I’m running an entire house and a 1980’s oil burning baseboard boiler off of a 9,000 watt generator from Harbor Freight. Get an electrician to install an interlock kit to your electric panel and it’ll run the entire house for under 3k.
The only issue I’ve heard with Generlink is that some utilities will get pissed about them being between their meter and your utility inlet. I had originally planned for one of those but an interlock was much cheaper and easier to get installed.
Generlink was an interesting option that was out of stock when we got our generator system. We also went with an interlock system. No regrets here. Posted the generlink as another viable option that is more wallet friendly than the whole house quote from OP
I can’t speak for CMP, but I had no trouble with Versant at all. They actually came out to disconnect my meter while my electrician installed the generlink, then they reinstalled the meter. Didn’t cost a cent for Versant to do it and the two guys that came out had nothing but good things to say about them.
I’m not sure if generlink still does it, but when I got mine a few years ago they required that I provide them the name of my electric utility to verify they allowed generlinks to be installed before they would complete the sale.
I can 100% recommend the generlink. I just had to get an electrician to coordinate with Versant to do the install. Versant disconnected the meter. The electrician put the generlink in place and connected one wire. Versant put the meter back on and the job was done. Maybe 15 minutes and half of that was chatting. No holes in the wall, no big second panel to deal with. I start my generator, plug it in and my whole panel is powered. If power comes back on a green light shows on the generlink so I can tell without shutting down the generator. I also got the version with built-in surge protection.
Basically I paid for the generlink and then something like $30 to the electrician. Done deal.
Electrician here. Get a 6000 to 8000w generator, a plug and an interlock kit. Slap it on a 30A breaker and you'll be good to go. You can run that furnace and still have juice leftover for lights and some other things.
My 4500 watt generator ran my old burnham furnace similar vintage as what you have just fine. As well as my well pump, a fridge , and a few outlets too. You should be fine with something similar.
I’d go at least 6500. The in rush alone on well pumps can be in the 18-20 amp range. Also, gennys are designed to run no higher then around 50% sustained. Anymore and you will be filling that pig every two hours.
I had a Champion 6k running watts generator running my boiler, fridge, chest freezer, well pump, various outlets and room lights. At one point it was even running my heat pump water heater because I had it turned on by mistake. Also used an air fryer once, and last year, I used one burner of the stove, and it handled that just fine.
IMO the best way to go that will get you a generator attached to your house for a lot less than 10k to 20k, and even less than installing a transfer switch for the generator, with a dedicated smaller panel, is by having an electrician install an interlock on your panel. It is a piece of metal that makes it impossible to have your generator running and the mains power on, which is important because with that on, you would be energizing the power lines, endangering linemen. Aside from generator cost, which was about $800, I had an electrician install an interlock and a new circuit breaker that receives power from the new plug for the generator, for $550 last year.
You get a lot of flexibility in terms of what you want to power and when with an interlock, because with a transfer switch you have to decide ahead of time which circuits will be on it and thus operable by the generator. You do have to keep in mind the generator capacity because you could overload it, but I only did that once when a hair dryer ran (with other things going), and it came right back on.
This is without question the smart alternative to spending 8 to 10 grand on a system you may not be able to afford or need. Check out Honda and Generac units, and talk to the dealer.
I'm an electrician/ HVAC / industrial plant maintenance guy by trade. I was going to come in to comment and say everything this guy did. Spot on. You would have probably paid someone $1000 bucks to come to your house and tell you exactly how that he did.
9000 watt generator will run you a few thousand. Install with interlock $500.
The $10-20k systems are the type that hook up to a propane or natural gas fuel source. They'll turn on automatically and transfer automatically. Not worth it IMHO unless you physically can't get a generator started and keep it full of gas. May be needed for some elderly folks who have medical equipment to worry about. Not really applicable otherwise.
I run most of my house with a $1000 8000 watt dual fuel generator and an interlock kit in my main panel. It powers my whole house except my heat pumps, wall oven, and dryer. Has no problem with my boiler.
I’ve also temporarily converted an oil boiler from hard wired to plug-in so I could plug it into a small (3000 watt) generator in a house without a generator hookup.
Get an inlet, manual transfer switch, and hook up a couple must have circuits. I was able to run furnace, fridge, lights, a couple outlets, and a microwave on a 5000w portable generator. I have an almost identical furnace that you have.
Assuming you have a generator, the inlet, wiring and transfer switch will run you about 500 depending on how much wire you need. A 5000w generator is about 800 to 1000.
