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Originally Posted by DEI37
We are looking at getting a generator to power the house, versus relying on Public Service.
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I guess I'm confused as to why you want to do this. Do you have THAT many power outages?
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Rumour has it, and I'm looking in to it a little more, that a homeowner with a generator under 20Kw can send power back on to the grid and receive a credit at the same rate as they would be charged.
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Rumor has it correct, but needs some clarification:
1) you must generate ALL of the power that you use that month. Any extra power that you generate will be bought by the power company (not always at the rate you pay - generally it's at the rate THEY pay - you obviously pay more so they can make a profit).
Now what you need to think about is how much gasoline it's going to take to power your house plus send some back. Especially with today's gas prices, I'm guessing you'll be broke in a month
But even back when gas was at or under a buck a gallon, it would still have been grossly inefficient - otherwise everyone would have their own generator.
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Question is, where would I really go to find that kind of information, to make sure that I would get that kind of credit, and most importantly, how would I about wiring up something like that so it "spun the meter backwards?"
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Call the power company and ask them.
They'll want to wire that up for you - and you should let them. You'll be tapping into a very powerful line in order to do this and if you don't know what you're doing you will most likely die.
As others have mentioned, if you want to EFFICIENTLY power your house you need solar. Another good one is to install a wind turbine, but many local ordinances prohibit them.
Also, looking for ideas for generators. Need it to be "cost efficient." Low purchase price, low cost of operation, combined with reliability and fuel efficiency. Also, either diesel or gas. With gas prices that much lower than diesel, and the purchase price being lower, I would think that diesel just wouldn't be a real option, unless it ran non stop.[/QUOTE]