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> source ethanol-free gas, rotate gas supplies,

Convert your generator to run on propane. In my experience, propane tends to be more available during natural disaster power outages than gasoline. And it's way less messy. But make sure you have a sufficient number of tanks in advance. Those tend to disappear when there's an outage.

> practice running extension cords to everything so I'm not confused in the dark.

Have an electrician install an inlet outside your house along with a transfer switch:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Reliance-Controls-10-Circuit-30-...

Instead of the transfer switch, your may also (depending upon your local code) be able to go with a simple lock out device in your panel like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Generator-Interlock-Kit-Breaker-Panel...

I would, but you lose about 400 watts due to the lower energy density of propane/LPG. This is already a small generator, and I usually am running it very close to its maximum.

If I had a bigger unit (Honda also makes a 3000 watt and 6500 watt model), or just had two of these in parallel, it would be worth consideration.

Re: transfer switch, again if I had a bigger unit I'd consider it, but I can run so few loads it didn't seem worthwhile. This is basically to keep food from spoiling, internet/TV going, and fans so we can sleep somewhat comfortably.

or just had two of these in parallel, it would be worth consideration.

--- That actually doubles your risk of failure, better to go with one big one.

It also doubles your likelihood of having at least one working generator in the presence of failures. Depending on how many of your loads are critical, it might be a better bet to have two in parallel. Best case you can run more, worst case you can run the essentials just like now. Also it might be a cheaper upgrade path. Instead of throwing away or reselling the existing smaller generator to buy a larger one, just add another of the same thing you already have to your system. Finally, you could have three smaller generators and get N+1 redundancy for cheaper than two larger generators.

The failure rate of Honda generators is vanishingly small; not a concern to me. However, when you step up to the 7000W (I forgot that they've discontinued the 6500W in favor of a bigger one) unit, you also get a 240V outlet, which makes wiring it into your house much more convenient. If you get a soft-start kit for your heat pump/AC, it can even run HVAC.

Honda is not the only game in town. I've been happy with my Champion. I have a non-inverter model because it was the only thing I could find days before a hurricane, which I then converted to natural gas. Champion has a few dual-fuel inverter models:

https://www.championpowerequipment.com/product/200994-4650-w...

I did the inlet and cutover switch install myself as well. I've got dual sub-panels but the circuits I wanted to power were all in my basement, so I've got it wired up for my kitchen fridge, a basement chest freezer, basement sump pump, and a few light and electrical outlet circuits. I can't run my normal HVAC, but I can run a portable HVAC I purchased that's sufficient for my basement in a pinch.

I was in Miami for Hurricane Andrew and have some fun stories about generators, extension cords, and siphoning gasoline out of our cars.

Meanwhile my uncle on Long Island is having a whole-house generator installed this summer, including burying a propane tank. I think he's spending something like $15K on that.

My problem is a bit different.

I have a healthy amount of solar but don't want to buy batteries (even in truck form).

The solar needs AC from the mains for some reason.

Is there some way to hookup a small generator to make the solar happy and then use the solar for power? (Yes, I'd have to disconnect everything from the grid.)

Let's assume that I don't try to use too much power. Will the solar be damaged if I don't use enough?

My problem is a bit different.

I have a healthy amount of solar but don't want to buy batteries (even in truck form).

The solar needs AC from the mains for some reason.

Is there some way to hookup a small generator to make the solar happy and then use the solar for power? (Yes, I'd have to disconnect everything from the grid.)

Let's assume that I don't try to use too much power. Will the solar be damaged if I don't use enough?

>Will the solar be damaged if I don't use enough?

Something will be damaged or the whole system will shut down. Typically grid-tied systems do not have the ability to dump excess power or throttle down panels to provide partial loads. You would be better off installing a proper battery-backed inverter, but depending on the wiring and design of the existing system, that might mean replacing everything except the panels, which is likely quite expensive.

A serious question. If power outages are that common that you need to have this backup, would you not consider a bank of LFP batteries and an inverter before you think of using your car for this? In case of a grid outage/emergency, having a car that is untethered to the house is handy right?

It's not the same, but my parents back in India have a few Lead acid batteries hooked up to an inverter to supply backup power when power outage occurs (about once a week). They have been doing this for decades now. I'm just wondering why a larger scale version of this with LFP batteries and may be solar panels to charge them wouldn't work where you are..

