As for outages, wouldn't a UPS be sufficient?
Being Dutch, this does sound a bit like overkill.
Most times I see an electric generator like this in the Netherlands is at festivals, or on the national news where a remote 100% renewable museum couldn't get hooked up to the nation power grid due to lack of capacity, and had be powered by diesel generators.
In the last ~12 months, I've thrice lost power for more than four hours. Once you start losing a fridge's worth of groceries every 4 months, amongst the other challenges with power outages, the at-home generators start to look attractive.
On the other hand, 27kW is a LOT of generating capacity for one home. I consider that the average home (at least in my area) only has 200A service, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain that it's not enough (outside my dad who wanted a 16-person hot tub for two people).
Uh, a 27kW generator is 225A at 120v, it’s the model you use if you want whole-house backup generator for a 200A service…
https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/conte...
During active loadshedding we can expect multiple 2-4 hour outages during the day. UPSes dont work because the batteries are destroyed after a couple of sessions. Proper battery based backup solutions are prohibitively expensive for most.
Most upper middle class households have backup generators installed, usually 4-7kW. If you can afford it, you install a full solar power system, allowing you to disconnect completely from the grid.
We don't have gas, oil furnaces or other sources of power (other than solar for the wealthy as explained above), and for most our hot water is made with electricity.
The unreliable grid has become a fact of life for all south africans, and we have adapted according to our means, all the way from a fully independent off grid solar soltion for the rich, down to candles for the poorest of poor. I keep candles in my cupboard in case my backup system fails.
Though 27kw is a lot. They’re on natural gas too, so I guess they’re not worried about running out of diesel (though nat gas can be another point of failure)
27kw is decent size depending on size of house.
Re: the article - does the setup give more functionality to the smart transfer switch capabilities?
https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/conte...
Being dutch you won't have CH4 shortages this winter (unlike what the EU might face). You'll supply your own industry, power stations and homes first and then your gas clients. You also only have one real natural disaster to optimize for, flooding. Europe has incredibly mild weather compared to the rest of the world.
Add to that that your infrastructure is newer than N. Americas - it all got rebuilt after WW2. The supply cables into my old house were 100 years old.
Finally, there is heating. Most homes need some form of an electrical motor for their heat (either as a blower for the furnace or a pump for their radiators). Consider how lucky Europe is climatically: the Netherlands is 52N. By comparison, Toronto is at the same latitude as Nice - this is due to the Gulf currents. Pipes in the Netherlands will not freeze if you spend a few days without heat. The pipes in the homes in the upper half of continental US will burst after a few days without heat.
Finally, generators are not particularly bad for CO2 emissions or other pollution compared to the grid. Not when you consider their low usage. We can afford them, they address real problems, they're fairly benign, so why not?
EDIT: clarity
-Canadian expat.
My friend lives nearby and has a whole house generator. Uses it 2-5 times per year. It's funny at night when he's the only guy in the neighborhood with his lights on.
Runs on natural gas.
I wonder if the author could shed some light on the reasons for this technical choice though, because my back-of-the-envelope calculations just don't end up with this kind of tech.
The Generac is about $13000 excluding install. A Tesla Powerwall+ $11500 installed without subsidies.
The electric power consumption at our place is under 5.5 kWh per day on average, with very few peaks. Slightly less than average for Belgium, but not by a lot. I realise residential power consumption may be higher in the US, but probably not by an order of magnitude.
A popular home battery, the Tesla Powerwall does 13.5 kWh. That's 2.5 days already without any solar. Add enough solar and you've got basicly unlimited backup. In a single family home with a garage, one can also easily add vehicle to grid for extra emergency storage.
Friendlier to the environment, lower maintenance, cheaper. Unless one consumes over 7 kW continuous or 10 kW peak in an emergency situation.
That's why your back-of-the-envelope doesn't necessarily add up with the author's.
In the US South (at least where people run AC) it's entirely possible to use 24 to 48 kWh per day. There are big, fancy houses people own that could double, triple or quadruple that.
http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/average-household-electricity...
One liter of diesel, costing a few of your local currency, stores 10kwh.
>Add enough solar
At enormous cost
>my back-of-the-envelope calculations just don't end up with this kind of tech.
That's because you have erroneously conflated several different variables. A diesel generator is by far the cheapest way to generate that much power.
> A diesel generator is by far the cheapest way to generate that much power.
Natural Gas generators (like the OP’s) are much cheaper.
Getting through a hurricane is a lot easier when you can pull humidity out of your house the whole time. Running this much cooling on 1 powerwall would take you about 4 hours before you are in the same boat as everyone else. In many cases you need to go 72+ hours non stop. Gulf coast does not cool down that much at night after a cat5 blows through. It's practically unsurvivable in some cases.
