TriggerFan
Guest
How powerful are your gens Steve? I am considering the Predator 8750 CARB as the 3500 Super Quiet Inverter may not be enough for my needs.
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Extreme Weather Prepardness (1 Viewer)
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OP
OP
One is 5700w and the other is 5000w on gasoline. I'm thinking about adding a dual fuel kit to them so I run them off of NG which will lower the output some.
I'm really glad you asked this question and started this thread. With 3 named storms and it only being 11 days into the official hurricane season I've been thinking about this a lot.
My power went out 2 weeks ago when those nasty storms came through on a Wednesday evening that included a tornado. When I investigated why the power went out we discovered a tree had fallen 2 houses down and broke the line. That night I asked around with all of my friends and borrowed 2 generators. As luck would have it neither of them would start. The next morning I purchased a 6500 watt generator. I was able to power everything on my aquarium including all of my lights except the 2 metal halides. I was also able to power the cable modem, routers, 2 fridges, a freezer, a room AC unit (120V), floor fan, and a sleep machine. I'm pretty sure I had power to spare. Due to me working from home I had kept my house cooled to 72 during the day so my aquarium actually dropped from 79 to 76 degrees and was just approaching 79 degrees when my power came back on a day later.
I didn't live in my current house during Hurricane Ike but the previous owners told me they were without power for 2 weeks. So even though I didn't have a temperature problem 2 weeks ago I am concerned if power goes out for longer than a day. I looked into an aquarium chiller for my 72 gallon aquarium. These things are stupidly priced for as little heat as they remove for as expensive as they are. Room AC units are half the price and can easily keep an entire room cool. I may end up going the room AC route and somehow ducting the waste heat outside. What are other folks doing to keep their aquariums cool long term if running a generator that isn't powerful enough to run a house AC unit? Aquarium chillers seem like an uneconomical way to go.
My power outage 2 weeks ago has also made me realize that I need to make a spreadsheet to track the power draw of all of the things I wish to run off of the generator. My new generator has two 20 amp circuits and two 30 amp circuits and it occurred to me if I ran a 100 amps (or even 80% of that) I would exceed 6500 watts. So I really need to understand what my power draw is.
Lastly, my plan to make sure my generator is operational when I need it is to start it once a month and let it run for a few minutes during the months from June to November, keep fuel stabilizer in the fuel, and then follow the manufacturer's directions for storing it long term. They suggest you drain the fuel via the carburetor drain plug, remove the spark plug and add a little bit of oil to the top of the piston, and then crank it 3 times. Can anyone think of anything else I should do to ensure my generator stays functional?
What else have I not thought of??
My power went out 2 weeks ago when those nasty storms came through on a Wednesday evening that included a tornado. When I investigated why the power went out we discovered a tree had fallen 2 houses down and broke the line. That night I asked around with all of my friends and borrowed 2 generators. As luck would have it neither of them would start. The next morning I purchased a 6500 watt generator. I was able to power everything on my aquarium including all of my lights except the 2 metal halides. I was also able to power the cable modem, routers, 2 fridges, a freezer, a room AC unit (120V), floor fan, and a sleep machine. I'm pretty sure I had power to spare. Due to me working from home I had kept my house cooled to 72 during the day so my aquarium actually dropped from 79 to 76 degrees and was just approaching 79 degrees when my power came back on a day later.
I didn't live in my current house during Hurricane Ike but the previous owners told me they were without power for 2 weeks. So even though I didn't have a temperature problem 2 weeks ago I am concerned if power goes out for longer than a day. I looked into an aquarium chiller for my 72 gallon aquarium. These things are stupidly priced for as little heat as they remove for as expensive as they are. Room AC units are half the price and can easily keep an entire room cool. I may end up going the room AC route and somehow ducting the waste heat outside. What are other folks doing to keep their aquariums cool long term if running a generator that isn't powerful enough to run a house AC unit? Aquarium chillers seem like an uneconomical way to go.
My power outage 2 weeks ago has also made me realize that I need to make a spreadsheet to track the power draw of all of the things I wish to run off of the generator. My new generator has two 20 amp circuits and two 30 amp circuits and it occurred to me if I ran a 100 amps (or even 80% of that) I would exceed 6500 watts. So I really need to understand what my power draw is.
Lastly, my plan to make sure my generator is operational when I need it is to start it once a month and let it run for a few minutes during the months from June to November, keep fuel stabilizer in the fuel, and then follow the manufacturer's directions for storing it long term. They suggest you drain the fuel via the carburetor drain plug, remove the spark plug and add a little bit of oil to the top of the piston, and then crank it 3 times. Can anyone think of anything else I should do to ensure my generator stays functional?
What else have I not thought of??
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I would love to add something like this to my house. I may reach out to my electrical guy and have him do something like this. How big is the generator to power this all?I did have my electrician come in a put this plug on the outside of my house so I could plug the generator straight into the house. My generator is strong enough to either run the entire house without the a/c on.... or run just the a/c .. so I might just have to rotate if the power goes out for too long. I’ve lived here over 15 yrs and the only time it’s gone out unplanned is during IKE and that only lasted about 20mins. Not sure it’s worth investing any more money.
I bought a generator for Harvey (2017), but have never started it.... it’s still in the box. I suppose I should go ahead and try it out to make sure it works. Otherwise, frozen bottles of rodi, an Icecap battery backup for my larger Jebao wavemaker -should run it for over a day, and a couple of battery bubblers and digital thermometers. I expect if my power goes out for an extended period, I’ll be babysitting the tank pretty much constantly, either by manually oxygenating, cooling, etc., or monitoring the generator.
OP
OP
Thats why I tagged you last night after getting the one you borrowed running.
