[johncanfield]

If the generator has control electronics be certain it is still supported.

 

[johncanfield]

For those on the fence about a whole house generator, ours has given me a sense of peace - it's about being independent and prepared for short term emergencies. In our case we are totally prepared to be completely isolated for at least three months. It's quite liberating.

 

[johncanfield]

Yikes. That's an expensive fuel bill. About 2500 gal or so?

13 kw diesel at 1800 rpm, we are averaging about 0.7 gph running the house and well pump (400' deep well.) 100 gallon base tank and I have a 300 gallon bulk tank.

 

[johncanfield]

400 gal x .7 gal/hr = 280 hrs of run time

280 hrs ÷ 24hrs/day = 12 days of fuel.

I'm missing the 3 months completely isolated part. Are you going to ration the run time to stretch it to 90 days?

Exactly. We can maintain quality of life running the generator 4 to 8 hours a day (or less) in a catastrophic situation All we really need for survival is water so we could just run the generator to refill our 2,000 gallon water storage tank from the well.

We have plenty of long life food available that isn't refrigerated if we lost the fridges and freezer. Another factor is I haven't calibrated the fuel tank gauge so the 0.7 gph fuel burn is a tentative number. Oh, our stove, clothes dryer, water heater and emergency heat is propane, we have a 500 gallon LP tank and burn about 150 gallons a year.

So I think I have most bases well covered for 90 days or longer.