Small house generators STX

@sttanon

What size (kWh) and voltage (120 only or 120/240 volt) do you need? Are you looking for a specific fuel (diesel/gas/propane/multifuel)? Are you looking for a basic generator or do you have specific needs (power clean enough to charge solar batteries, for instance)?

Gallows Bay hardware usually starts putting out more generators this time of year - I think they had Ford and one other brand last year. They normally keep a couple models in stock, but usually bring in more variety.

Plaza East sells an off brand (I think it's Firman).

You could also call Quality Electric and St Croix Trading to see if they have anything.

If you're looking for something better, it may be worth ordering it to be delivered to your shipping company of choice (Paradise/VI Cargo/etc) and pay the freight. That's how I got my Honda EU7000 here a couple years ago. It was actually cheaper to shop around and pay $120-150 freight than to order it in Miami from Home Depot and have it delivered to my shipping company.

There's several discussions on generators (some you were part of) if you search for generator in the forum.

Gasoline or natural gas generator? If you have the option of natural gas at your house, that would be the best option. The only way I would select propane is if you heat your house with propane and have a large tank. Otherwise, go with gasoline.

Posted by: @harle29

Gasoline or natural gas generator? If you have the option of natural gas at your house, that would be the best option.

Natural gas? In the Virgin Islands? Obviously you don't live here.

We used to have one of those portable gas generators until recently. Ours was labelled The Beast and put out 12KW peak which was nice. But, it was still just a gas generator and the power it put out was so dirty that our AC units and stereo equipment wouldn't run. Load management was also essential as it would groan heavily if I ran the Keurig and toaster oven at the same time, or the dryer plus something.

Last year we bought a military surplus MEP 803a in mint condition with only 47 hours from a friend of ours on STX who sells a lot of them. This diesel generator is badged as 10KW (continuous) but output is probably closer to 12KW and easily runs everything in our 3400 sf home including two AC mini splits, hot tub, etc. I rarely see it over 25% output capacity with normal load. Being military, its incredibly well built as well as being idiot proof, incredibly quiet and puts out very clean power.

I used to dread dragging The Beast out and would often sit in the dark rather than go through the bother. But, now that I have my MEP 803a, I eagerly go over to its little house and fire it up so I can continue to enjoy comfort while most of the rest of the neighborhood sits in the dark.

With my MEP 803a and Starlink satellite internet , I no longer fear major hurricanes!

Bring it on!

@harle29 

Heat your house… in St Croix lol

We bought our generator at Quality Electric.  It is a whole house on-demand Cummins-Onan.  We went with propane as our fuel source since our home already had propane for cooking and we've since added a propane on-demand water heater and clothes drier.  We upgraded our propane capacity by buying a new 500 gallon propane tank.  In true St. Croix style, the best deal on a 500 gallon tank was at the grocery store (Plaza East).  When we do experience outages, the generator would kick on automatically within a few seconds.  

Since then, we had Mike Bruno's solar company install solar panels and a large capacity battery.  Now this is our primary source of power 24x7.  During the day we use the solar for our household needs and have excess to charge the battery which is used for power at night.  In the event of an outage, the battery powers the home and the delay is so small we don't ever notices power outages anymore unless we notice someone else's generator kicking on.  We still have the propane whole home generator as our last resort.  

In the event of an outage, the battery powers the home and the delay is so small we don't ever notices power outages anymore unless we notice someone else's generator kicking on.  We still have the propane whole home generator as our last resort.  

Wise people avoid WAPA at all costs! Mike Bruno is the best. He did our system too. We haven't paid for electricity for years and actually get a credit every month.

Agree Mike Bruno is the best, he did our solar installation.  In April we added a Kohler 28kW diesel generator with a 100 gallon tank which serves as the base of the unit.  This back’s up the house plus our two cottages which don’t have solar as each is on a separate meter.  So far the system has been working perfectly and is amazingly quiet, it also has a John Deere motor, which is kind of cool.

If you don't need 10-12 kilowatts, the best you can find will likely be the Honda EU7000is

The quality of the power is very high and I see about 16-18 hours of run time on a 5 gallon tank of gas when charging my batteries. You can purchase a dual fuel kit for it to run it on propane if you really want it or order it set up for propane.

I'm actually using it to boost my solar batteries at the moment, as my inverter keeps dropping WAPA because of poor power quality...

It's nice to have company from the mainland, but it can be a hit to your solar if they won't turn off lights, fans, TVs, etc...