverters has dropped considerably, so unless I was trying to power a known base load, it would be an inverter
 
This is a pretty good option for those that already have at least a 5000W generator, a 7500W would be even better. I’ve e installed a few of them over the years, installation takes about 5 minutes. The last time I priced one they were about $1500. They use to be about $1100 but like everything else they’ve gone up. Unfortunately, Toronto Hydro charges $800 for an isolation to do the install, Hydro 1 in rural areas does not.
 
Last edited:
I have a real simple 5kw setup.

5kw runs 2 fridges and furnace, and a single plate induction burner, internet, laptop and 1 tv. . I can flick off shut main breaker to disconnect with the grid, then all other non essential breakers to prevent overload.

I live in the urban part of the GTA. In 40 years there has never been more than 12 hours outage. I can live with a cheap noisy genny in an emergency.
 
Mad Mike said:
I have a real simple 5kw setup.

5kw runs 2 fridges and furnace, and a single plate induction burner, internet, laptop and 1 tv. . I can flick off shut main breaker to disconnect with the grid, then all other non essential breakers to prevent overload.

I live in the urban part of the GTA. In 40 years there has never been more than 12 hours outage. I can live with a cheap noisy genny in an emergency.
Click to expand...
How long were you out during the Christmas outage almost a decade ago? We were in a gta suburb and were close to five days iirc. We had no generator at the time but did have an old school water heater that functioned without electricity. Filling sinks and tubs three times a day meant house was still in upper 50's when power returned.
 
Interesting solution GreyGhost. I was was one of the unfortunates that had power turned back on last. At least 10 days out without power. I stayed as long as I could using a woodburning stove that only warmed a small area. After 2 days I gave up and went to a relatives place.

I know of a few people that are using the ecoflow batteries . 3 of them linked together. They also have the small backup generator thats comes with the system Not sure how they set the system up. But they charge the batteries at night when power is cheaper. Then during heavy load days they switch over to batteries. Its a way to help recover some costs.
 
Mad Mike said:
I have a real simple 5kw setup.

5kw runs 2 fridges and furnace, and a single plate induction burner, internet, laptop and 1 tv. . I can flick off shut main breaker to disconnect with the grid, then all other non essential breakers to prevent overload.

I live in the urban part of the GTA. In 40 years there has never been more than 12 hours outage. I can live with a cheap noisy genny in an emergency.
Click to expand...
The first step is defining the use. Is it a genuine EMERGENCY generator or a standby generator?

If life or limb is at stake it's an emergency. That could include numerous medical devices from CPAP to oxygen concentrators.

Standby is subjective. In the summer cautious use of resources shouldn't require a lot, if any generation. Food loss is a concern but one can cook on a BBQ, treating it like a stove top. Efficiency sucks but for a day it works.

In winter, heat is a problem and circuit for a furnace would be nice. Critical thinking is your biggest asset.

My bother had a problem in that he had a sump and in a thunderstorm, if power went out his basement would become a wading pool. One 1500 watt circuit would take care of the pump and a light bulb or two. To equal his normal 100 amp service would be 24,000 watts. While not an immediate life or death situation, mold remediation costs could make an appropriate generator a good investment.

Big generators can be relatively quiet because they're past the point of making them light and portable so sound dampening isn't a major hurdle.
 
250R-ICE said:
Interesting solution GreyGhost. I was was one of the unfortunates that had power turned back on last. At least 10 days out without power. I stayed as long as I could using a woodburning stove that only warmed a small area. After 2 days I gave up and went to a relatives place.

I know of a few people that are using the ecoflow batteries . 3 of them linked together. They also have the small backup generator thats comes with the system Not sure how they set the system up. But they charge the batteries at night when power is cheaper. Then during heavy load days they switch over to batteries. Its a way to help recover some costs.
Click to expand...
IIRC water heater was about 50K btu. If you didn't care about the water bill and were ok with humidity climbing in your house, getting more air contact by running a shower could have kept the house warmer.

I miss having dumb appliances that work without electricity. The gas stove in this house is dumb enough thankfully. Obviously it can't light itself but it also has no brains so if you manually light it, it happily continues burning. I have battery powered CO detectors to make sure things don't go wrong as obviously that is burning inside unvented. On a long power outage, I'd probably run the stove most of the time for base heat and fire up the generator a few times a day for an hour to allow fridge and furnace to get to temp.
 
I was thinking of getting one of these for the furnace, since the switch box is a double with a single switch in it. Would it work?
613AcdjBVXL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg
 
Baggsy said:
I was thinking of getting one of these for the furnace, since the switch box is a double with a single switch in it. Would it work?
613AcdjBVXL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg
Click to expand...
Looks like it would work. Is it approved/rated? They spelled dimension wrong, that's not a good start.
 
GreyGhost said:
Looks like it would work. Is it approved/rated? They spelled dimension wrong, that's not a good start.
Click to expand...
Worse than a receptacle cover or ceiling, with a hole drilled into it, to allow a pigtail to hang out?
61J0332IhnL.jpg


There's another that would have to be surface mounted that includes a light to show that your on generator power.
 
GreyGhost said:
How long were you out during the Christmas outage almost a decade ago? We were in a gta suburb and were close to five days iirc. We had no generator at the time but did have an old school water heater that functioned without electricity. Filling sinks and tubs three times a day meant house was still in upper 50's when power returned.
Click to expand...
4 hours if I remember correctly. I had a portable 2kw generator at the time, I wasn’t out long enough to setup. In fact, I’ve never needed to run on a genie at home in 40 years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom