Lisa@Lisaturner.com
There are lots of reasons we lose power to our home. Equipment or vehicles running into power lines; transformers being hit by lightning; high winds finding the weak link in the transmission network, digging in the wrong place and storms overpowering the electrical grid. We watched the news as people in Texas grappled with unprecedented cold temperatures and the resulting inability of the electrical grid to keep up.
It’s remarkable that the power is as reliable as it is here in the mountains. When it does goes out, without information on exactly when it will return can be concerning. I don’t mind a cold shower from time to time, but with the well pump also on the grid, it becomes a more serious situation without water.
Do you have a plan?
There are several ways to set up an emergency power plan. The difference is price and convenience and to some degree, safety. The least expensive route is purchasing a small portable generator. These units come in all shapes and sizes, and deserve your research effort to make sure you get what you want and need. A great place to find this information is: www.ConsumerReports.org, which does not accept advertising, so they are unbiased in their testing.
Advantages to portable generators include minimal set up time and low cost to purchase. They can be transported in your truck to other areas and no connection to your house power is necessary or allowed.
Drawbacks to using portable generators include having to keep the unit ready to go, running power cords to appliances, having to keep the unit outside — never run a portable generator inside your home, putting up with the noise and they require a gasoline supply.
The other issue with portables is that they are not designed to run large appliances, such as your water heater, electric stovetop, or furnace. They just don’t have juice to handle these. That’s fine if you don’t mind being in camping mode for the duration of the outage.
The other way to go is to save up your nickels for a whole-house permanent generator. Professional installation is straightforward and the unit connects to your home’s power panel and automatically switches on when the power fails. The highest selling model in both the Kohler and Generac lines is the 20K kilowatt model which can power an entire 2,500 square foot home with a 200-Amp service panel. This means the meat stays frozen, the heat or AC stays on and there is plenty of hot water.
The units are not cheap, running about $7,000 installed. The next time the power goes out for days, you might not regret the stretch. You can also choose a lower powered standby unit and then choose what you want to power in your home. Less convenience but less costly.
Whole house generators run on natural gas or propane; they are quieter than the portables and maintenance is low. If you’ve got a much larger home to power — 5,000 square feet or more — then you’ll need to step up to a liquid cooled unit with more power.
If you are building a home, seriously consider what your backup power plan will be. It will be less expensive to install the equipment as the home is going up.
Local columnist Lisa Turner is a manufacturing engineer, contractor and former home inspector. Read her past articles in: www.HouseKeysByLisaTurner.com. Email: Lisa@Lisaturner.com.