What's a generator good for, anyway?

Thanks to the media coverage of the devastating ice storms in Quebec and eastern Ontario, you've probably heard the word "generator" more often during the last week than you have in the past decade. And as we've so abruptly learned, modern society is really just a power failure away from the stone age. It's also clear that those with generators have been the lucky few. They've only been thrown back to the bronze age. Those without access to any kind of back up electrical power have been driven to emergency shelters as their houses froze, plumbing pipes burst and darkness set in. Access to a portable generator has made the difference between inconvenience and catastrophe in this recent emergency, and no-doubt it will again. Perhaps it'll occur a little farther west next time. But exactly what can a generator really do for you in an extended power failure? What can't one do? How do you rig one up to help?

A Source of Basic Power

Modern homes use gobs of electricity, but much of this energy consumption is for luxury purposes, like house-wide lighting, water heating, clothes drying and entertainment. Once electrical use has been pared back to the essentials, energy demands are much lower. It's the meeting of these very basic electrical needs that a portable generator can accomplish for you.

Electrical generators are rated in "watts" of output; the same watts used to rate light bulbs and other appliances. Portable generators that can be carried by one or two people typically deliver 1000 to 5000 watts of electricity. A 5000 watt unit, for example, is enough to provide basic household lighting (500 watts), power a water well pump (800 watts), heat a small cooking device like a toaster oven (1500 watts), power your fridge (1000 watts), and operate the thermostat and blower on your gas or oil furnace (1000 watts), all at the same time. (And don't forget, even if your home is heated with oil or gas, the furnace won't work without electricity too.) Also keep in mind that generator wattage ratings are peak output levels, not sustainable ones. Generators can safely produce about 80% of their rated maximum outputs for extended periods. In other words, a generator will keep you going, but don't plan any big parties until the grid's back up.

Electric Heat is Out

No portable generator is capable of delivering useful amounts of household heat through a network of baseboard heaters, since these devices demand too much juice. A well-insulated, electrically-heated house can still demand 10,000 watts of power or more at peak demand on a cold day. If your home is electrically heated, then you're truly dependent on the grid for warmth. And for the same reasons, it's just not practical to power your electric oven, water heater or clothes dryer with a portable generator. Large, heat-producing appliances are all energy hogs and they'll take most, if not all, the output of a large portable generator. A typical clothes dryer, for instance, will suck back almost 3500 watts of electricity. That's enough to run an arc welder!

Choosing a Generator

Generators that are big enough to be useful in a household emergency cost at least $1000.00. Big ones are a lot more. Top-drawer models are quiet, sip fuel sparingly, and have an automatic switching feature that throttles the engine back to an idle to save gas when no electricity is being demanded. Cheap generators are loud, have no smart features and guzzle fuel. When it comes to generators, you really do get what you pay for.

Buying a generator for a once-in-a-decade emergency is costly, but there are alternatives. If you can trust your neighbours, for instance, how about sharing the cost of a generator between two or three households? Even if you only get to use it half or one-third of the time, it'll still keep your home livably warm and habitable. If you've got an electricity-free cottage, perhaps you can justify the cost of a generator if it gets seasonal use up north. Your chance of renting a generator during a major ice storm is about as likely as your house not getting covered in ice during a downpour of freezing rain.

Making Your House Generator-Friendly

With the exception of the toaster oven I mentioned earlier, none of the essential electrical devices in most homes has a cord you can plug into a generator's outlet. So how do you get electricity from your backyard generator to, say, the thermostat and blower of your gas furnace? Or your living room lights? Or your water pump?

The very best way to get generator-produced electricity into your home for emergency purposes is by installing a system of wiring that allows the power to be fed directly into your electrical panel to existing circuits already buried within your walls. This way you don't have to fool around with multiple extension cords leading outside, plus you can power all those essential services that are hard-wired directly into your electrical panel. Of course, a hardware link between your panel and a generator must be installed before any emergency arises, since no one's going to rush out to your place with a tool belt on when society is crashing down around everyone's ears. A hardware link to your panel must also follow strict electrical code guidelines that exist to protect hydro workers from electricity accidentally fed back through the grid by your generator. The code is quite clear on this. Any hardware link between a secondary source of power (like a generator) and your panel must be controlled by a switch that allows either one source or the other to be turned on, but not both grid and generator at the same time. Discuss the requirements with an electrician since you'll almost certainly need professional help with this installation. One useful arrangement I've seen has an electrical port near the panel that accepts a thick cable from a backyard generator. The cable is fed in through a slightly open basement window from outside and into the port. Once you've got generator power flowing into your home, select the essential circuits you need, then shut-down the rest by flipping breakers off or removing fuses from the panel.

Like the Boy Scouts Say, "Be Prepared"

The quality of your emergency preparations depends on how much trouble you go to ahead of time. Making your home generator-ready takes money and commitment. Is it worth it? That depends a lot on the weather.