I also have 17kw of solar on my roof, and overproduce. I have 1:1 net metering, so a battery will not help financially unless that ends. the only utility a battery provides is backup power
In the middle of summer I will use around 80kwh a day with lots of AC usage (Yes, I could get more insulation, better ducts, switch to minisplits. all in progress)
A lot of that is at night, because it doesn't get any cooler at night really. It still stays hot and humid. Between sun I'm using around 30kwh, so I'd need 3 x Tesla Power Walls JUST TO MAKE THE NIGHT and hope it was sunny the day before to fully charge, and sunny the next day
The cost for that is over $30,000, only makes the night, and still only outputs around the same as the generator. If it's not sunny but it's still warm, I'll be without power in a short time. If I'm spending that amount of money, I want power to stay on no matter what
I'm waiting for Enhpase or Tesla, or someone to come out with an AC Coupled grid tie battery that has full generator support. That is the dream. Then in low solar days it could pre-charge the battery with the generator for night time. I don't want to drop a ton of cash now, when that is surely on the horizon. Either that, or the ability to use a car as a battery. If I could use a Tesla as a battery, I would probably go buy a 100 model Tesla. That would be 100kwh! much better
Not sure if it fits the bill for you, but the new Ford F-150 lightning can supply 9.6kw of continuous power:
> With the ability to offload 9.6 kilowatts of power, Ford Intelligent Backup Power keeps the lights on during an outage while providing security by powering home appliances, security systems and more
Ref: https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2021...
Given that Texas's electricity problems involved a problem with the natural gas supply, are you not worried about that going out as well? I just got a generator, but aimed for a small one that would be more efficient so that I would need to store less fuel. Although I still need to figure out some solution for intelligent load management so that I can run (fridge,freezer,boiler,etc) sequentially rather than simultaneously.
They put less stress on the generator and compressor when starting up. I got them installed on both of my AC units, and they work great on the generator, and the generator doesn't bog down when they start.
https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Hyper-Engineering-S...
This video is illustrative:
Enphase either already supports this, or is very close. Their current gateway device (smart transfer switch) for their Encharge 3 / Encharge 10 AC-coupled batteries has connections for a generator and I know the installation manuals on their site describe what kinds of generators are supported and how to wire them up. If they don't officially support that configuration yet it's only a matter of time.
That's an average of about 230 watts. How do you get that low?
An idling iMac with Intel processor is around 70 watts, according to Apple. My refrigerator is suppose to average about 50 watts. That's halfway to your usage right there. In the summer, when I don't need heat, I usually have a box fan in a window to circulate air, which is another 50 watts. Add another 10 watts for my cable modem and router. There's probably another 20 watts total for various other things like TV in standby, a couple of smart speakers for voice control and music, and network switches.
So that's got me to 87% of your usage just from things that are happening all the time when I'm not even doing anything! (Oh, and there is an outdoor security light that comes on at night. I have no idea what its power use is (or even what technology it uses [1])).
Then there are the things whose power depends on what I'm doing. Microwave and toaster oven once a day to make breakfast, and sometimes to make other meals. About 40 minutes walking on my treadmill. Electric pump at my well to supply my water. Electric lights. Electric water heater for my hot water. I also actually use my computer and my TV at times, so they are often using quite a bit more than idle or standby power.
That's got me way over your usage on an ordinary day when I'm just doing my daily things. Looking at my records, the lowest I've gotten down to is about 12 kWh in a day, which I can hit in summer, although average in summer is a little higher due to things like an electric washer and dryer that I typically use a little more than once a week, and an electric dishwasher used a little less than once a week.
The internet tells me that about half the households in Belgium have natural gas. Are you doing with gas some of the things I do with electricity, like water heating and cooking?
[1] Seriously, I have no idea what the heck it is, except that it is not LED. It has been there as long as I've owned the house, running every night. It has accumulated at least 50000 on hours since I've been here, which is quite a bit longer than the expected lifetime of every kind of bulb I've found that otherwise looks like it might be the same technology.
That's not considered low here. That's slightly below average.
> An idling iMac with Intel processor is around 70 watts, according to Apple.
We don't have desktops idling. We do have an old thinkpad with the screen switched off running as a home server. We use laptops plus two large screens.
> My refrigerator is suppose to average about 50 watts.
No idea of our consumption. I just chose one of the less energy consuming freezer/fridge combinations.
> In the summer, when I don't need heat, I usually have a box fan in a window to circulate air, which is another 50 watts.
We have heat recovery ventilation.
> Add another 10 watts for my cable modem and router.
Fritzbox dsl modem with builtin basic routing.
> There's probably another 20 watts total for various other things like TV in standby, a couple of smart speakers for voice control and music, and network switches.
No TV. One additional network switch, and a printer in deep sleep.
> Microwave and toaster oven once a day to make breakfast, and sometimes to make other meals.
Microwave, toaster, cooking hobs, oven, water cooker. All relatively simple appliances here. The cooking hobs are inductive. That saves a bit of energy.
> Electric pump at my well to supply my water.
We get our water from the city. No well pump.
> Electric lights.
All LED.
> Electric water heater for my hot water.
This is really the big one. One 24 kW flow-through natural gas heater.
> an electric washer and dryer that I typically use a little more than once a week, and an electric dishwasher used a little less than once a week.
We use an electric dishwasher very often, at least every other day. It's a fairly energy efficient one. Clothes we usually dry on a rack, though we sometimes use a dryer. Fairly energy efficient one, heat pump based.
I went with the 26kw air-cooled model, and getting that installed along with a 1,000gal propane tank (and 800 gal of propane) was done for $18k.
Our biggest load is HVAC, to run two AC units (5 ton and 3 ton). During an extended outage, we'd shut down half the house.
Must not read the news much, but there are all sorts of things that cause people to be without power especially weather related. However, since you're claiming that the Dutch never loose power for more than minutes at a time, perhaps we all should consider relocating.