RobertP
Guest
I have a Yamaha 2800 watt inverter generator and a cheapo harbor freight 4000w genny for dirty power. Cant do much about the temp but I bet that will be an issue as well.
For you guys that have generators I recommend you run the carbs out of fuel and drain the tank. Running the generator weekly/monthly is nice if you think a power outage is imminent. However, fuel starts going bad after 30 days and can turn to gel in a few months. I highly recommend Stabil to help slow that process but it does not stop it from breaking down. So how do you do that? If you have a fuel shutoff then run the engine until it shuts off with the fuel off. If you dont have a fuel shutoff, then try to drain all the fuel out of the tank and then run it until it dies. Why do this? Well unless your generator is fuel injected (most are carbs) you have fuel sitting in the carb bowl. This will break down into a gel and will gum up all the carb jets. Ask me how I know!?!? But this CAN be repaired with a little work. The point is you do not want to have to do this when your tank is off and no flow is running over your corals.
Then drain the fuel tank! If the genny fuel tank is metal is can corrode! Did you read the part about the fuel breaking down? Well it starts breaking down and with our high humidity in southeast Texas water gets in there and now you have a rusty tank. This happens faster on cheap generators...yes, it happened on my cheap HF genny. Had to change the petcock but got it cleaned up enough to work again.
If you run the carbs dry and drain the tank then in a disaster, you simply add fuel and it should start right up. Of course I did not mention oil but I am assuming you verified the engine had the right amount of oil. Never put too much oil in it...that is very bad too.
Do you keep gas cans full of fuel? Remember that fuel has a life so marking them with a date you filled it up is a good idea. My mower uses enough fuel that it doesn't sit around my house more than a couple weeks. But in the winter this is an issue for all of us. Generally when my fuel cans have gas that is over 30 days old then it goes into my wife's car and I fill the tanks back up again.
Just something to think about.
For you guys that have generators I recommend you run the carbs out of fuel and drain the tank. Running the generator weekly/monthly is nice if you think a power outage is imminent. However, fuel starts going bad after 30 days and can turn to gel in a few months. I highly recommend Stabil to help slow that process but it does not stop it from breaking down. So how do you do that? If you have a fuel shutoff then run the engine until it shuts off with the fuel off. If you dont have a fuel shutoff, then try to drain all the fuel out of the tank and then run it until it dies. Why do this? Well unless your generator is fuel injected (most are carbs) you have fuel sitting in the carb bowl. This will break down into a gel and will gum up all the carb jets. Ask me how I know!?!? But this CAN be repaired with a little work. The point is you do not want to have to do this when your tank is off and no flow is running over your corals.
Then drain the fuel tank! If the genny fuel tank is metal is can corrode! Did you read the part about the fuel breaking down? Well it starts breaking down and with our high humidity in southeast Texas water gets in there and now you have a rusty tank. This happens faster on cheap generators...yes, it happened on my cheap HF genny. Had to change the petcock but got it cleaned up enough to work again.
If you run the carbs dry and drain the tank then in a disaster, you simply add fuel and it should start right up. Of course I did not mention oil but I am assuming you verified the engine had the right amount of oil. Never put too much oil in it...that is very bad too.
Do you keep gas cans full of fuel? Remember that fuel has a life so marking them with a date you filled it up is a good idea. My mower uses enough fuel that it doesn't sit around my house more than a couple weeks. But in the winter this is an issue for all of us. Generally when my fuel cans have gas that is over 30 days old then it goes into my wife's car and I fill the tanks back up again.
Just something to think about.
I 100% agree with @RobertP about not letting fuel sit. But so like for my dirtbikes they are both 2 stroke, and we run bucees ethanol free fuel and guilty as charged some times we don’t ride for a few months and always when I pull the carbs after it sitting for awhile the fuel is still liquid fuel. So idk if y’all can run ethanol free fuel in your gennies, but worth a look. I think 
OP
OP
Yep ethanol sucks. one of the dumbest epa rules of all time.
Unless you are forced induction... My turbo car loves E85... No knock under 20+ psi.
RobertP
Guest
Yes, get ethanol free gas when you can. Ethanol is HORRIBLE to small engines. It eats the rubber seals in the carbs so yet another reason not to let it sit in there. I always run my gennys dry.
Stabil does help a little so if you have no choice then add stabil to the fuel.
Stabil does help a little so if you have no choice then add stabil to the fuel.
TriggerFan
Guest
Well..bear with my ignorance... I had no idea Bucees has ethanol-free gas! I will get the gas for mine from now on.
reeftopia
Supporting Member
Gregg was right about starting it often. best case scenario is 10 min weekly. My generac does run 10 min weekly and I try to start my portable
at least every couple weeks. My 17kw runs everything even with all the aquariums and ponds I have.
at least every couple weeks. My 17kw runs everything even with all the aquariums and ponds I have.
It’s quite expensive last time I checked it was $2.44 a gallon. I’ve seen it hit almost $3.50 last summer. But hey it’s really good! My Dirtbikes love it and my dads mustang gt runs pretty good with it!
OP
OP
Ethanol is horrible for any engine. It needs to remain in liquor and as a starchy vegetable on the dinner table.
I have replaced two carburetors on two different generators now. Yes I do run them dry when not in use. But over time it just ruins them.
TX_Punisher
Supporting Member
Got to have a genny on the gulf coast. Or go baller style and put in a whole house unit with transfer switch powered by ng.
I do not have a generator do yall think i should get one somehow
As much as I would want one, I don’t see the urge in my case, i almost never lose power and when I do it would be for 10-20 mins max. All I do Is plug in my reefbreedera rpm wave makers into a portable battery bank, and throw an airstone in the sump and the display. @Grant Carter i would say the very minimum have a battery powered airstone in the event a power outage happens. But if you convince your parents that you need a genny there’s nothing wrong with that!
