Use for a generator for pool pumps and if pipes freeze

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WBW

WBW

Gold Supporter
Nov 13, 2022
126
Spring Branch, Texas
Pool Size
6000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Just getting all your thoughts regarding the use of a home standby generator for our pool and whether the pipes around our pool are susceptible to freezing if electricity goes out. Being in central Texas we don't get cold weather like our friends in the north but with Texas grid reliability, I'm thinking hard about getting a home standby generator especially since we just had teen weather this past week. I understand I can drain the pumps but I'm concerned about the pipes that are not buried around our pool as seen in the attached pic. As noted two sides of the pool are not buried. Also, we travel during the winter. I was thinking about getting a portable generator but since we travel during the winter and if we were to experience a loss of electricity, I wouldn't have the ability to fire up the generator. Honestly, I'm not so concerned about the entire house and was thinking of getting a small size 8500kw standby generator. Something to keep the pool pumps working and a few appliances, etc. Thoughts?
 

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It certainly would not hurt to have your pool covered by a backup generator, and will keep your pump going which is the primary defense against freezing.

When you say you travel during the winter... are you gone for weeks/months at a time? In your area, deep freezes would not be the norm and you should have a decent lead time to prepare. However, if a deep freeze was predicted and I was going to be out of town and could not check on the pool, I would be inclined to just fully winterize before you left town.
 
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JJ_Tex said:
It certainly would not hurt to have your pool covered by a backup generator, and will keep your pump going which is the primary defense against freezing.

When you say you travel during the winter... are you gone for weeks/months at a time? In your area, deep freezes would not be the norm and you should have a decent lead time to prepare. However, if a deep freeze was predicted and I was going to be out of town and could not check on the pool, I would be inclined to just fully winterize before you left town.
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Thanks for your opinions. Traveling is just for a week or so. I agree deep freezes are not the norm but for the last 3-4 yrs, climate has changed so much to extremes. Fully winterize? Your thoughts on the pipes that are around the pool above ground?
 
Ok, so you travel a week or so at a time. 99% of the time, you should be good relying on freeze protection.

But, if you have the perfect storm of forecasted deep freeze where we do not see above freezing for more than a day and that happens to be when you are out of town, I would drain the equipment. I do not see anything below ground freezing, so you would not have to completely blow out the lines like up north.

In 2021, I had to shut down because of the rolling blackouts (at the peak, we were 45 mins with power and 15 mins without power). I drained all of the equipment and was just fine including all of the pipes. That was the coldest I've ever seen it get here (-2 degrees) and by far the longest we were completely below freezing (~1 week) and the only time I've experienced rolling blackouts in my 25 years in Dallas. This past week was the 2nd worst winter event I've seen here, but it didn't compare to 2021.
 
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I have a large portable generator, converted to run on natural gas, that I connect to my house via a 50-amp interlocked generator inlet. I installed a natural gas quick-connect on the gas line to my pool heater. The setup will power most of our 4000 sq ft all-gas house (everything except the main 5-ton AC, with a bit of load management).

I used to have a 1.5hp main pool pump - running this at the same time as a 3-ton central AC was close to maxing out the generator. But my VS pump sips electricity and the generator barely notices it running.

I've had to use the setup for a half-dozen nuisance warm-weather outages, but not yet for a winter outage. I also have a "power off alarm" that is loud enough to wake me, so I can start the generator + get the pool pump running again if we have an overnight winter outage.

Total cost was around $1200, including the generator, with me doing the work myself. Not as convenient as a whole-home automatic standby generator, but not bad for ~10% of the price.
 

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gkw4815 said:
I have a large portable generator, converted to run on natural gas, that I connect to my house via a 50-amp interlocked generator inlet. I installed a natural gas quick-connect on the gas line to my pool heater. The setup will power most of our 4000 sq ft all-gas house (everything except the main 5-ton AC, with a bit of load management).

I used to have a 1.5hp main pool pump - running this at the same time as a 3-ton central AC was close to maxing out the generator. But my VS pump sips electricity and the generator barely notices it running.

I've had to use the setup for a half-dozen nuisance warm-weather outages, but not yet for a winter outage. I also have a "power off alarm" that is loud enough to wake me, so I can start the generator + get the pool pump running again if we have an overnight winter outage.

