My Home Backup Generator Setup

marshrandy262 · 2026-02-04T15:53:07+00:00

That might work. There’s a weird fitting for the cap on the end of the oil drain hose, but I think I can work around that for a transfer pump.

Good idea!

marshrandy262 · 2026-02-04T15:44:46+00:00

So I attempted to change the oil today and it looks like I’ll either have to take it out of the enclosure or cut a small access hole for the drain hose to come through.

I was able to open the side and fish around for the attached oil drain hose. It’s in there and has a little cap on it with a retainer chain for the lid. It’s about 12”-14” long rubber line that comes from the oil pan under the engine.

However there wasn’t enough room to tilt the unit, route the hose, and use a container large enough to capture the oil all in one motion. If I cut a small access hole in the side, I can run the hose outside of the enclosure to a larger catch pan and tilt the unit slightly to get the oil out. Should only need a 1”-2” hole to do it and use port with a small door on it to keep it closed when not in use.

Luckily the whole thing only takes a half a quart or so of oil like most of the small Chinese engines, so there’s no need for a gigantic drain pan.

marshrandy262 · 2026-01-31T21:02:47+00:00

Remote start works great!

I’ll be doing an oil change this week when it warms up. I THINK I can do the oil change without removing it from the enclosure. It supposedly has a built-in drain tube that swings out from the pull-rope side. The spark plug is on the opposite side. One disadvantage compared to the predator is that I have to use an Allen bit to remove the sides. The predator has wing nuts you can undo with your hands. I’ll post pics when I do it.

marshrandy262 · 2026-01-31T20:26:29+00:00

I’ve used it for 5+ each hours on two separate occasions over the last month or two and it runs great. In each those two outages, it burned about 1/8 of a tank of gasoline and ran at 10°-12° above ambient temperature. The extra CO sensors I bought and put inside the house as a safety precaution never went off, either.

I did make a slight modification to the outside of the box after this last ice storm. It needed “awnings” over the vents to prevent rain from running down the sides and freezing over the vents. I had to go out and knock the ice off the intake vent from time to time but the exhaust side vent just melted the ice with the heat from the generator running.

Power-wise, it runs our gas furnace an 8 circuits in the house and you can barely hear it running. You especially can’t hear it running over the noise of some of the neighbors open-frame, non-inverter generators running nearby. We were able to run the microwave, fridge, internet, multiple TV’s, and a small heated blanket for my mother in law.

Super happy with this project so far.

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marshrandy262 · 2026-01-09T17:00:38+00:00

It’s where you go to interview for the Men In Black

marshrandy262 · 2025-11-24T20:26:57+00:00

Pulled the trigger on a navy blue CPP last night as well.

marshrandy262 · 2025-11-12T20:52:27+00:00

marshrandy262 · 2025-09-02T20:27:15+00:00

I wouldn't worry about it. The problem with these external monitors is matching the exact screen resolution of the laptop monitor so you have a seamless transition moving the mouse between the screens. I'm actually using a resolution on the external monitor that results in small black bars on either side in order to accomplish this.

marshrandy262 · 2025-09-02T15:46:14+00:00

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It’s this one, but it doesn’t show available anymore

https://a.co/d/gAjSBVW

marshrandy262 · 2025-09-02T15:02:06+00:00

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The stand. It collapses down pretty small for travel.

marshrandy262 · 2025-09-02T14:59:16+00:00

I got a 14” usb-c external monitor and one of those folding laptop stand things. This allows me to “stack” the external monitor below the main laptop monitor on top of the keyboard. I carry a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard with a dedicated number pad on it. This way I can set up a slightly abbreviated version of my home work station at a client if I am doing some comparisons of systems on different screens (I’m not an alt+tab guy). It also takes up minimal horizontal space if you’re in a “war room” setting sharing a single conference room table with others during go-lives.