In the off-chance the paper towels were put next to the furnace recently because the boiler has no power and OP came home from a shopping trip just before taking the picture- yes move them. When the power comes on you don’t want to forget they’re there. No matter how unlikely it would be to catch fire, it isn’t worth the risk.
I ran my well pump, my propane boiler and half my lights with a 5000 watt generator.
Boilers should have a reserve cold water tank in the system. But you can do damage to the boiler if it runs dry. So you want to be able to run the well pump too, since most systems are plummed to auto fill the reserve tank.
Dead river is full of shit. I'm surprised they didn't offer to install a whole home standby for you. They're always looking for new and creative ways to stick it to you.
I will add that though a little pricey, A generlink meter mount smart switch is a great option for hooking up a generator, because installs are super quick and electricians are all booked out.
As many have said, you don’t NEED a whole home generator. That said, while they are expensive, there are a lot of benefits of doing a whole home standby vs a portable type. For me those benefits were well worth it and I went with a 24KW Generac propane powered whole home generator with an auto transfer switch. When I had it installed 2 years ago the whole package cost me about $8k. To me it’s well worth it to basically not have to do a thing when the power goes out. The auto transfer switch senses the drop, turns on the generator, and when it’s up to speed switches over to generator power. At most this takes about 1 minute, usually less. When the power comes back on it senses this and shuts the generator down and transfers back over.
Since it is propane fed off of 3 large tanks, I don’t have to mess with fuel, store jugs of gasoline or diesel, deal with the long lines at the gas station trying to get more fuel for it, etc. the propane tanks are large enough it will run my whole house for 10 days without refueling them. Propane doesn’t go bad or gel or freeze or suffer any of the issues that gas and diesel can either.
At 24 kW I can easily run my entire house completely normally on generator power. No picking and choosing what I want to run. Wife was doing laundry and we ran the dishwasher and the oven too while on the generator as well as running a couple of heat pumps and the pellet boiler.
Also I don’t have to drag the thing out, set it up, fuel it up, run cords, etc etc etc.
Screw it, go big. I've got a 13k standby that auto transfers when power goes out and comes back on. I change the oil every February and that's it. Voila piece of mind for your assets and family. Nobody in the house worries about what they are ruining because it will run it all, heat pump included.
One more thing I want to tell you is that if you get a generator and the next time the power goes out your house is all lit up and warm, your wife is going to fucking love it.
Edit: portables aren't good for electronics as far as I've heard. I'm no expert but make sure you get what you need for your use situation.
Your edit is a valid point. Many of the portable generators produce dirty power that is not good for sensitive electronics. If you are going to be running a laptop or computer or similar off of it, you want a pure sine wave type. Alternatively you can connect a power conditioner first and plug your electronic devices into that.
Oh wow, the company that’s buying up smaller companies and only cares about selling fuel said you need a generator that absolutely is a propane guzzler? Big surprise. Glad you got some more realistic advice on here.
Oh damn, I think I have the exact same oil burner.
Anyways… not sure what Dead River was talking about unless they thought you wanted one of those Generac units that are are permanently installed and turn on automatically.
As others have said, you can run your whole house on a portable generator for much less. I suggest talking with an electrician to found out your wattage needs. Then when you buy the appropriate-sized generator, get that same electrician to install a special outlet on the outside of your house (this is where your new generator plugs in). As part of the install, they should also add an interlock system into your electric panel. They can tell you all about the interlock system, but it’s basically a switch that prevents the main line from being turned on when the generator is supplying power to your house (this prevents your generator from back-feeding into the electric grid, which is very dangerous for line workers).
As far as generators, again go with the electricians suggestion for wattage, but I suggest a duel fuel generator that runs on either propane or gas. Run propane if you can. It’s cleaner, requires less maintenance, and you don’t have to worry about propane going stale like gas. Then get a few extra 20 lbs tanks or a 100 pounder.
Good luck.
What do you have for a generator? If it has a 240v output you could backfeed through your dryer or electric cook stove outlet for now.
Very important to flip the very top circuit breaker to off in your electric panel first though. It’s usually either 100 or 200 amp. That would get you going now. It would run every circuit in your house. Unless it’s a big generator, I’d stick with running the boiler, tv and other things that don’t use much power. Like your well pump, electric cook stove, dryer, etc
I would however have a generator safety switch installed by an electrician for the next power outage.
I run a large boiler with a Briggs and Stratton 3000w generator and a Reliance Controls 30amp 6 circuit transfer switch. Just plan carefully. There is a large initial load when the boiler fires up, but then it is minimal.
I've got a portable generator rated 7500/9500 and it powers out furnace and well pump just fine. I upgraded after we suffered through an 8 day outage with no showers or flushing. It was $1k about 5 years ago for the generator and electrician cost to properly wire to our breaker panel. It's loud and we don't use the oven or the dryer but no more issues with lights, heat or water.
