Using your generator for emergency home power

2800 MicroLite by Onan
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skater
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Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:00 am
B190 Year: 1991
WBCCI: 13270
Location: Annapolis, MD

Using your generator for emergency home power

Post by skater »

When the power goes out at home, it can be handy to have a generator. Fortunately, many of us do, and a pretty good one at that. When I had a 48-hour-long power outage at home this February, I learned a couple ways to make the generator useful.

One thing I did learn the hard way: I didn't shovel around the camper very well, and had to deal with a bunch of ice. Worse, the generator wouldn't start when it was off level side-to-side, so I had to actually move the camper in the driveway, across a bunch of ice. The tow dolly didn't make things any easier! So, my suggestion is that if a storm comes, clean around the camper as much as you can, and if you can't run the generator where you usually keep the camper, move it into a position ahead of time in which you can.

On to the tips for putting that generator to use:

1. The easiest and cheapest thing to do is the cord-in-the-window trick. I opened a window, took out the screen, and ran a heavy-duty extension cord from the outside outlet on the camper, through the window, then plugged in the (home) fridge and ran it for several hours at its max setting. I lost nothing, despite being without power for 49 hours and not preparing for it at all.


2. After the power came back on, I started researching ways to hook the generator into the house power system to power a few circuits.

In my case, I have natural gas heat at home, so the furnace does not draw much electricity (mainly it's the blower fan). I checked the panel and it is less than 7 or 8 amps, maximum, which is well within the limits of the Onan 2800 generator. The downside of course is that the furnace is hard wired, not plugged into an outlet.

The solution is a transfer switch, such as this one. Basically, it gets wired into your home's breaker box, then you plug the extension cord from the camper into this box, flip a few switches, and your generator will power up to four circuits!

There are a couple limits - the generator is capable of producing about 2500 watts under normal conditions (probably somewhat less in no surge) but that switch is only rated for 15 amps/1875 watts, so you won't be able to use the full potential of your generator - but this doesn't strike me as a huge problem. Larger switches that can handle the full load would require a 30 amp connection (which our generator can't support!) that the campers don't have. Also, the generator can't support any 220 volt appliances (range, dryer, air conditioner).

I have four circuits selected to hook up in my house:
--Furnace fan
--Refrigerator
--Bedroom lighting and outlets (i.e., I can plug in a space heater and sleep in that room)
--Kitchen lighting

Again, I won't be able to use all of those at once, but that won't be a problem - the idea is to keep the house from freezing and the food from spoiling, and that doesn't require the fridge and furnace to run simultaneously.

The switch linked is under $100. I haven't gotten it installed yet, but I can't imagine it would be that expensive, either - it's just a couple wires for each breaker. I'm sure something like that would help your home's resale value, too.


3. Stay in the camper. I did sleep in the camper one night during the outage, with the generator running and powering an electric heater (in retrospect, I wish I'd left the furnace running, too). However my driveway wasn't level enough to allow me to use the fridge in the camper, nor could I fit everything I have in my home fridge in it anyway. I sleep on the couch, right above the generator, and I didn't have any problem with the noise. The vibration was slightly annoying but not too bad.

I did cook my meals in the camper using the stove there. It does work off-level, but be careful!
1991 Airstream B190 - bought, 2005; sold, 2011; bought 2017
1995 Airstream Excella 30' trailer

WBCCI #13270, Washington, DC Unit
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