So the property in question is on about 300 acres in Northwest Maine. The house is wired for 240V but power was never brought into the structure due to the 2/3 mile long driveway and the cost CMP used to charge to run a private line.
Until last winter the house was fed via a gravity feed hand dug-well from the 1700's (it's old farm property). Over 1/4 mile of poly pipe was trenched through the thick woods to the well and it seems to have frozen, somwwhere, and we can no longer keep a gravity prime on it. It used to gravity-feed and now we need a jet pump in the basement to get any water.
Rather than re-visit more than 1/4 mile of trenching we are going to drill a well. I don't expect it to be too deep, tons of natural springs on the property, but we will need to be running this off batteries and an inverter or a generator or suck it up and bring in underground power.. We don't like the idea of a standard generator as it consumes a ton of LPG or gas but a diesel generator has not been ruled out yet. If going with a generator we would want an inverter type.Unfortunately those are very rare in 240V. The Honda EU7000 is the one we'd go with but it does not come factory fitted in LPG. Our current Honda is an EU3000 (converted to LPG) but it has a very, very tough time starting the jet pump. We even ran it on ethanol free gas and it still has a very tough time starting the well pump.
Noise is not an issue, except for us, as the nearest neighbor is over 1 mile away with a very thick Maine woods buffer. The current generator is in a dedicated generator hut with marine sound deadening and a through the wall exhaust system. You can't even hear it when standing on the back deck on a dead calm wind free day. Unfortunately the generator has a tough time starting the 1HP 120V jet pump so we are up against a new generator or PV/batteries/inverter once the well is drilled..
The biggest load will be the new 240V well pump (the well guy does not recommend 120V pump). The rest of the house is LPG (fridge/range/Rinnai etc. and all LED lighting.
I would gladly go with LiFePO4, had it on the boat since 2010, but the house is not heated when we are not there and I do not feel comfortable with heating mats that are unattended. Basement temps, even at floor level, can reach -16F as we measured this last winter with a tracking thermometer. This means a big bank of lead acid batteries.
So we currently have three choices:
Bring in underground power - 19.2K to 32.4K are the quotes (this adds tremendous value to the property)
Solar/Inverter/Battery Bank/Wiring/Racks etc. etc. - Even at wholesale cost I am running numbers that are upwards of 16K, while doing it all myself
Generator - Good only for short stays, less than a week, unless diesel. We chewed through three cheap generators (Generac, DuroMax and a Briggs) the Honda EU3000 now has over 4700 hours on it with no sign of quitting but it is currently under powered and the new drilled well is happening at the end of the month which will be 240V..
If you have thoughts on the three paths, or others, or on equipment, please share them. Only quality equipment, with a verifiable track record, is being considered. We've tried the cheap stuff, I own a marine electrical business, and have seen the failures of budget end products such as Renogy, Xantrex etc. and I will not touch it with a 10' pole.
FWIW I do have access to a marine diesel generator, that can be converted to a radiator for cooling, but again it is not a clean sine wave and I would then want to build a line conditioner the upside is that it is free..
Currently there are only a few inverter generators that supply 240V and the Briggs is 100% out of the running, already tried one and it is a total piece of junk, so that, I guess, leaves Honda & Yamaha?
Until last winter the house was fed via a gravity feed hand dug-well from the 1700's (it's old farm property). Over 1/4 mile of poly pipe was trenched through the thick woods to the well and it seems to have frozen, somwwhere, and we can no longer keep a gravity prime on it. It used to gravity-feed and now we need a jet pump in the basement to get any water.
Rather than re-visit more than 1/4 mile of trenching we are going to drill a well. I don't expect it to be too deep, tons of natural springs on the property, but we will need to be running this off batteries and an inverter or a generator or suck it up and bring in underground power.. We don't like the idea of a standard generator as it consumes a ton of LPG or gas but a diesel generator has not been ruled out yet. If going with a generator we would want an inverter type.Unfortunately those are very rare in 240V. The Honda EU7000 is the one we'd go with but it does not come factory fitted in LPG. Our current Honda is an EU3000 (converted to LPG) but it has a very, very tough time starting the jet pump. We even ran it on ethanol free gas and it still has a very tough time starting the well pump.
Noise is not an issue, except for us, as the nearest neighbor is over 1 mile away with a very thick Maine woods buffer. The current generator is in a dedicated generator hut with marine sound deadening and a through the wall exhaust system. You can't even hear it when standing on the back deck on a dead calm wind free day. Unfortunately the generator has a tough time starting the 1HP 120V jet pump so we are up against a new generator or PV/batteries/inverter once the well is drilled..
The biggest load will be the new 240V well pump (the well guy does not recommend 120V pump). The rest of the house is LPG (fridge/range/Rinnai etc. and all LED lighting.
I would gladly go with LiFePO4, had it on the boat since 2010, but the house is not heated when we are not there and I do not feel comfortable with heating mats that are unattended. Basement temps, even at floor level, can reach -16F as we measured this last winter with a tracking thermometer. This means a big bank of lead acid batteries.
So we currently have three choices:
Bring in underground power - 19.2K to 32.4K are the quotes (this adds tremendous value to the property)
Solar/Inverter/Battery Bank/Wiring/Racks etc. etc. - Even at wholesale cost I am running numbers that are upwards of 16K, while doing it all myself
Generator - Good only for short stays, less than a week, unless diesel. We chewed through three cheap generators (Generac, DuroMax and a Briggs) the Honda EU3000 now has over 4700 hours on it with no sign of quitting but it is currently under powered and the new drilled well is happening at the end of the month which will be 240V..
If you have thoughts on the three paths, or others, or on equipment, please share them. Only quality equipment, with a verifiable track record, is being considered. We've tried the cheap stuff, I own a marine electrical business, and have seen the failures of budget end products such as Renogy, Xantrex etc. and I will not touch it with a 10' pole.
FWIW I do have access to a marine diesel generator, that can be converted to a radiator for cooling, but again it is not a clean sine wave and I would then want to build a line conditioner the upside is that it is free..
Currently there are only a few inverter generators that supply 240V and the Briggs is 100% out of the running, already tried one and it is a total piece of junk, so that, I guess, leaves Honda & Yamaha?
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