I’ve owned two houses in the past with propane-powered automatic backup generators and I’d never go that route again.
Natural gas, oil or propane backup generators are noisy, require maintenance, slow to turn on and are expensive to run and maintain.
- Noisy – When there is a power outage the whole neighborhood knows it and don’t think even think about sleeping unless you can sleep through the drone of the generator. They also turn on every week for about 15 minutes to exercise the parts and move the oil around. Your neighbors will sure love that!
- Maintenance – generators have a lot of moving parts and require oils changes after a certain number of hours of use. You’ll want to have a maintenance plan and pay someone to maintain it – at the cost of between $75 and $300 annually.
- Expensive to operate – A 15- to 20-kilowatt generator that powers the entire home will cost about $50 to $150 per day depending on the fuel costs!
- Slow to start – you have an interruption in power with a fossil fuel generator. Clocks will have to be reset, computers restarted.
What is the Best Alternative to a Fossil Fuel Generator?
I’d look into solar with a backup battery. Here is why:
- Instantaneous start – you won’t even know there is a power outage
- No fossil fuels – clean electricity without putting more carbon or methane into the air.
- No Toxic fumes – Fossil fuel combustion produces all sorts of nasty chemicals into the air surrounding the unit. Also, methane micro-leaks contribute to global warming.
- Federal and State Tax incentives, Rebates and Credits are available for going electric.
- No shoveling around the unit – The battery is inside the house or garage. The fossil fuel generator sits out in the elements.
- Silence – A battery storage unit is completely silent, unlike a fossil fuel generators that drone on and on and on.
- Payback – A solar plus battery storage system will actually pay for itself in 10 years or less depending on your state and situation. Fossil fuel generators just degrade and depreciate over time.
- Refueling – A fossil fuel generator will until the tank runs dry.
Summary: Advantages of battery storage over fossil fuel generators – Instant switchover during a power outage, quiet, no fossil fuels, no fuel deliveries, no noise, no weekly warm-ups, no moving parts to break, no oil changes, no maintenance, no shoveling it out. With solar, the system pays for itself in 10 years while a generator will probably need to be replaced in 10 years. A single Tesla Powerwall II will run your house for 12 hours or more depending on what you are using. Most power outages only last a few hours and if the sun is out, the panels will give you your electricity.
Facts about power outages in New Hampshire
When you live through an extended power outage, one thinks its the end of the world. The constant waiting and wondering when the power will come back on. But the reality is that most power outages are only a few hours long. Everyone few years one might encounter a power outage that lasts more than 24 hours but can you justify spending $10K on a fossil fuel generator for such a rare event?
A fossil fuel automatic backup generator turns on once a week for maintenance so that is probably 25 hours of operation just for maintenance meanwhile the average yearly power outage in New Hampshire is only 16 hours!
❱ Between 2008 and 2013, the greatest
number of electric outages in New
Hampshire has occurred during the month of
October.
❱ The leading cause of electric outages in New
Hampshire during 2008 to 2013 was
Weather/Falling Trees.
❱ On average, the number of people affected
annually by electric outages during 2008 to
2013 in New Hampshire was 309,907.
❱ The average duration of electric outages in
New Hampshire during 2008 to 2013 was
988 minutes or 16.5 hours a year.