yeah, several things:
1) depending upon what you want to be running in your house (for us, water pump, furnace, fridge are essentials) you need enough starting amps* to get everything running. I promise you you won't find a decent quality generator to do this for much less than a thousand bucks...there are available charts to show you how your requirements translate into what size generator. Mine is a Sears, pretty basic, rolls out the door.
2) if you don't have an electrician hook it up properly, you'd better have your homeowner's insurance fully paid up, because it's VERY dangerous to hook up to the grid improperly...if the lineman restoring service is down the road and you can't see him, you can fry him...power companies will be happy to discuss the importance of this, it's not trivial and it's a genuine serious consideration.
* I need quite a few starting amps to get stuff up and running, but once running I use a pretty small % of the generator's capacity...
Looking a bit better for us, too, here in SE Virginia. Flooding is still a major concern. If it makes that turn to the south, though, that will help us a lot. Norfolk floods all the time, even with an inch or two of rain. My house is only 20 miles from the Atlantic, but we are in flood zone D, so I am hoping we won't take on water (ur side yard will turn into a lake, for sure, but as long as water doesn't come up into the house I'm OK with it).
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
who says hurricanes aren't smart? Looks like Florence is hanging a looey, might be homing in on Florence, SC?
Yup! You need to go around to all your appliances and check out their starting amps and running amps. Both are different and generators are rated for both. You can have enough juice to power everything, but all of a sudden the fridge and AC decide to power on at the same time and you are back in the dark. Oops.
neither?
Dubner discussed the "Salter Sink" in SuperFreakonomics.
I assumed the SuperFreakonomics link was what he was referring to when I found it last night. I get the concept at the individual level, but am unconvinced at their estimates of the kind of deployment scale that would be useful or necessary to actual change hurricane formation. I also saw something similar except that they inject bubbles at the lower depths which carry up cooler water to the surface as they rise. Same skepticism of required deployment scale applies.
Ii thought we could just drop a nuclear bomb into the center of one of these babies while it's out over the Atlantic. That would disrupt the circular motion, right?
Can't imagine any possible downsides...
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
Whatever happened to sunshine, crisp air and pretty blue skies?
Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'
If you live at the coast and are expecting a package from Fedex Ground, we will begin staging your stuff at our facility in Kernersville. We will get it to you as soon as humanly possible...
Two things:
1. Hire a licensed electrician to install your home generator and hook it up with a properly rated Transfer Switch, whether manual or automatic (as supplied on larger home generators).
2. Hire a licensed electrician as recommended in #1. It's money well spent. It's much cheaper than fighting your insurance company trying to collect after you burned down your house or killed someone.
I have experience sizing and selling home generators (from a previous life). Bigger is better. And power quality also matters. Cheap generators will fry your microprocessor based electronics (and appliances!) with bad power - bad voltage control, bad frequency control, bad harmonics. Oh, you don't know what harmonics are? Better hire an electrician!
Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!
Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
9F 9F 9F
https://ecogreen.greentechaffiliate.com
Short answer is, no.
Surge protector is looking to prevent voltages much higher than 110V coming through.
All microprocessor chips run on DC voltage of 5V or lower. All equipment containing these circuits require a AC to DC converter to be in place. These are designed based on the expected characteristics of normal AC power as you normally get it. The power out of generators can be significantly less consistent and reliable than what you get from the power company. A lot of your equipment can still use it OK, but depending on the quality of the DC to AC converters, you could have problems.
Here's an image showing the most common difference.
I came down to Durham in October 2016 to go to my high school reunion and to go to a Duke football game with my dad. We planned to stop by the DBR tailgate tent too. The reunion was cancelled due to Hurricane Matthew and although the football game went on, Dad and I opted not to attend.
I have plans to come down to Durham next weekend to attend Duke's Homecoming on the 22nd with my dad. I have told them that if everything is flooded and they have no power, I'm not coming. I know that I'm no Zaphod Beeblebrox, but I can't help feeling that it's all my fault. I apologize to all the residents of both North and South Carolina. I should probably stop trying to attend Duke football games.