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I FINALLY got a new generator yesterday!

oregano

oregano

entering peak crazy world
V.I.P Member
cummins.JPG


So yesterday morning I was telling my mom how on 1 December I would have $560 towards my new generator, and she asked me how much it was. I said I thought it was around $875. Finally I said that since I had nothing better to do I would drive to Farmers Supply in Grants Pass and check the price. She said that if it was still $875 that I could go ahead and buy it.

I get to Farmers and their store is all ripped up from a remodeling. "Generators? Yeah, those are out in Small Engine Repair and Rentals out back. I'll show you." So I tell the guy in Small Engine Repair what I'm looking for. "The small Cummins? I don't think we have any left. But the generators are over here in this shipping container. I'll show you." In the container are three 4500 watt and two 9500 watt generators. The 4500 watt is TWICE the price of the 2500.

So the guy says "I seem to remember sending a few small ones over to Cave Junction. I'll call them and ask." On the third extension try he gets somebody who says, yeah, there's ONE 2500 in Cave Junction, and they will hold it for me. So off I go south on US 199 for another 30 miles. (Grants Pass is about 70 miles from home.) I get to Illinois Valley Lumber as it's called and the guy shows me the 2500 watt generator, says he will take $50 off the price for me for driving all the way to Illinois Valley, and notes that I probably bought the last 2500 watt Cummins in all of Southern Oregon.

Final price: $829. (Retail turned out to be $879.)

So I finally have a decent generator for the summer. Cummins is an engine manufacturer, so this is likely a Cummins made engine instead of some crappy Chinese engine.
 
Excellent! I'm so glad you got the generator you wanted.

Could you please explain to me what this generator does? The only generators I am familiar are huge and use gasoline to generate electricity.
 
I've been thinking about getting a generator or possibly an inverter, since we always have power outages.but I know almost nothing about them,
 
That should be perfect for your house. Congratulations!

We have a huge Titan brand gasoline generator - like 9600 watts - that we use when the power goes out. If it's winter, we use the fireplace and a couple of small electric heaters to keep the house warm. If it's summer, we put two small A/C units in windows at each end of the house which keeps the house very cool. We've looked into those Generac natural gas or propane generators that automatically turn on when the electricity goes out, but our house is all electric and I'm not keen on having to install a propane tank or do any gas plumbing. We get by just fine.
 
Generators are good for emergency power during blackouts. You're only limited by how much fuel you have on hand.

Solar only works well if you drop thousands of dollars on panels and then on batteries. Even then, you're restricted somewhat by the season and the weather.

2500 watts will give the minimum necessary to keep one functioning in a power outage as long as you don't ask for too much. I associate it with a small motorhome or travel trailer. Also good for electric power if you are working off-site. Most heaters require electricity to run, even if they are oil or gas, so there's use in the cold of winter.
 
Au Naturel said:
You're only limited by how much fuel you have on hand.
Click to expand...
Ours [Generac] runs on natural gas, so that is generally not even a limit.
We have an automatic switch that fires it up when grid power is lost
and returns to grid power once restored.
There are propane versions, too.

We got the smallest whole-house unit. It will keep the gas furnace running during a winter blackout and refrigerator* and most other systems (of note, my CPAP).

The only systems not backed up are:
  • our washer & dryer,
  • our air conditioner &
  • our microwave.
But we can make do without them for the typically short periods involved.

*If it were not for the furnace & CPAP, this system would be too expensive compared to the maximum food at risk in a depowered fridge.
 
Last edited:
Reminder: I am off grid and rely mainly on solar right now. I have a wind turbine, but it is still on the ground where it landed a couple months ago when the pipe holding it broke off. I have a lithium iron phosphate (LiFePo4) battery for night time. Running an air conditioner off this battery is specifically forbidden by the company that makes the battery, apparently AC compressors and lithium batteries don't mix. So I need a generator for running the AC (5000btu unit) in the summer. I also use a generator occasionally in the winter if there are too many cloudy/windless days in a row, I have a plug in battery charger meant for truck batteries. For winter I use a small kerosene heater, I don't run it often to conserve fuel, so it gets pretty cold in here.
 
I have a Koehler 25,000 watt generator for backup power as electricity here goes out at least twice a year as power lines run through woods.
 
My sister has expensive horses. Her main pasture is surrounded by an electric fence, powered by a solar panel with a backup battery for nighttime. It works fine, according to her but a week of steady rain and overcast skies may get her to rethink her strategy.

She doesn't like barbed wire fences for her horses. Go figure. It's not like a zillion horses (and my three donkeys) can't live without injury in a pasture with barbed wire fencing. Those fences have worked just fine for over a hundred years. But she's adamant about not using barbed wire. I just try to stay in my lane!
 
Crossbreed said:
Ours [Generac] runs on natural gas, so that is generally not even a limit.
We have an automatic switch that fires it up when grid power is lost
and returns to grid power once restored.
There are propane versions, too.

We got the smallest whole-house unit. It will keep the gas furnace running during a winter blackout and refrigerator* and most other systems (of note, my CPAP).

The only systems not backed up are:
  • our washer & dryer,
  • our air conditioner &
  • our microwave.
But we can make do without them for the typically short periods involved.

*If it were not for the furnace & CPAP, this system would be too expensive compared to the maximum food at risk in a depowered fridge.
Click to expand...
We don't need a lot of power but it makes life easier to have it. After the Northridge earthquake, power was down for a week. It was in January, so no need for A/C, but we did end up cooking/eating everything we could from the freezer and losing everything else. A furnace is not a survival necessity here. Just had to dress warmly.

We have a swamp cooler. The whole house will be comfy as long as there's water and a thousand watts of current. Otherwise, in the triple-digit parts of summer, it would be siesta time in the afternoon, little to no clothing, and showers to cool off. Wife has a CPAP but it isn't absolutely necessary for her to sleep.

It is a very forgiving climate as long as you have water.
 
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