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Everything you should know about standby generators

Power Outages – The need for a generator

Understanding what causes power outages can help you decide whether you need a generator or not. Power outages can happen at any time and can last for a few seconds to a few days. According to multiple sources, bad weather and trees are the leading cause of power outages, followed by equipment failure. Anyone who has lived through a blizzard or hurricane can attest to the damage caused when trees fall on power lines. Living in a heavily wooded area, such as the Catskills, Poconos, or Skylands, lends itself to the opportunity to have more significant tree damage and longer power outages. Below are the top 5 things you need to know regarding a generator.

Generator Size

What do you want to run – Whole house or a few appliances?

A standby or portable generators do basically the same thing – produce electricity. The difference is the amount of electricity they can generate. Both require proper household wiring including a double pole, double throw safety switch to prevent back feeding electricity into the power grid.

If you are happy to run a few lights and some receptacles, then a portable generator might be suitable. The larger the portable generator, the more appliances you can operate. Typically, a portable generator must be manually started. This means that you must be home in order to turn the generator on. Portable generators can be started with a push button attached to a battery or pull started with a cord.

Standby or whole house generators provide enough electricity to run an entire home. This includes heat, lighting, well pumps, receptacles, etc. They start automatically – as soon as they sense that power has been lost. You are not required to be at the location for the generator to operate.

The noticeable difference between the two types is price. Both the generator and the installation of the standby or whole house product are significantly more than the portable generator.
Propane Tank Size

What size propane tank do I need to run my propane generator?

There are a lot of factors that come into play when sizing a propane tank to run a generator. These include: square footage of home; propane appliances to be used during an outage; geographical location of home (colder climates need bigger tanks); total BTU load of heating system; and generator size.

Propane tanks are only filled to 80% of capacity to allow for expansion of the propane. It will expand when heated – either by sun or outdoor temperature. Propane expands 17 times more than water over the same temperature increase.

Sizing for Vaporization: What is vaporization?

Vaporization is the process of a liquid being converted into a gas (or vapor). As propane boils, it is in the process of vaporizing. Water boils at 212°F and converts to a vapor or more commonly known as steam. Propane works similarly but at a much lower boiling point (-44°F). Vaporization is affected and influenced by the size (surface area) of the propane tank.

For more information on vaporization, check out this article.
For any propane appliance to work, vaporization must occur, and the amount of vaporization rate must be enough to deliver the required amount of propane. Tank size along with tank surface area come into play. If the tank isn't large enough to supply enough vapor, the appliances will not operate properly or will not operate.
How long can a generator run?
Generator Maintenance

Run your generator a few times per year – you may have heard someone say that you need to periodically “exercise” your generator. That means that you should turn it on and allow it to run. There seems to be a lot of thoughts on how long and how often you should do this.

                A stand-by whole house generator may be programmed to run without a load between once a week and once a month. Testing with a load (switching the generator to run appliances) should be done at least on a quarterly basis. The idea is to make sure that everything operates accordingly when you need it.

                Change the oil – it is recommended that you change the oil every 100 hours of use or once per year. Make sure you check the oil in the generator if you are running it for long periods of time and also keep a spare quart of oil on hand in case your unit gets low.

                The Authorized Services of New England (ASNE) offers a great blog post on Standby Generator Maintenance. View the post here. The blog contains maintenance items you can do yourself, such as keeping the unit and the surrounding area clean and debris free, as well as processes that you should have completed by a professional.
Life Expectancy of a Generator