It might make sense to have both. Its rare to see a home backup system that has as much capacity as this truck. It'd effectively extend your home capacity and also provide a resource that could be charged away from home.

We don't have many grid outages here, but the ones that happen tend to happen around large weather disasters. Commercial areas, often with DCFC tend to get restored a little more quickly than more distant suburban residential power and tbh, most people aren't driving that much during those periods anyway.

Comparisons to developing countries usually forget about demand - the average electrical demand in a typical Indian home is hundreds of watts to a few kilowatts depending on how affluent the home is.

The average north american home has several kilowatts of connected loads, not to mention equipment that must run such as heating/cooling, large fridges and myriad electronics.

Banks of lead acid batteries can indeed work but they are large, may leak and always require some sort of hazard protection. You can get around all of this in a country with lax standards but are unlikely to do so in the west.

True. My parents actually have their apartment wired for "power groups that can run on inverter" and other power groups that will be without backup. Their power needs are substantially lower than an average American and European household. That is why I was wondering if this idea could be _scaled_ up.

I would not go around recommending anyone to buy Lead acid battery banks today. I'm in the midst of getting rid of the ones at my parents' too.

However, I found these LFP batteries where I live - NL for about 1K Euros [1] . They are 2.5KWh. Two or three of them and an inverter ought to be a good as reasonable backup for an American house dont you think? LFP batteries dont catch fire like the Li-Ion ones tend to. No worries about oil maintenance. They come with 10 years of warranty. What is a downside to this that I am missing?

[1] - https://greencell.global/en/lifepo4-batteries/4097-lifepo4-b...

It can certainly be scaled up, there are lots of models of 5 kwh lithium iron phosphate battery packs in server form factor for ~$1500-2000, 6 of those in a server rack and you have 30 kwh for ~$10k.

Oh wow that sounds like a great way to convince the wife to let me have that homelab :-) By any chance you have any links to share for my research?

This one’s pretty popular: https://signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepower4-lithium-battery-48...

And is made to work well with this kind of inverter: https://signaturesolar.com/eg4-6-5k-off-grid-inverter-6500ex...

(They have a smaller 3 kw inverter for about half the price)

Check out diysolar forum. Google it. Lots of very good information.

Also watch Will prowse on YouTube.

Seconding this, Will’s channel and forum are excellent.

Here's a nice overview of setting up a 30 kwh battery and inverters to charge/use them: https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/48v-complete-system-bluepr...

The only 2 disadvantages of LFP batteries are that they're a lot more expensive than lead-acid and heavier than Li-Ion for the same energy.

But they can withstand many more cycles than Li-Ion without wearing out. If you can afford LFP, they seem ideal for a home backup situation.

I've considered it, yeah. The truck's other advantage of course is that it's a truck. I have an older Honda Ridgeline that is perfect for me in terms of size (I don't tow anything, but frequently load the bed), but it is horrible on fuel consumption. 14 MPG (~ 17 L/100 km) or so is common for around town, 20 MPG (~12 L/100 km) on the highway if I'm lucky. With fuel costs rising as much as they do, it starts to make a little more sense.

The ROI on a new one would still be extremely long, but it starts to become more justifiable as features like this are added. If Ford makes an electric version of the Maverick - their small truck - it'll be a very easy decision, assuming it can still power a house.

On the other hand, I wonder if it will be able to compete with ICE trucks for pretty standard truck-things like towing. If it's anything like my Tesla, the range is going to fall off precipitously the moment anything touches that hitch, and if you're not graced with a California winter, doubly so (it's really a shame Tesla puts so much of its engineering in one locale or else it might've been more pressing to solve for this). And I'm guessing public chargers with room for a trailer/boat/etc are few and far between.

One test[0] put it at roughly half the range (150-160 miles) when towing near its rating of 10,000 lbs.

Personally I don't tow anything, I just use the bed to haul stuff, so I would probably see a minimal loss of range. Also, inter-city travel is unlikely to be affected as long as you can get back home at the end of the day.

[0] https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2022-ford-f150-lightning-...

> One test[0] put it at roughly half the range (150-160 miles) when towing near its rating of 10,000 lbs.

That's not bad.

> Also, inter-city travel is unlikely to be affected as long as you can get back home at the end of the day.

Agreed, but stuff like camping and boating is going to be limited, which is too bad because a giant battery would really open up the options for camping.

