I hope more people chime in, this is one of those threads that is such a teachable lesson for all of us.

I need to see this sort of dialogue, as I have no generator and often thought these same things.

i'm more of a outdoor problem "survival" person but a home generator to power our natural gas furnace fan and a light or two is something that crosses my mind every time i'm in a Big Box store buying a couple 2x4's or a can or paint.at sub zero temps it would not take long to freeze us out but running the furnace enough to keep the place in the 50's would be good enough and save on gas.the only thing that keeps me from walking out with one is that a generator with the power to start a fan motor is sort of spendy.keeping the fan running is not the problem.i have had the furnace pilot light go out a couple times but a restart is no hassle..that seems to happen on a really cold AM when every furnace in Minneapolis kicks in at 6:00 and the pressure drops..but i digress---yes,a generator would be a good idea for short term --less than a week--use..

Well, I really like this one.

So what happens if you someday try to sell your house and it still has that tank in it? Though "converting" (yellow paint and some warning stickers?) it to store diesel fuel might give you a pass.

-Blast

Blast - That is the one I plan to get It's from old school refridgerated train trucks. HF had/has them rebuilt and they will run the home owner until they die. Those units if purchased new are 20,000$+ Keep in mind you still need a control box and a few other things.

Just look at the specs of that thing though...
1200rpm = Run forever & Cool
2.40 gallons per hour
20,000 watts!

Could power more than your house with that Sips gasoline compared to the medium size gas engines. It will last at least 10x longer than the gas engine that size. And the price is awesome.

Did I mention HF runs 20-30% off coupons

For the price that generator can not be beat.

(There are also other companies who rebuild and sell the same one as kits or as coplete units w/gas tanks, etc, if anyone is interested.)

Basically if you have 10,000$ to spend on a complete diesel setup those old diesels rebuilt are AWESOME.

I'm interested.

My dream is to run one of these on WVO to power the house full time in the winter and use the coolant to heat the house.

Any generator hookup will be required by code to have special isolators built in to prevent energizing the "grid" from your house. This is a safety thing for the crews working on the power lines. We had an electrician wire up the heater, the well pump, hot water heater, kitchen, bathroom and workshop lights and outlets to a plug-in and circuit breaker box/isolator. When power goes off, we plug one cord into one socket and fire up gen set. Necessary stuff works, but we don't need a very big generator.
I prefer the NG or propane over gasoline or diesel. Gas and diesel will eventually "rot" and not be usable if stored long-term. NG and propane lasts forever in storage. Propane tanks are now made to be burried, so there's no unsightly tank in the yard, just some pipe and valves that are easily hidden by shrubs or an artificial "stone" made to hide septic cleanouts hidden.

Just came off 48 hours of "no power" after a vicious windstorm. This is at my parents' rural home. Big tree took out the 15KV feeder line and ripped out the anchors and the top right off the transformer. They were out of town, so I was on call. Saturday night.

The big worry was three big freezers and a fridge full of meat and other good food. I knew the freezers would hold for 12 hours for sure, probably up to 24, but I wanted to stay on the safe side.

It was well past dark dark by the time I got my place set up and went over (my power was off too, but only 11 hours luckily.) High voltage wires on the ground got my attention; probably dead, but had to stay well clear of the metal fence they were lying on.

Starting an unfamiliar genset past midnight, when tired and groggy, is a hassle. Found gas, double-checked it wasn't diesel or 2-cycle mix (healthy paranoia), double-checked the genset did in fact use gasoline, double-checked oil, double-checked for any fuel spills, made sure two extinguishers were within reach.

Luckily the transfer (isolation) switch had just been wired in with a cable and compatible 220VAC plug; I was expecting to have to run 12 gauge extension cords right to the freezers and plug them in directly. I still opened the case to confirm the wiring looked right. Again, healthy paranoia in an unfamiliar setup.

Moved the transfer switch to off, plugged in the cable and fired up the genset, a big worksite DeWalt. Away she went. Flipped the transfer switch and she went from idle to full roar.

Power in the house - now we're in business. Kept a close eye on the generator a while, then made sure all the freezers were running. Called in the outage to the wires provider - no surprise, they were swamped.

Now I was on an 8-hour schedule - drive over, run genset for a couple of hours, secure everything and leave. Had to reposition the genset the next night when rain started splattering down. Should have thought of that beforehand. Found some planks for ramps, and rolled it under an overhang with some rain and wind cover, but still far enough from the house for fire/carbon monoxide safety.

Crew showed up this morning (Monday) to fix the wiring. Power on my mid-afternoon. Freezers survived - nothing lost. Parents showed up an hour after the mains came back on.

Other random thoughts and learnings FWIW:
- Some corded telephones have an internal rechargeable battery that runs the keypad. This will konk out after a day.
- The information by the phone is vital when friends/family are helping out. I.e., legal land location, first call numbers for utilities, stuff nobody else knows off the top of their head.
- Thou shalt not forget thine headlamp at home (idiot).
- Thou shalt wear shoes inside a darkened house.
- Know how to turn off (disable) the alarm system; they freak out when the internal battery runs down.
- CO detectors will cuss at you after 24 hours off line power. I just yanked out the batteries. If I'd have been sleeping over, I would have kept one in operation just in case.

All is well, but I'm beat. My bed is calling me.

Word of wisdom gained through bitter experience I am sure.
Glad it is all good for you now.

I wouldn't worry about this, but if you stored gas in it, that might be an issue.

Diesel and home-heating fuel are the same thing. When I used to move the stuff in bulk, we moved "2 oil" in barges, which was also regularly referred to as both diesel and home-heating oil. I have heard people lament because there was no real diesel fuel anymore and all of it was No. 2 oil, but when there was a real difference is not something I can tell you. From the statements, it was implied that what they considered diesel was a lighter and better grade of fuel.

Also, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_oil

Which provides: "No. 2 is the diesel that trucks and some cars run on, leading to the name "road diesel". It is the same thing as heating oil."

I would do some research into what you would need to do to keep the diesel, gas or any fuel you choose to store, stable and usable.

FWIW, I have a generator that runs off of NG piped into the house. Neat, simple, works. So long as we pay the gas bills and the pipeline still has gas running through it, it should continue to work for a long time.

If you use NG, then the storage tank might be something you could fit out to store something else, or replace it with something else. For example, I wouldn't store water in an old fuel tank, but that space might make for a great store of water.

How long have you had the NG generator? Is it one of the automated units? If so, when it performs its scheduled exercise, does it actually put a load on the generator or does it just run for a while? Thanks for any info that you might provide.