We had a whole house generator installed today.

[usonian]

22. I have a 250 gallon tank. My recollections are vague. I think I forget on purpose.

First, the 16KW is way oversized. Size was based on home a/c plus the usual appliances, plus the 2hp submersible well pump plus the 1hp booster pump. I go way under that, though I really don’t review my regular usage (normally on the PG&E bill, which I can check) Except during heat waves (which we have had mercilessly this year) my usage is said to be less than “efficient homes”. That’s because I don’t use much electricity at all, except when the A/C is running, given that my home has no shade (which is great for fire safety, go figure)

I’m going to guesstimate and say that I can run about a week in the summer, using one window air conditioner at a time instead of the central air, to conserve gas.

One winter storm, I was away, and set the thermostat low, using electricity to keep the food from spoiling and run the heat tapes throughout the water (well) system. I recall that this lasted almost two weeks. Neighbor and I were begging daily for a refill (they wanted to be sure that the snow was gone from the driveway. )

Problem is that the tank is never 100% filled, on purpose. IIRC, in summer “full” is more like 70% to allow for the heat.

The local propane company asks generator users to call in when the tank reads 40%, since power could go out any old time.

I looked on the web to see what others say, and they are all over the map, from 2 days! to 500 hours (20 days). So much for the internet. If I review my journal, I may update the numbers.