This isn't a truck for people gallivanting across the country with a camper in tow or the kind of guy that the local Sunbelt Rentals manager is on a first name basis with.

This is a truck for someone who has a commuter sedan and a Toyota Tacoma or Honda Odyssey parked in their garage somewhere the houses cost a million bucks and there are more Black Lives Matter signs than black people, i.e. the kind of person who would have bought a crew cab half ton a decade ago if daily driving one didn't make them feel like a backwards hick poisoning the climate.

I'm sure it will "do truck stuff" as well as any other F150 (OEMs don't play fast and loose with the reputation of flagship products like the F150) but the range will obviously be subject to the same tradeoffs as every other EV. but these are demographics that break out in a cold sweat at the idea of cramming five people in a compact car. They're gonna use the thing at a fraction of it's capability. Towing 10k will be a once a year thing if that. That should be fine for now as most buyers will just want to tow to home depot or the boat ramp.

The range will creep up over the coming years as batteries get better until finally the EV truck also makes sense guy who's towing the camper cross country.

Actually this is a great truck for people "that the local Sunbelt Rentals manager is on a first name basis with." They often are working on projects with a generator, and typically are not far from where they sleep at night. The truck hauls tools from the hotel where they spent the night to the job and that is about it. Then they plug the tools into a generator - which this truck is.

I definitely know a lot of people who have felt torn between their guilt about ruining the planet with their gas guzzling SUVs and buying an electric vehicle from a company whose founder--though he supports gay marriage, drug legalization, environment, immigration, science, etc--says snarky things on the Internet. They would leap at the opportunity to buy a large electric vehicle from a company whose founder merely bought a newspaper and used it to spread racist propaganda.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford#Antisemitism_and_Th...

It would be cool to drive this setup to my mom’s or a friend’s and just take their vehicle for the week. Sub them out as needed for a charge.

Would be cool if a mass grid failure resulted in a callout for electric cars to drive over to a community centre or whatever.

At least in California, the fire code doesn't allow you to have a bank of batteries without building a dedicated room with active fire suppression for them. You need to prove (to your local fire department) that your array of batteries won't have a thermal runaway.

So, conveniently, the F-150 is a tested, self-enclosed array of batteries :).

>A 9 kW generator that costs $1000 is going to be an open-frame, bottom of the barrel model.

Not even close to bottom-of-the-barrel. In fact, pretty standard, and can last forever.

>requires a lot of maintenance.

Lots of maintenance? Like what, changing the oil and plug once a season?

>If you don't, you'll have to bury a LPG tank, or have an unsightly blob in your yard.

You seem to have very particular tastes about "sound" and "looks", so go ahead and spend $20k for a backup system. But don't try to tell people it can't be done for far cheaper, because I've been running my house on a backup system with a $1000 Generac portable coming up on a decade. The generator I replaced was from the 70s.

An open-frame generator under load is going to be somewhere around 72-76 dB, and that's usually measured at around 20 feet. That is entirely too loud to be running overnight in a neighborhood when everyone's power is out, and thus things are dead quiet. Inverter generators, especially good ones, are more like 50-56 dB.

Maintenance requirements are usually spec'd by runtime; mine is oil change at 20 hours for break-in, then every 100 hours. It's not difficult, but it's annoying. Beyond that, if you aren't running it at least quarterly (I do monthly), you're risking it not starting when you need it. Not to mention the aforementioned fuel requirements - ethanol free is sometimes hard to find, and you need to keep a mental note of when you bought it so you can rotate fuel supplies.

It comes down to personal taste and willingness to be loud in your neighborhood, sure. If I'm going to spend the money on backup power, I first and foremost don't want there to be any question about its reliability. I trust Honda's engines and electronics. I also don't want to piss off my neighbors, or make myself an easy target of theft, so it needs to be as quiet as possible.

That seems awfully expensive for a generator… our 22kw generac was ~5k … I guess we spent about 1k digging trenches and laying conduit…

But that was it … installation is nothing more than installing a 100amp breaker in your panel … and the $30 lockout tab.

Homeowner work.

I'm relying on this blog post[0] that was originally posted to r/homelab, which stated $20K for purchase and installation of a 27 kW Generac.

While I am comfortable running new branch circuits and panels to code, I suspect most people are not.

[0] https://blog.networkprofile.org/generac-rg027-install-27kw-1...

You make it sound like I can soon see the sequel "Mad Max: The Plains of Texas".