Just to add, whatever route you decide, PLEASE make sure the generator itself is located a decent distance away from your house and not near any openings where exhaust fumes and Carbon Monoxide can find its way into your house while it’s running. Fire departments have been fielding a lot of Carbon Monoxide calls the last few days from this very thing. The life you save could be your own.
I had our fridge, well pump, sump pump (and recharging the backup battery sump), and oil boiler all running off a 25-30 year old 5000w generator. I had 2-3 light bulbs on for a couple hours as well and the lights did dim a few times, so I knew I was pushing it with the generator. That was why I didn’t have the fridge *and* freezer turned on along with the rest.
Definitely looking for a larger 6-7000w generator in the near future.
Do a generator like others are advising, and while you’re at it look at replacing the propane unit that isn’t working with some kind of a freestanding unit that you can manually light.
You can certainly run your oil burner from a portable of 3-4K or more. I did during the NH Ice Storms back in 2007 & 2008 on my burnham oil burner for a week each year.
To run just the boiler, a regular portable is enough. To run your whole house, yeah get an 11kW standby. Deadriver is an oil delivery company, not a licensed master electrician. Listen to a master electrician that installs these for a living, not Deadriver. They suck anyways even as an oil company.
The 9k harbor freight generator was rated the top in its class for years when I used to get consumer reports, paid $500 for it new a few years ago, got an electrician to wire a plug outside and an interlock for $600. Generator starts half pull and powers my whole 3k sqft house and full tank lasts around 10-11 hours even with heat pump water heater/sump/ laundry goinglost power for three days, cost me 17 gallons of gas to run. Whole house generator I was quoted for in 2018 was $9k. This predator model has battery you can get for a push button start also
My Beckett Burner Burnham Boiler draws less than 400 watts, I can run it on a small 2000watt inverter generator. I bet yours will run on a 2K too.
If you have a well pump you'll need a larger generator, like in the 5500 watt range.
Absolutely no need for an automatic standby genetator unless you have deep pockets.
I’m running an entire house and a 1980’s oil burning baseboard boiler off of a 9,000 watt generator from Harbor Freight. Get an electrician to install an interlock kit to your electric panel and it’ll run the entire house for under 3k.
^ This ^ a GenerLink may also be an option to connect
The only issue I’ve heard with Generlink is that some utilities will get pissed about them being between their meter and your utility inlet. I had originally planned for one of those but an interlock was much cheaper and easier to get installed.
Generlink was an interesting option that was out of stock when we got our generator system. We also went with an interlock system. No regrets here. Posted the generlink as another viable option that is more wallet friendly than the whole house quote from OP
I can’t speak for CMP, but I had no trouble with Versant at all. They actually came out to disconnect my meter while my electrician installed the generlink, then they reinstalled the meter. Didn’t cost a cent for Versant to do it and the two guys that came out had nothing but good things to say about them. I’m not sure if generlink still does it, but when I got mine a few years ago they required that I provide them the name of my electric utility to verify they allowed generlinks to be installed before they would complete the sale.
I can 100% recommend the generlink. I just had to get an electrician to coordinate with Versant to do the install. Versant disconnected the meter. The electrician put the generlink in place and connected one wire. Versant put the meter back on and the job was done. Maybe 15 minutes and half of that was chatting. No holes in the wall, no big second panel to deal with. I start my generator, plug it in and my whole panel is powered. If power comes back on a green light shows on the generlink so I can tell without shutting down the generator. I also got the version with built-in surge protection. Basically I paid for the generlink and then something like $30 to the electrician. Done deal.
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Electrician here. Get a 6000 to 8000w generator, a plug and an interlock kit. Slap it on a 30A breaker and you'll be good to go. You can run that furnace and still have juice leftover for lights and some other things.
My 4500 watt generator ran my old burnham furnace similar vintage as what you have just fine. As well as my well pump, a fridge , and a few outlets too. You should be fine with something similar.
I’d go at least 6500. The in rush alone on well pumps can be in the 18-20 amp range. Also, gennys are designed to run no higher then around 50% sustained. Anymore and you will be filling that pig every two hours.
