Generator Backup

The first summer we lived here, there were three power outages which left me wondering if this was going to be a ‘normal’ thing during the hot summer months. So, I went to work and added a generator back-up system to the electrical system.

I added a dedicated circuit with breaker and a pigtail connection box. I purchased a large gas generator and made a connection cable to run between the generator and panel. I then purchased a generator large enough to keep the house going, AC and all.

Basically, if there were to be an outage, I would simply flip a few breakers, plug the generator in to the panel, and start it up. All tested well.

Fortunately, for the next 10 years we never experienced and outage and the system, as it was intended, was never needed. Sadly, but a good thing, on the 11th year I got my chance to pull it out and fire it up. I will say I was very pleased that it worked as prescribed, however, over those 10 years we had added a few appliances and now the generator wasn’t big enough to keep the whole house humming. So, I bought a bigger generator to cover our current demands.

Shortly after that, we added the solar system and thankfully we were able to keep the backup generator system installed. This took a bit of negotiating with the solar folks, but in the end all was okayed. With the new solar system, we also upgraded our electric service to 200A. So, there’s lots of power here to run just about anything.

Now, the process of switching over and back requires and extra step, but, ultimately still good. Since that time, I had put the backup system in ‘action’ once for no more than 30 minutes. It was just good to know it worked.

Just a note that I have most of the important appliances; computers, TV, audio, internet on battery backup systems so that I would have time to connect up before everything goes down. These are great especially with the annoying brown outs or shorted lived power outages.

I also welded a steel enclosure to store it more efficiently in the the garage.

I will certainly help the new owner on sizing a suitable generator and the process of using it.