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Hi, this is George with Argo electrical services. And I am the surge protector guy. So today, we would like to discuss generators standalone generators versus solar power. What’s the difference? This is podcast number 17. For 2023 standalone generator for automatically provide energy to the property within seconds of a power failure via the grid. Solar powered batteries. With inverters now work on their own software. These inverters control input and output of energy via smart chips, or electronic computer boards. Standalone generators require few most common fuels for these generators, or fossil fuel, LP gas, natural gas. Larger generators can even utilize diesel fuel with Generac. Usually, the 32 kilowatt generators are larger. Utilize diesel fuel, there are options to tie in solar power with an inverter to power these generators as well. Solar units utilize solar power and batteries. To power the home. The inverters convert DC electricity to AC electricity. So going back to the standalone generators, so if you call someone like myself to your home, to, you know, look at purchasing a standalone generator and the standalone generator, what that means is is when you lose power from the grid, the transfer switch sends a message to the generator. within about five seconds the generator cranks the power comes on and confirms there’s no power coming into the system from the grid, the transfer switch will slam in place, keeping out power from the grid and using the power from the running generator. Now, these generators have to have fuel. Like I said, the most common fuels for these generators are fossil fuels, LP gas, natural gas and or diesel fuel. Okay, so if you have natural gas at your home, maybe you’ve got a furnace, maybe your stoves, maybe even your water heaters use gas natural gas or LP gas. So then you’ve already got a fuel source there, if you don’t, you’re gonna have to purchase a somewhere between two and 300 gallon tank to ensure that if your power’s out for four or five days that you’re going to have enough fuel there to be able to power the property. So the solar units use batteries and solar power. So we installed one about three months ago for a gentleman down in Flowery Branch and I was completely impressed with it. Because the whole the whole setup, you know, once we got it installed, we installed the inverter on the load side of the main breakers you know, we came out of that inverter back into the into the load side or the interior electrical panels in the home then we attached a battery, which could be expandable and with one more battery, or even two more batteries. And what that does is it increases the amount of kilowatts that your your home can utilize while it’s operating purely off of the batteries. You can also tie in solar panels to these so you can charge the batteries from the grid during you know normal situations to when there’s you know, no power interruption from your utility. You can also use solar power to charge the batteries you can control whether or not the home is running off the battery power or if it’s running off the grid power. And you know and I would assume that if you had enough solar panels and everything was working efficiently enough that you could even sell power back to your utility. To me this was a total game changer because the the manufacturer of this equipment guaranteed their inverter and their batteries for 10 year lie And, to me, that was a total game changer. Because the, the, the inverter or whatever, and the battery along with the solar panels, the total price for that was about what it would cost for you to buy a generator of, you know, equal strength, and you didn’t have to pay for any fuel. I know that LP gas prices, in particular and natural gas prices, along with diesel fluctuate from time to time. And, you know, and it can be rather expensive, if you were in a rural area. And, um, you know, you have consistent timeframe, to where, you know, the grid is, is, is is not functioning. I totally thought this was a game changer, I mean, to me, we went through it with the engineers from the people that sold the equipment, and we could drain the batteries all the way down to 2% 5% 10%. And then let the grid charge the batteries up, or the solar panels, charge the batteries back up. And then you could run the home off of the batteries, and not be using your energy, especially in the wintertime. And in the summertime. You know, you’re to be able to cut your energy bills, I would say easily by 50%. You know, obviously right after installing it, you wouldn’t immediately pay for it. But I would say over three or four years, you will completely pay for the installation. And then at that point, you would be saving money. And you know, and if these guys actually go for 20 years, golly gee whiz, you could actually run your household cost free from the utility for 510, maybe even 15 years. To me, this was a total game changer. So once again, my name is George, I’m with Oracle electrical services. We’re in the Gainesville, Georgia area, you can contact me 770-596-1437 We’re going to keep these podcasts short and sweet. My dad used to always say that the mind can only absorb what the rear end could endure. So we’re gonna try and keep these podcasts 510 minutes. We’re gonna do four or five, maybe even six more of these podcasts on this. Please stay tuned for more podcasts from us. We talk about all kinds of do it yourself projects and you know, also home improvements that deal with all of the electrical systems in your home. Have a great day and happy new year.
