Choosing our backup generator
The sun is covered by clouds, there's not even a breeze for the turbine and your batteries need charging. Now what?
As we got further into this adventure and talked with the pro’s, I found that a well-rounded system is made up of solar, a good wind turbine and a backup generator. We decided that listening to the pro's would be a good idea. I looked into a good sized Honda generator but didn’t like the price. I’m not knocking Honda, they're probably one of my favorites when it comes to quality and durability, but in our price range they were not, especially for the size I was looking at.
One day I found myself talking with my salesman for welding supplies and mentioned my dilemma. He asked if I had considered a welding generator. No, it hadn’t even crossed my mind. He told me that for the price, I would get a lot more bang for my buck if I went that route. I figured that I might need a bigger welder since steel fabricating is something I enjoy, not to mention that it comes in handy living out on rural property. The funny part is that it came with a big Honda engine on it. Go figure!
A wee bit too big!
I went to pick up the behemoth, it was around 800 pounds. Certainly not a “throw it in the pickup bed” kind of thing but boy did it crank out the power. Actually, it also has quite a drinking problem. I intended to use it to charge our battery bank as well as run power to the shop and for welding. I found out that not only is it way overkill for charging the battery bank, but I still preferred my Mig welder. The big guy worked great for running my Mig without under powering it which was great. You want to make sure if you are running your welder on a generator that you give it PLENTY of power or you can run the risk of damaging your welder, (that comes from the “Lincoln” dealer).
I put Mr. Behemoth in the “power shed” thinking that it would be able to warm up the room while charging and possibly make life a little easier on the batteries if they weren’t subjected to the freezing cold as much. What an understatement! I almost had to put air conditioning in it got so hot in there, as a matter of fact it got SO hot that the machine would shut down, presumably from vapor lock. I had to get it out of there! So, out it came, I put it inside the shop in a corner with plenty of air around it. That worked much better but still the drinking problem. Not only that, but it sounds like a freight train!
We happened to have a Coleman Powermate 5000 that we were using to run our well pump so we brought that down to use for charging. We had to alternate back and forth between charging and running the well but we have a 1500 gallon cistern so it wasn’t a big deal (unless it was snowing). We ran that generator to death a couple of years later and bought a Troy Built 5500 watt generator. We ran that one to death also.
We then decided to put Mr. Behemoth up at the well and got a used Onan 4000 watt R.V. generator to use at the house. This is an 1800 rpm machine so it runs much quieter and uses a lot less gas. This seems to be the best choice so far. Onan builds an amazing generator and it’s much like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps on going. All we do is minimal maintenance and we have had no problems in the 7 years (or so) that we have been running it. We have been able to charge the battery bank, run the house and also run some tools at the same time.
There are other options out there also, if you want a good read try Otherpower.com. These folks are great and even give classes when possible on building your own wind turbine. I took the class myself and learned a lot, it was also great fun. I went with another like-minded guy and we spent the weekend with them learning the particulars of building a really good machine. Otherpower has some really great stories about some of their ideas and what they have done different. I can’t say enough good about their abilities and ideas. They also have a book out called, Homebrew Wind Power. Great book, if you want to try building a professional grade turbine for yourself.
When the blizzard howls and the ice and wind tear down the power
lines and all goes dark for our neighbors,
we turn on our lights, sit by the fire
and read a good book.
