choice of ?

[wlbrown]

i live in an area that has frequent
power outages. i was considering buying
a standby generator, but the thought
just hit me, i might be better off with
a gas driven welder that has a generator.
the power offs has occured at a bad time.
in cold weather, when you need your furnace.
the last one we had was in december.
i have not done any research on this, so
i don't know the cost of a welder/generator.
i know what a standby generator cost, and
they are not cheap. the fact that it could
be used for two things is what i like. anyone
have any ideas what one of these machines
would go for?
wlbrown

[cope]

gen set

A welder/generator is a better idea because it can be used all through the year. Most people don't maintain an emergency gen set Cost is about the same as for a good qualiy stand alone gen set. I don't know if you could set one up to auto run like you can with a standby gen set, but most people just fire it up after a power outage. Miller had an article on this a year or so ago in their newsletter. Maybe one of the Miller guys can find it in the archives.

[Will]

Buy the welder generator

I went down this same road 3 or 4 years ago and came to the same conclusion....If you are thinking of a 120/240V generator with enough power to run the house (5000-10000 watts), then spend the money on a welder-generator. I bought a Hobart Champion 16 and it was not much more money than the 8000watt generator I was looking at. Miller/Hobart and Lincoln make some nice welder-generators. By using it year round, you will keep the battery charged and fresh gas in it too. A lot better than rolling out a generator that hasn't been started in a year or two.

Also the welder-generator holds its value better. There is a glut of generators out there for sale by people who took the Y2K thing too seriously.

[John Stuckey]

I think you are on-track with the welder/generator idea. The only thing I would add is to pay attention to the dutycycle rating of the various units you look at as well as the load % . There is a difference between a continuous run unit and others.
John