Comments on: Being on backup generator power for over 24 hours

By: Paul Corsa

Paul Corsa — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 10:12:20 +0000

I’m glad to hear your back up system functioned as designed. Several other things most people forget when thinking of the cost of a system: 1)what it’d cost you to stay elsewhere if you couldn’t live at home without power; 2)the cost of replacing perishables lost in freezers and refrigerators; and 3) a neighborhood without power is more vulnerable to thieves who assume you may have moved to a hotel for the duration of the outage.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:49:04 +0000

I live in Wisconsin and we just got pounded by rain – it actually made the network news. We made it through ok, but I realized that I was a power outage away from disaster. If the power would have went out, my sump pump would not run and my basement would have flooded. Nice to see that the company is located in Whitewater Wisconsin. Whitewater – thats what was flowing down my street yesterday!

By: William Chinn

William Chinn — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:26:28 +0000

and how many neighbors showed up at your doorstep?

By: Joe Colson

Joe Colson — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:13:48 +0000

I installed both a natural gas powered backup generator and an APC UPS several years ago for exactly the same reason. We live in an area that is prone to hurricanes and violent thunderstorms, so power outages and power surges are not unusual. Peace of mind – priceless!!

By: William Beem

William Beem — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:02:32 +0000

Very interesting. I’m another Floridian who thought of getting a backup generator for the house with the same kind of automation you mention, but I never thought of running it from natural gas. That seams like it could eliminate some maintenance compared to a regular gas/diesel engine generator.

Thanks for sharing the idea, and good luck with that downed branch.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:00:45 +0000

I’ve never even thought of a natural gas backup generator! I really want one of those now. Though I did enjoy the blackout of 2003 (got some time off work and was able to see the stars in the city) I hate in the middle of the night when the power goes out and my ups beeps every couple of seconds until I go down and turn it off altogether.. Hmm wonder where I can get one of these in Canada…

By: Alan Valek

Alan Valek — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:49:28 +0000

Nice, thanks Terry. This is always been one of those boring, “I’ll get around to it someday” subjects and you reminded me that hurricane season is upon us and that time is now ha! I have a Mac Pro / Cinema / Drobo / printer, so I’m guessing I’ll get one in the $200-$300 range, we’ll see. Thanks again!

By: terrywhite

terrywhite — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:43:29 +0000

It boils down to two things. 1) the load you have on it and 2) how much backup time you want. So bigger/more expensive can usually handle more devices for a longer battery time. Also APC has or had a policy that if your gear gets fried while plugged into their UPS, they would replace it. In other words they were that confident of their protection.

By: Alan Valek

Alan Valek — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:40:09 +0000

I actually just moved to Texas and my father -in-law was telling me I should get one of these because of the crazy lightning storms here where the power just goes out. I’ve looked at those APC ones before but didn’t know which one to get. I’m guessing just get the most expensive no? I know higher the Joules the better ya? But do you need one that’s $300-$500 or if lightning strikes hard they still won’t do anything?

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:27:17 +0000

My dad thinks I should get one. Being in Florida and prone to hurricanes. But we have been fortunate. I won’t say more lest I jinx myself.

Maybe when I am done buying all the other must-have gadgets…