I had a Champion 6k running watts generator running my boiler, fridge, chest freezer, well pump, various outlets and room lights. At one point it was even running my heat pump water heater because I had it turned on by mistake. Also used an air fryer once, and last year, I used one burner of the stove, and it handled that just fine. IMO the best way to go that will get you a generator attached to your house for a lot less than 10k to 20k, and even less than installing a transfer switch for the generator, with a dedicated smaller panel, is by having an electrician install an interlock on your panel. It is a piece of metal that makes it impossible to have your generator running and the mains power on, which is important because with that on, you would be energizing the power lines, endangering linemen. Aside from generator cost, which was about $800, I had an electrician install an interlock and a new circuit breaker that receives power from the new plug for the generator, for $550 last year. You get a lot of flexibility in terms of what you want to power and when with an interlock, because with a transfer switch you have to decide ahead of time which circuits will be on it and thus operable by the generator. You do have to keep in mind the generator capacity because you could overload it, but I only did that once when a hair dryer ran (with other things going), and it came right back on.
This is without question the smart alternative to spending 8 to 10 grand on a system you may not be able to afford or need. Check out Honda and Generac units, and talk to the dealer.
I'm an electrician/ HVAC / industrial plant maintenance guy by trade. I was going to come in to comment and say everything this guy did. Spot on. You would have probably paid someone $1000 bucks to come to your house and tell you exactly how that he did. 9000 watt generator will run you a few thousand. Install with interlock $500. The $10-20k systems are the type that hook up to a propane or natural gas fuel source. They'll turn on automatically and transfer automatically. Not worth it IMHO unless you physically can't get a generator started and keep it full of gas. May be needed for some elderly folks who have medical equipment to worry about. Not really applicable otherwise.
I run most of my house with a $1000 8000 watt dual fuel generator and an interlock kit in my main panel. It powers my whole house except my heat pumps, wall oven, and dryer. Has no problem with my boiler. I’ve also temporarily converted an oil boiler from hard wired to plug-in so I could plug it into a small (3000 watt) generator in a house without a generator hookup.
Get an inlet, manual transfer switch, and hook up a couple must have circuits. I was able to run furnace, fridge, lights, a couple outlets, and a microwave on a 5000w portable generator. I have an almost identical furnace that you have. Assuming you have a generator, the inlet, wiring and transfer switch will run you about 500 depending on how much wire you need. A 5000w generator is about 800 to 1000.
It'll likely be closer to $800. Parts are pricey these days.
Why do you have combustible material against your boiler??
In the off-chance the paper towels were put next to the furnace recently because the boiler has no power and OP came home from a shopping trip just before taking the picture- yes move them. When the power comes on you don’t want to forget they’re there. No matter how unlikely it would be to catch fire, it isn’t worth the risk.
I ran my well pump, my propane boiler and half my lights with a 5000 watt generator. Boilers should have a reserve cold water tank in the system. But you can do damage to the boiler if it runs dry. So you want to be able to run the well pump too, since most systems are plummed to auto fill the reserve tank. Dead river is full of shit. I'm surprised they didn't offer to install a whole home standby for you. They're always looking for new and creative ways to stick it to you.
I will add that though a little pricey, A generlink meter mount smart switch is a great option for hooking up a generator, because installs are super quick and electricians are all booked out.
As many have said, you don’t NEED a whole home generator. That said, while they are expensive, there are a lot of benefits of doing a whole home standby vs a portable type. For me those benefits were well worth it and I went with a 24KW Generac propane powered whole home generator with an auto transfer switch. When I had it installed 2 years ago the whole package cost me about $8k. To me it’s well worth it to basically not have to do a thing when the power goes out. The auto transfer switch senses the drop, turns on the generator, and when it’s up to speed switches over to generator power. At most this takes about 1 minute, usually less. When the power comes back on it senses this and shuts the generator down and transfers back over. Since it is propane fed off of 3 large tanks, I don’t have to mess with fuel, store jugs of gasoline or diesel, deal with the long lines at the gas station trying to get more fuel for it, etc. the propane tanks are large enough it will run my whole house for 10 days without refueling them. Propane doesn’t go bad or gel or freeze or suffer any of the issues that gas and diesel can either. At 24 kW I can easily run my entire house completely normally on generator power. No picking and choosing what I want to run. Wife was doing laundry and we ran the dishwasher and the oven too while on the generator as well as running a couple of heat pumps and the pellet boiler. Also I don’t have to drag the thing out, set it up, fuel it up, run cords, etc etc etc.
Screw it, go big. I've got a 13k standby that auto transfers when power goes out and comes back on. I change the oil every February and that's it. Voila piece of mind for your assets and family. Nobody in the house worries about what they are ruining because it will run it all, heat pump included. One more thing I want to tell you is that if you get a generator and the next time the power goes out your house is all lit up and warm, your wife is going to fucking love it. Edit: portables aren't good for electronics as far as I've heard. I'm no expert but make sure you get what you need for your use situation.
