On Mon, 21 Aug 2006 04:30:34 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus16089 quickly quoth:
In the summer?
If not, how will your wife prepare hot meals?
Reasonable.
First, you'll want the a/c during the day (especially during mealmaking) and furnace at night.
I'm no expert but I agree with him. Until I looked at getting a genset, I had no idea how many amps I pull on a normal day. After washing dishes (which turns on the pump and water heater), I nuke a meal or cook on my electric range while the a/c is on. Ba-boom! 38A water heater, 8A pump, 30A range, + lights + TV: There went your 7kw and a couple kW more! It all adds up quickly.
You might want to look into using relays so that when the heavier loads are being used, they'll cut out other high-amp circuits for the duration. That should be easy to do with your superior scrounging skillset, Ig.
Sharing your generator output with neighbors is a friendly idea which will surely bite you in the butt the first time it's used.
-- Instant Gratification Takes Too Long!
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