Back in the spring of 2007 I had a whole house natural gas backup generator installed. After the big black out of 2003 that took out the whole East Coast, I knew that I never wanted to be without power for an extended period of time again. Like many preventative measures, you sometimes never have the problem you're trying to prevent. I used to joke all the time that buying that generator was the best (and most expensive) insurance I've ever bought. Since I had the generator installed the power never went off for more than 5 minutes in 3 years. Well that was until last week. I had gone out to run a couple of errands and just as I was wrapping up my last stop the sky had turned very dark (should have taken a picture) and I could tell that it was about to pour down raining any minute. I made it to the car right before the big rain hit and drove home. I noticed that it seemed a little darker than usual, but just figured it was the very heavy rain. When I got home I noticed a huge tree had fallen on my lawn. Although I knew that I was going to have to pay someone to clear that thing, I was very thankful that it didn't hit anything like the house or a car.
I hit the button for the garage door and pulled into my garage. As soon as I stepped out of the car I could hear the generator running on the opposite side of the rear wall. I walked into the house and all was fine. The house was cool, the lights were on and it was like any other time. However, the entire street was without power. That's when I said, "I'm finally getting some use out of that generator!" The beauty of it is, if the power is out more than a few seconds, it fires up and switches over automatically. When the power returns, the generator switches back and turns off. I love this type of automation. Most of my important gear is on UPS backups (see below), so for the most part the batteries in those units handle the switch overs quite nicely.
The next day, the generator was still running. As a matter of fact the power wasn't restored until that next evening. Although I don't wish for power outages because as a gadget junkie, they suck big time, I gotta say this was the first one that I actually enjoyed š
My generator was installed by these guys.
For minor power disruptions I still highly recommend APC Battery Backup Units. These are not designed to power your electronics for extended periods of time. However, for your computers they will generally give you time to properly save your work and shut down. For other gadgets in your world (DVRs, Cable Modems, Routers, etc.), they'll preserve your settings and continue recording if the power is restored before the APC's battery dies.
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… š
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?
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.
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!
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…
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.
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!!
and how many neighbors showed up at your doorstep?
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!
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.