• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

Best gen set for home backup.

Guyfang

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
16,924
24,545
113
Location
Burgkunstadt, Germany
My last winter of work, we were out to the East of Hof, Germany. Ice box. it was -25 to -30 with wind chill not figured in. When we were "eating" lunch. we had three gas burners in the cab of the truck, on full tilt, truck running, and every piece of Cold Weather gear I own. The drinks were frozen solid. My tuna fish sandwich was frozen solid. My apple was harder then a rock. We was havin some fun then!!
 

DD58

Well-known member
148
345
63
Location
Connecticut
I just had the 831 running in 5deg with a wind chill of 0 had lost power for a few hours yesterday and between them turn sections on and off I was in and out. Figured I would stay on generator so at least the furnace and fridge ran. Was able to run the tv and modem. It was topped out at 2700kw pulled just over 3050 when the fridge would kick. I shut all the breakers off so there was no extra draw. I think the 802 would do best for me now seeing what I can and can’t do. I hope all are ok with this crazy weather. Stay warm and stay safe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Light in the Dark

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
3,861
6,075
113
Location
MA
I just had the 831 running in 5deg with a wind chill of 0 had lost power for a few hours yesterday and between them turn sections on and off I was in and out. Figured I would stay on generator so at least the furnace and fridge ran. Was able to run the tv and modem. It was topped out at 2700kw pulled just over 3050 when the fridge would kick. I shut all the breakers off so there was no extra draw. I think the 802 would do best for me now seeing what I can and can’t do. I hope all are ok with this crazy weather. Stay warm and stay safe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you only knew how many folks in your same position I unsuccessfully talked out of buying an 803. Knowing your actual usage is invaluable.
 

DD58

Well-known member
148
345
63
Location
Connecticut
If you only knew how many folks in your same position I unsuccessfully talked out of buying an 803. Knowing your actual usage is invaluable.
I was going down the wrong path. I figured bigger is better. But as I always do I stop and go back over all the information I got and with the gen set running I found that there’s no reason to have a 10kw. 5kw will do everything I need and some. Plus I can save gas and it’s not as heavy to move into place. Up hill behind the garage.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

glcaines

Well-known member
3,917
2,608
113
Location
Hiawassee, Georgia
I lost power two days ago when it was 2 deg. F. outside. The power had been off about 60 minutes. The MEP003A fired right up without problem. I ran it for about 15 minutes powering the house, when the power came back on. I shut the generator down. The power went out three more times, but for only 20 - 30 minutes each time. Left the generator shut down.
 

Chainbreaker

Well-known member
1,802
2,010
113
Location
Oregon
We had prediction of a significant freezing rain ice event late last Thursday night into Friday morning. In preparation I test ran 3 of my gensets and all were good to go (y)in case we were to lose power.

However, we had solid iced over roads Friday morning that my wife, an OR Nurse, only discovered at 5:30 am when she left earlier than normal in the dark due to the unknown road conditions. She only got about 1/4 mile from the house when I got a wakeup call while still asleep in my toasty warm bed. In a very panicked voice, she said that she was sitting crossways on the steep downhill road section of roadway next to a ditch & looking at 2 oak trees & was worried about being T-Boned just sitting helplessly sideways on roadway. I had to do a "Fireman jump up out of bed put on my clothes act" & drive my JD Gator to go rescue her & get car off steep ice-covered hill onto a shoulder without having it slide any further down the hill. It was incredibly slippery as I could barely stand up without sliding down the steep roadway with almost zero traction on my lugged Sorrel boots. I managed to get her to drive her AWD SUV off the road. Somehow, I was able to apply hand pressure to the back end of her car as she was barely moving to swing around on the ice to get her reoriented with one wheel on some shoulder gravel & have her park it between 2 oak trees to protect it from other cars that would be coming over the hill soon. A while later another car & a pickup ended up in ditch very close to hers. Fortunately, later in the day after some of the ice began melting due to a warmup, she & I were able to drive her car out, without ending up at bottom of still ice-covered roadway, thank goodness!

The good news, since I was fully prepped, we never lost power! yay :)
 

DD58

Well-known member
148
345
63
Location
Connecticut
We had prediction of a significant freezing rain ice event late last Thursday night into Friday morning. In preparation I test ran 3 of my gensets and all were good to go (y)in case we were to lose power.

However, we had solid iced over roads Friday morning that my wife, an OR Nurse, only discovered at 5:30 am when she left earlier than normal in the dark due to the unknown road conditions. She only got about 1/4 mile from the house when I got a wakeup call while still asleep in my toasty warm bed. In a very panicked voice, she said that she was sitting crossways on the steep downhill road section of roadway next to a ditch & looking at 2 oak trees & was worried about being T-Boned just sitting helplessly sideways on roadway. I had to do a "Fireman jump up out of bed put on my clothes act" & drive my JD Gator to go rescue her & get car off steep ice-covered hill onto a shoulder without having it slide any further down the hill. It was incredibly slippery as I could barely stand up without sliding down the steep roadway with almost zero traction on my lugged Sorrel boots. I managed to get her to drive her AWD SUV off the road. Somehow, I was able to apply hand pressure to the back end of her car as she was barely moving to swing around on the ice to get her reoriented with one wheel on some shoulder gravel & have her park it between 2 oak trees to protect it from other cars that would be coming over the hill soon. A while later another car & a pickup ended up in ditch very close to hers. Fortunately, later in the day after some of the ice began melting due to a warmup, she & I were able to drive her car out, without ending up at bottom of still ice-covered roadway, thank goodness!

The good news, since I was fully prepped, we never lost power! yay :)
Thank god she’s ok. Glad to hear the gen sets worked well. We got lucky no issues for the holidays. Happy new year to all and hope everyone is well. Still on the look out for a decent mep802 in New England. Might try my hand at gov planet not to sure yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Jbulach

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
2,672
2,220
113
Location
Sunman Indiana
I'm next door in RI. and might have some things you may be interested in.
Got a 2010 802 with under 30 hours on it, on the aluminum HMMWV trailer.
Also have an 831 with around 140 hours and Kurt's controller in it.
Plus a handful of real low hour 002's , but those don't seem to be on your wish list.
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks