Dead Water Heater, Power Outages and Generators Oh My!

[Zombie13]

Well, the water heater is dead. But hey, we don't own the house so Heck yeah! We don't have buy the thing. It has always chugged out nont-clear water; it was drained last week. Saturday morning - the water temp was 180 degrees - I used a thermometer, took a pic, sent to the landlord. Can we say, meltdown? I think it's too late. Sunday morning, no hot water. So the house is getting a new one tomorrow, not on our dime.
Since this area is known for power outages, we are looking at power generators. We saw a Westinghouse one, 4500W peak/3700 nominal power, $750 ($350 off at Lowes). We may use the Capital One card, for the points. Thing is, we will need to run power cables from the generator, to necessary items like the fridge, if we have a long duration outage. Anyone have experience with generators?

[Barbisi]

The funny thing is the water heater in Colorado wasn't in the best condition and one of the realtors suggested cleaning out the sediment by draining and refilling the tank (just as the landlord here did last week) before putting that house on the market. We demurred because of the cost and since we ended up selling to an investor anyway, it didn't turn out to be an issue.
The 30-year-old furnace ended up costing us $3,500 because it was clearly on the brink and barely functioning and the realtor negotiated the discount for the investor in order to facilitate the closing thereby ending any further buyer objections. We still came out with far more than we could have gotten on the open market, given all the outdated appliances and ageing systems.
This house, although attractive on the surface, is really in need of a whole redo and total systems update.
For starters, the overlarge indoor non-working party hot tub, an eyesore relic of the 1990's, will have to be removed somehow from the downstairs' basement floor. (As an "ignorant" layman, I can only imagine what a logistic and physical nightmare that process will be! I can only guess that the entire walkout basement will have to be gutted and totally modernized.)
As Zombie13 has stated many times before, it's not our problem because we are only renting, TG!

[shipo]

Regarding the generator you're looking at; I "cheated" when I set up a generator for our last house. Given our house was wired for an electric clothes dryer, I rigged up a 240 volt switch to flip the dryer circuit from the wiring between the breaker box to the dryer to new wiring out to the garage where I set up a box with the wiring from the switch coming in one side and a very thick flexible cable with a round four prong plug coming out the other side. When we needed the generator I wheeled it outside, fired it up, plugged in the cable, and then flipped off the breaker for the dryer, flipped the switch from dryer to garage, and then flipped the breaker back on.

Given 240 volt breakers feed both sides of your panel, this methodology will allow you to feed electricity to your entire home; the wrinkle here is your generator, as with the one I had, doesn't have anywhere near enough power for high energy use devices (dryers, ovens, A/C units...), so you need to manage what you turn on and when.

[Zombie13]

That is a cool idea. We have seen how that can be done, with an L-type switch which toggles between the main breaker and the generator breaker on the breaker panel. But we are renting so we would have to run extension cables into the house to power devices.

[shipo]

The problem with the L-Type switches is they only work for a few circuits in the home, by feeding the entire panel via the dryer circuit, you get to pick and choose what parts of the house are on and when.

[Barbisi]

shipo , since we are only renting, we would need to obtain the landlord's permission before we rewired his circuit breaker box. And since he is a land developer, his chief concern is to keep his as- is house in rent -worthy shape- that is why we payed for the portable air conditioners, air duct cleaning, etc.
Our "comfort" is not his concern, LOL! (Remember when you rented the horse cleaning stable during your BK13?)
Frankly, the main reason we rented this fixer-upper rambler was because of our post-BK13 score. He checked our credit and didn't mind and also didn't care about 3 cats and the old dingy, stained carpet and nail holes in the walls.
In less than two years our credit will better than most and we will have our pick of the rental market.

[Zombie13]

Good to know shipo . When we own a home again, we can talk to an electrician about it. I did watch a youtube video last night which supported the possibility of powering the home: main breaker goes off, generator breaker and connected outlet come on. Fortunately as renters we don't have to deal with the expense and such. Now, the landlord is replacing the water heater, which is of course his obligation. I think, when we leave, and he preps this house, it will be modernized, dependent on available utilities in this neck of the woods. For example, there is no natural gas here, which is interesting. Oh and one internet provider could only offer 6 Mbps download speed... wow lol.

[Zombie13]

To clarify, the video discusses functionality exactly as you have described with the dryer circuit, except it involves the main breaker. The whole home cannot be powered, but rather, you have to pick and choose what you use, and you need to calculate power usage of each intended item beforehand.

[shipo]

The other option would be to buy/make a flexible extension cord long enough to run from your dryer plug to outside where the generator will go. If you take this option, there will be no rewiring, simply turn off the dryer, turn off the service from the street, plug in the generator and then flip the dryer breaker back on; instant power to the whole house without rewiring anything.

[Barbisi]

Zombie13, I think you should qualify that statement of "when we buy a house....., etc." with "if we buy.....etc." after those two residence fiascos! Buying another house is the last thing on my mind right here and now.
Sorry shipo , I didn't mean you rented a horse stable to live in , rather I meant you rented an apartment in exchange for taking care of the horses and their stables, which is hardly a luxury setup. I contracted pneumonia 2 weeks ago from what I suspect is the filthy air ducts, which only got cleaned after I was on very strong antibiotics last week. I 've been loopy ever since , LOL!

[shipo]

No worries Barbisi, get better (and less loopy) soon!

[Zombie13]

shipo - yeah that makes sense. Though since we are renting, and in 1997, this house burned to the ground (and was rebuilt), I think I may just use extension cables.
Barbisi - yep, *IF* we buy a house again, indeed!

[Barbisi]

UPDATE : So far, the electricity hasn't gone out and the two different generators (I'll let Zombie13 explain exactly what kind each is- I'm afraid that's above my current pay grade, LOL!) on the way to us and should arrive by Monday.
As for my loopiness, I'm still a little off but am slowly I hope, getting better. Pneumonia is no joke even though it not nearly as bad or life-threatening as COVID-19 would be. I have had sinusitis many times and bronchitis three times, but I had never had real pneumonia before.
Luckily at my age, it's not so common and usually isn't too dangerous if treated promptly. I believe the earlier bout with the nearby toxic wildfire smoke coupled with the heating oil furnace powered by filthy air ducts (the technician said the 26-year-old house had never been cleaned once) was a perfect storm for my already weakened immune system. (I.e., six months of continuous stress, double moves, changing air quality, etc. just compromised my system too much for me to handle well.)
Well, what can go awry next?

[Zombie13]

Yep all that'll do it.
These were on sale at Lowes: Westinghouse; both 33% off. One is a 4500W inverter, for 'clean 60 Hz sinusoidal power' - for sensitive electronics such as computers etc. The other is a 9500W 'reglar' generator for refrigerators, lights, etc. We have heard of frequent long power outages out here.

[Carmella]

Barbisi I hope you are feeling better and the pneumonia is clearing up. I know nothing about generators and my husband knows even less. Luckily my neighbor knows about them and the last time we had an outage (which, knock on wood, doesn't last very long maybe 6 hours) he ran an extension cord through my window and he even had a few extension cords through my backyard to my other neighbor's window. We could only use a space heater a lamp the TV, we also had the router or whatever it's called hooked up LOL.

Yes our houses are pretty close together.