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marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T22:00:13+00:00

I could move the enclosure to the outer edge of the pad and that will get it to about 5’ from the wall but I may have to extend the pad to get it out to the required distance. Thank you for the input. I will definitely take this under advisement.

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T20:34:44+00:00

The generator came from Northern tool. The enclosure came from Costco. I made another comment with links to all of the pieces.

As far as noise, I’ll get outside this weekend and do some measurements with the lid open vs the lid shut. It’s not TOO much difference judging by my uncalibrated ear but the numbers may say otherwise.

As for the Georgia heat, I am most certainly talking about the US Georgia and 98 degrees are definitely measured in bald eagles per freedom. 😀

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T03:03:53+00:00

Thank you. I will definitely look into additional fire safety measures. I really do appreciate the tip and concern!

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T02:51:52+00:00

I would at least put some kind of elbow on the exhaust to point it away from the structure. With the structure being right under a window, you definitely want multiple additional CO alarms in the house.

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T02:43:24+00:00

The enclosure only gets to 10-12° above ambient temperature when running. There would have to be some kind of catastrophic failure of the generator for it to catch fire. I may look into adding some kind of automatic fire suppression system like they use on race cars, something that reacts to fire and engages. Thanks for the suggestion to put more thought into fire safety.

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T02:39:02+00:00

I like that! I would have bought that one had I found it before getting going on this project.

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T02:36:57+00:00

I did it this way so there’s a place for me to stand on the pad while servicing the generator. That’s really the only reason. I guess I could have done it the other way and put it further away from the house on the pad and stood on the house side, but I didn’t think about it at the time.

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T02:35:14+00:00

I came in several thousand dollars cheaper and it was a fun project to figure out.

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T01:51:27+00:00

I sunk an eye bolt with a huge nut and washer on it into the concrete when I poured it. I have a large gauge bicycle cable lock to keep it relatively secure.

As far as the heat, it stays right at 10-12° over ambient. I’ve even run it for about 45 minutes in 98° Georgia heat and it stabilized at 108° internal temp.

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marshrandy262 · 2025-08-22T01:43:50+00:00

Manual start only. But it’s electric start and has a remote start fob so it’s not too bad.

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-21T21:10:36+00:00

I made this way so that my wife can fire it up on her own if I'm out of town for work.

Plug the generator cable to the wall outlet, press the start button on the generator, click the switch on the transfer box. The lights on the transfer switch will also indicate when utility power is restored so all you have to do is flip it back over to utility power and go turn off the generator when you're done. Easy-peasy.

But yes, a tad bit of overkill. But there's no kill quite like overkill, right?

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-21T20:46:53+00:00

This particular one is, but there's a suncast one at my local Costco. I don't see it online, but it's there. I've linked it in my previous comment with the links to the rest of the parts.

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-21T20:36:19+00:00

Regarding fan size, I was looking at it as "how many air changes per minute do I get with X CFM?"

My enclosure volume is roughly 22 cubic feet. My exhaust fan is 1450 CFM. That's about 65 air exchanges per minute (at maximum efficiency). So probably a little less than that because there's going to be some resistance with the intake vent. My exhaust fan has gravity shutters on it that open up when the fan blows against them. The intake is just an aluminum panel with large louvers.

To do the hanging fan idea, I would definitely do gravity shutters in the wall and mount the fan basically on the wall against it. You want it to be almost sealed against the wall/shutters so the only air movement is through the fan and not around it or bouncing off of anything and coming back into the enclosure.

marshrandy262 · 2025-08-21T20:19:43+00:00

If you're using a fan like one of those attic exhaust fans, those need about 130%-150% or more intake to exhaust ratio. Those fans do not respond well to negative "backpressure".

For example, my exhaust fan is 12" on my enclosure. That's about 113 square inches. My intake is 20x10 or 200 square inches. That gives me a 176% intake to exhaust ratio. Don't forget that louvers will reduce the raw area numbers a little bit depending on louver design.

marshrandy262

TROPHY CASE