Here is our situation.
First I confess that I am just starting to educate myself about generators, so please excuse any "silly" questions.
We have a long-term job in NJ as a security team living on-site at a dormant mill. When there is a power outage, we are considered a "single ticket," meaning essentially everyone else in the area will get their power back before us. After a severe storm over the 4th of July weekend, we were w/o power for 30 hours. As we are on a well, the only water we had was what was in our fresh tank.
Considering that we seem to have severe thunderstorms here and with the possibility of outages during the Winter months, we are looking into getting a generator.
Our rig is gen-prepped with the Onan remote control switch inside an interior cabinet; however, the cost of an onboard generator is around $6k installed and a bit much for our pocketbook and the amount of usage we plan with a generator.
I'm thinking a portable generator is the way to go and would love a Honda; however, those are crazy-priced in the thousands of dollars.
So! We are looking for something in the 5500-6500 watt portable range. Why so many watts? We want to be able to run (depending on the weather) A/C or furnace and other appliances and lights.
I have been researching online and found some options like Briggs and Stratton, Generac, Powermate with Honda engine, etc.
If you have a portable gen such as the above, what kind and how do you like it? I know a lot of folks slave two smaller Honda units, but I doubt we'll go that route.
What about running a portable gen during rain or snowfall? Seems perhaps a bit dicey, as there may be a chance for a short? On the other hand, we are gonna get winter here in NJ, so how about a way to keep the sucker runnin' when it's snowing??
Do gens have the outlet for a 50-amp plug or do you use an adapter? Seems like most of them talk about 30 amps, although I thought I saw one in which a 50-amp plug would work. (I've looked at so many today I don't remember which one it was! Yikes!)
Do I need a gen with an inverter or will my onboard inverter do the trick? (Do I even know what I'm talking about?!?
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Any suggestions, resources and/or tips are appreciated!
Again, we want to be able to stay reasonably comfortable during prolonged power outages.
Cheers!
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