[wejones]

Originally Posted by pmb1010

Yes, just last year our main HQ installed a natural gas, liquid cooled 20kw 3 phase unit. on my recommendation.

There are many things to consider.
Businesses sometimes need 3 phase power, so the "standard" generator typically won't do. Make sure it's sized to the requirements of the devices to be operated. Although our system runs our network, computers, - the outside connections depend on the local phone company to provide a data connection (Verizon) to the central phone office, and from there to AT&T for Internet connection. This is especially true of Cable TV internet connections. They most likely will not operate in wide area power outages.

If the power goes out the data connection might be lost due to loss of power on the poles for signal repeaters that are there, which exist to get the signal from you to them.

Interesting comments, from an urban viewpoint. I live out in the sticks, where some things are slightly different. Since I moved here, 12 years ago, we have had multiple outages, one that was over 8 days, almost exactly 10 years ago when we had a massive ice storm that had about 50% of the state without power. We've also had a few 2 day outages, and every year we have 3 or 4 outages that range from 12 to 24 hours. So generators are a necessity here, mostly because without power, there is no water, since everyone has their own wells. I just have a small 5 KW generator that powers my well, and refrigerator/freezer, and a couple other things. Having data connections is the furthest thing from my mind during these outages, however I've found it very interesting that when trees come down over the power/telephone lines, it will amost always knock out the power, but it almost never knocks out telephone, so since I'm on dialup, I'd almost never lose internet connection. The reason is pretty interesting (to me at least). Power lines are typically pretty much hard wired from pole to pole, and when a tree comes down, it rips them from the pole. Telephone lines, however, are typically strung loose from pole to pole, so if a tree comes down, it just takes up the slack from several nearby poles. Telephone lines can typically be pulled all the way to the ground without them breaking. When we lost power during the big ice storm, we still had telephone.... for about a day and a half or so. Then we lost telephone. This confused me, but then I found out that it was what you mention above, ie we have a telephone box in our town that feeds all the telephones in town, and that box requires power. Apparently they have a generator in the box, so when there is an outage, the generator automatically comes on, but after a day and a half, the generator runs out of fuel. Our roads were completely blocked, so they couldn't get to them to re-fuel the generators until about the 4th day of the outage. It was a strange feeling to be without both power and telephone, and have the roads blocked for so long.

Originally Posted by pmb1010

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Gasoline generators, having gasoline on hand can be dangerous. This is what I do for my home, I keep 5 ea 5 gallon gas cans on hand, with gas stablalizeer in it. Every couple months I'll dump one of them thru the cars to keep the gas fresh. Remember that gas pumps at gas stations won't operate without power. So getting gasoline during an outage can be an ordeal.

My generator is gasoline. I generally keep 5 or 10 gallons around for the tractors and snowmobiles, etc, so it's always fresh. If I ran my generator all day long, that wouldn't last through multi-day outages, but we generally only run the generator about 3 times a day, for about an hour or so, basically to run the water pump for a while, and run the freezer, and for long outages, to run the furnace to make some hot water for a shower. So 5 gallons was actually enough to last 8 days.

Originally Posted by pmb1010

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Hospitals & Police stations use generators with Diesel fuel. Less troublesome than gasoline, but now you have the ssue of replishment. Make sure if you go this route, that a contract is setup with a company to come bring you diesel on a periodic basis if there is a long outage.

I used to work in an army nerve gas lab, and they HAD to have 24/7 power to keep the building from becoming "contaminated". We had a big diesel generator that would automatically kick on, however our building had about 30 huge exhaust fans that had to be brought up to speed one by one, so it required a special timer that brought the important things on line first, then the less important things. It usually took about 10 minutes before everything was up. It was an interesting system.
But diesel has some other issues, particularly if you live up north. For homeowners, most places it isn't legal or practical to store it underground, and if you store it above ground, it can turn as thick as Jello when it gets cold. I have a diesel tractor, and it has frozen up a few times, and often when I go to pour diesel into the thing, nothing comes out of the container since it has jelled. They sell additives to keep it from jelling, but you don't think to do that until it's already frozen.

Originally Posted by pmb1010

And home users, please do it right and install the correct manual transfer switch for gas gererators at your panel. Pick 6 or so things you need (sump, freezer, fridge, furnace, some lights) and put those on the switch. Please do not backfeed a breaker in your panel. That is dangerous, illegal in many places, and not safe for the workers trying to restore power in your neighborhood. In some locations (Calif I think) you can be found criminally liable if someone is hurt due to backfeeding breaker panels.

Please be safe.

I keep meaning to install one of those things. It would make my life a lot easier during an outage. I usually just connect things one at a time. I've rigged things up where I can plug in a few things directly into the generator line, however during a long outage.... let's say I have done some things that I shouldn't do. I was careful, but you're right, back feeding is not something that should be done. They have TV ads here all the time telling people not to do this, because half the population up here have generators, and it's a significant issue. Although the bigger problem is people who run their generators indoors, and get killed by carbon monoxide. I have my generator out in my garage, but keep the garage doors open when it's running, and only spend a minute or so out there at a time.

I've been planning to get a propane fueled generator and an automatic transfer switch, but probably not until my 20+ year old gas generator dies. I'm amazed that the thing still works after all these years. It's so noisy, you can hear it a mile away (part of the reason we only run it an hour at a time), but it's been really dependable. Bought it from the same mail order catalog that I bought my first BUD from.