You were mentioning that the generator would power the pumps but apparently not the water heater. *brrr*
That's what I like about having a town with a water tower and an old all mechanical gas fired water heater. At least if the power's off and the house is getting cold, I can take a warm shower by candle light. :)
It's a small portable generator, only 5kW capacity. Our water heater is electric; we have no gas at all. That's fine with me, I really dislike the LP gas and prefer not to deal with it.
The transfer switch I had installed handles five circuits where the breaker panel for the house has about eighteen. We had to choose which circuits to serve, and the generator really can only take the load of about two of them at any given time unless we are very careful. I'd rather not strain the generator or trip the overload on it, so we limit ourselves to two circuits at once or the well pump alone. The water heater and the heat pump are not on the transfer switch, though the generator probably could run the water heater.
We heat water on the woodstove, the old fashioned way. You could do enough for a bath, even, but obviously it isn't practical for showering. A soup kettle gives enough for both of us to wash or to wash dishes in. Yes, I'm really glad the power came back on, though my first concern was the food in the fridge. XD
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-12-26 07:34 am (UTC)That's what I like about having a town with a water tower and an old all mechanical gas fired water heater. At least if the power's off and the house is getting cold, I can take a warm shower by candle light. :)
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Date: 2009-12-26 01:28 pm (UTC)The transfer switch I had installed handles five circuits where the breaker panel for the house has about eighteen. We had to choose which circuits to serve, and the generator really can only take the load of about two of them at any given time unless we are very careful. I'd rather not strain the generator or trip the overload on it, so we limit ourselves to two circuits at once or the well pump alone. The water heater and the heat pump are not on the transfer switch, though the generator probably could run the water heater.
We heat water on the woodstove, the old fashioned way. You could do enough for a bath, even, but obviously it isn't practical for showering. A soup kettle gives enough for both of us to wash or to wash dishes in. Yes, I'm really glad the power came back on, though my first concern was the food in the fridge. XD