On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 05:50:42 -0700 Jim Cathey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> > We use ~300KW/month during the height of summer. Lets use 30 days for
> > a month, thats ~10KW a day.
> > Based on that I'd say a 10Kw generator would be plenty for us.
>
> You have a units problem. What you buy from the power company
> is kilowatt-HOURS. What you buy from the store is kilowatt capacity.
Exactly.
What you get from a generator is power, the rate of doing work:
1 horsepower = 550 ft-lbs/sec
1 kilowatt = 1.34 horsepower
What you buy from the power company is energy, the amount of work done:
1 kilowatt-hour = 2,655,224 ft-lb
= 3412 BTU = 3.6 x 10^6 joules
The relationship is:
Energy = Power * Time
> But what you usually have to purchase in generating capacity is
> the ability to handle your peak load, whatever that is.
The peak load is indeed the problem.
> Again the beauty of regional differences.
> Here in MA I'm not so much worried about hurricanes knocking out power
> as I am snowstorms.
Curt's situation requires less electrical power than someone in Florida.
Since he is willing to modify his lifestyle to accomodate electrical power
interruptions, he can get by with a lot lower power generator.
When we lived in rural Colorado, for several years we were hauling water
in 5 gallon containers, had propane heat and a propane refrigerator. The
Honda EM500 generator we used was more than adequate to power lights and
a stereo system. We had a car radio and two 6 volt lead-acid batteries
to listen to during the day when we wanted to not run the generator. When
we got our 4 kW propane-fired genset running, we were able to run the well
pump to fill the water system's pressure tank and then shut the generator
down and still have 25 gallons of pressurized water available.
>From the sounds of Curt's situation, a 500 W generator might be all he
needs. If he wants to run a washing machine, 4 kW should be enough.
Craig
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