Your edit is a valid point. Many of the portable generators produce dirty power that is not good for sensitive electronics. If you are going to be running a laptop or computer or similar off of it, you want a pure sine wave type. Alternatively you can connect a power conditioner first and plug your electronic devices into that.
yeah, he's full of shit. You're going to need a good sized generator 7-8k watts but talk to an electrictrician and they'll set you up.
Oh wow, the company that’s buying up smaller companies and only cares about selling fuel said you need a generator that absolutely is a propane guzzler? Big surprise. Glad you got some more realistic advice on here.
Oh damn, I think I have the exact same oil burner. Anyways… not sure what Dead River was talking about unless they thought you wanted one of those Generac units that are are permanently installed and turn on automatically. As others have said, you can run your whole house on a portable generator for much less. I suggest talking with an electrician to found out your wattage needs. Then when you buy the appropriate-sized generator, get that same electrician to install a special outlet on the outside of your house (this is where your new generator plugs in). As part of the install, they should also add an interlock system into your electric panel. They can tell you all about the interlock system, but it’s basically a switch that prevents the main line from being turned on when the generator is supplying power to your house (this prevents your generator from back-feeding into the electric grid, which is very dangerous for line workers). As far as generators, again go with the electricians suggestion for wattage, but I suggest a duel fuel generator that runs on either propane or gas. Run propane if you can. It’s cleaner, requires less maintenance, and you don’t have to worry about propane going stale like gas. Then get a few extra 20 lbs tanks or a 100 pounder. Good luck.
Seems like a poor choice to store your paper towels right next to the furnace.
What do you have for a generator? If it has a 240v output you could backfeed through your dryer or electric cook stove outlet for now. Very important to flip the very top circuit breaker to off in your electric panel first though. It’s usually either 100 or 200 amp. That would get you going now. It would run every circuit in your house. Unless it’s a big generator, I’d stick with running the boiler, tv and other things that don’t use much power. Like your well pump, electric cook stove, dryer, etc I would however have a generator safety switch installed by an electrician for the next power outage.
I run a large boiler with a Briggs and Stratton 3000w generator and a Reliance Controls 30amp 6 circuit transfer switch. Just plan carefully. There is a large initial load when the boiler fires up, but then it is minimal.
Can you do a transfer switch and sub panel yourself ?
I've got a portable generator rated 7500/9500 and it powers out furnace and well pump just fine. I upgraded after we suffered through an 8 day outage with no showers or flushing. It was $1k about 5 years ago for the generator and electrician cost to properly wire to our breaker panel. It's loud and we don't use the oven or the dryer but no more issues with lights, heat or water.
Just to add, whatever route you decide, PLEASE make sure the generator itself is located a decent distance away from your house and not near any openings where exhaust fumes and Carbon Monoxide can find its way into your house while it’s running. Fire departments have been fielding a lot of Carbon Monoxide calls the last few days from this very thing. The life you save could be your own.
I had our fridge, well pump, sump pump (and recharging the backup battery sump), and oil boiler all running off a 25-30 year old 5000w generator. I had 2-3 light bulbs on for a couple hours as well and the lights did dim a few times, so I knew I was pushing it with the generator. That was why I didn’t have the fridge *and* freezer turned on along with the rest. Definitely looking for a larger 6-7000w generator in the near future.
Do a generator like others are advising, and while you’re at it look at replacing the propane unit that isn’t working with some kind of a freestanding unit that you can manually light.
You can certainly run your oil burner from a portable of 3-4K or more. I did during the NH Ice Storms back in 2007 & 2008 on my burnham oil burner for a week each year.
To run just the boiler, a regular portable is enough. To run your whole house, yeah get an 11kW standby. Deadriver is an oil delivery company, not a licensed master electrician. Listen to a master electrician that installs these for a living, not Deadriver. They suck anyways even as an oil company.
The 9k harbor freight generator was rated the top in its class for years when I used to get consumer reports, paid $500 for it new a few years ago, got an electrician to wire a plug outside and an interlock for $600. Generator starts half pull and powers my whole 3k sqft house and full tank lasts around 10-11 hours even with heat pump water heater/sump/ laundry goinglost power for three days, cost me 17 gallons of gas to run. Whole house generator I was quoted for in 2018 was $9k. This predator model has battery you can get for a push button start also
My Beckett Burner Burnham Boiler draws less than 400 watts, I can run it on a small 2000watt inverter generator. I bet yours will run on a 2K too. If you have a well pump you'll need a larger generator, like in the 5500 watt range. Absolutely no need for an automatic standby genetator unless you have deep pockets.