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A comment on Ford’s electric pickup can power a house for days. Parent comment

Re:Ford’s electric pickup can power a house for days by sgarland on Tuesday May 31, 2022 @10:31AM (#31569923)
I would, but you lose about 400 watts due to the lower energy density of propane/LPG. This is already a small generator, and I usually am running it very close to its maximum.

If I had a bigger unit (Honda also makes a 3000 watt and 6500 watt model), or just had two of these in parallel, it would be worth consideration.

Re: transfer switch, again if I had a bigger unit I'd consider it, but I can run so few loads it didn't seem worthwhile. This is basically to keep food from spoiling, internet/TV going, and fans so we can sleep somewhat comfortably.

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Re:Ford’s electric pickup can power a house for days by js2 on Wednesday June 01, 2022 @10:27AM (#31582243)
Honda is not the only game in town. I've been happy with my Champion. I have a non-inverter model because it was the only thing I could find days before a hurricane, which I then converted to natural gas. Champion has a few dual-fuel inverter models:

https://www.championpowerequipment.com/product/200994-4650-w...

I did the inlet and cutover switch install myself as well. I've got dual sub-panels but the circuits I wanted to power were all in my basement, so I've got it wired up for my kitchen fridge, a basement chest freezer, basement sump pump, and a few light and electrical outlet circuits. I can't run my normal HVAC, but I can run a portable HVAC I purchased that's sufficient for my basement in a pinch.

I was in Miami for Hurricane Andrew and have some fun stories about generators, extension cords, and siphoning gasoline out of our cars.

Meanwhile my uncle on Long Island is having a whole-house generator installed this summer, including burying a propane tank. I think he's spending something like $15K on that.

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Re:Ford’s electric pickup can power a house for days by pnutjam on Tuesday May 31, 2022 @01:07PM (#31572018)
or just had two of these in parallel, it would be worth consideration.

--- That actually doubles your risk of failure, better to go with one big one.

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Re:Ford’s electric pickup can power a house for days by aftbit on Tuesday May 31, 2022 @02:19PM (#31572956)
It also doubles your likelihood of having at least one working generator in the presence of failures. Depending on how many of your loads are critical, it might be a better bet to have two in parallel. Best case you can run more, worst case you can run the essentials just like now. Also it might be a cheaper upgrade path. Instead of throwing away or reselling the existing smaller generator to buy a larger one, just add another of the same thing you already have to your system. Finally, you could have three smaller generators and get N+1 redundancy for cheaper than two larger generators.
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Re:Ford’s electric pickup can power a house for days by sgarland on Tuesday May 31, 2022 @04:26PM (#31574496)
The failure rate of Honda generators is vanishingly small; not a concern to me. However, when you step up to the 7000W (I forgot that they've discontinued the 6500W in favor of a bigger one) unit, you also get a 240V outlet, which makes wiring it into your house much more convenient. If you get a soft-start kit for your heat pump/AC, it can even run HVAC.
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