Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonglh
My wife would like to get one but we cannot get natural gas only propane here. The figures I have seen are for
5000 watts = 10hp = 100,000 BTU per hour or around 1 gallon of propane or natural gas
so for the 20,000 watt whole house that would be around 4 gal per hour
I forgot to mention my fuel storage plan did work out well. My original plan was to use the sea-foam to treat 10 gal of storage fuel in addition to the 30 gal I keep in my boat. We keep the deck boat at the marina now so I lost the 60 gal I had stored in it. I also had 20 gal, 10 gal, 10 gal, stored in my 3 tractors.
Since the entire western part of the state was without power and there was a 3 hour line to get gas at the station with a generator (when it wasn't out) I used my stored fuel. I used all but the 30 gal in the boat (because it is harder to extract) before gas became more available here.
Future plans will be to add a 3 way to the gas line of the boat to make it easier to drain. The height of the tractors makes it easy but the tank in the boat is down in the belly.
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If you have a septic tank.. consider methane. We used to heat and cook with methane on the ranch in Colorado back in the day.
There is also a catalog of items for those who live without electricity.. Lehman brothers I _think_ it is called. You can even buy refrigerators that operate on propane.
Another thought, My house in Key West is part of a 'compound'.. the cistern that was created for all two houses and two apts sits beneath it.. all the gutters in the compound lead to that one house. The cistern was 500 gallons.
One thing is very very important, even the B&S will die if you don't do a regular maintenance check on things like gaskets and such. I Have a Honda 2k generator here. I use it off the dock for the AC unit or to charge my batteries if needed. It is part of my 6 month maintenance check, and the big overall yearly check on everything mechanical on the boat, which I live on.
I have it in a file that I can print out and then highlight as each system and its various components are checked, and verified GTG. I keep records over each time I do this and what is replaced or fixed and why it needed that replacing.
It allows me to track what is worth keeping and what is potential dumpster food.
Might also consider wind or solar. Air X makes a decently priced land wind generator. Back in the 1930's in Miami solar water heat was all the rage.
I think there is some stuff on the web about their methods. Fairly simple... black coiled hose on the rooftops to a storage bin painted black.
Sounds like overall you did well though..
AM