Total cost was around $1200, including the generator, with me doing the work myself. Not as convenient as a whole-home automatic standby generator, but not bad for ~10% of the price.
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Interesting. I have an electrician installing a transfer switch with 50amp. What size generator do you have? So I have two 3 ton heat pumps. My main concern was just insuring my 2 3hp pool pumps were able to run during a down time. I run freeze protection on my VS at 1800 rpm and If cleaner the same which is only 600 watts. I had it down to 1200rpm at 107 watts but when it got down in the teens, decided to up it. My propane tank is right near my electrical box but I wasn’t even thinking about hooking it up to my generator . I was looking at just a 10,000watt generator just running on gasoline. It will run a few things in my house.
 
Mine is a Westinghouse Wgen9500df dual-fuel generator that can do 9500watts running and 12500 watts surge on gasoline, somewhat less on propane or natural gas.

I converted mine to also run on natural gas by installing a larger regulator - but since I bought mine, Westinghouse has come up with a factory tri-fuel model, which I would purchase if i were shopping today.

If you're running on propane, a dual-fuel generator would be fine for you. I'd definitely recommend going that route - you could run for days-weeks on a 250 or 500 gallon tank and wouldn't have to worry about refuelling, storing a bunch of gasoline, or carburetor fouling from old gasoline.

You may be able to run two 3 ton heat pumps at the same time, especially if you install hard starts or soft starts. One 3 ton at a time would definitely be no problem.
 
gkw4815 said:
Mine is a Westinghouse Wgen9500df dual-fuel generator that can do 9500watts running and 12500 watts surge on gasoline, somewhat less on propane or natural gas.

I converted mine to also run on natural gas by installing a larger regulator - but since I bought mine, Westinghouse has come up with a factory tri-fuel model, which I would purchase if i were shopping today.

If you're running on propane, a dual-fuel generator would be fine for you. I'd definitely recommend going that route - you could run for days-weeks on a 250 or 500 gallon tank and wouldn't have to worry about refuelling, storing a bunch of gasoline, or carburetor fouling from old gasoline.

You may be able to run two 3 ton heat pumps at the same time, especially if you install hard starts or soft starts. One 3 ton at a time would definitely be no problem.
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Thanks and will revisit my options. I was looking at an Inverter generator as well. Appreciate your thoughts.
 
I have lived in Texas all of my life. 2021 was the only rolling blackout I can ever remember and that was 45 on and 15 off as mentioned above. It also was the first time in recorded history that all 254 counties were under a freeze warning as well as the first-time blizzard warning were ever issued for many areas in the state. It was a rare, monumental event. Since then, reverses have dipped to cautionary levels, but we been clear of rolling blackouts. The growth is killing ability to keep up.

That being said, I also travel, often. I do not worry about it. It is out of my control. I have a 12,000 W dual fuel portable generator w/ a 50A inlet, but if I am not home, there is no way my wife could deal with it. If you're in Spring Branch, I honestly wouldn't be all that concerned. You are much more likely to be without power for longer periods (hours / a couple of days) during the spring and summer due to storms with straight line winds, tornadoes and thunderstorms although you don't have to worry about freezing, you will just be hot and muggy. Most of the times, the local weather folks can give you a 10-day warning that something is about to happen to plan around it.
 
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As an aside - it's interesting that, during the 2021 ice storm, some parts of Texas were able to successfully implement short-duration rolling blackouts, while others were not.

My folks live in New Braunfels, not far from Spring Branch, and they were also on a 45/15 minute on/off schedule IIRC. Their well plumbing froze up temporarily, but they had no permanent damage.

Meanwhile in Houston - I experienced two separate outages, both well over 12 hours, and other parts of the Houston area fared worse, with 24-48+ hour continuous outages. We likely would've experienced at least some plumbing issues (plus a good deal of discomfort) if not for our generator.
 
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midlifecrisis said:
I have lived in Texas all of my life. 2021 was the only rolling blackout I can ever remember and that was 45 on and 15 off as mentioned above. It also was the first time in recorded history that all 254 counties were under a freeze warning as well as the first-time blizzard warning were ever issued for many areas in the state. It was a rare, monumental event. Since then, reverses have dipped to cautionary levels, but we been clear of rolling blackouts. The growth is killing ability to keep up.

That being said, I also travel, often. I do not worry about it. It is out of my control. I have a 12,000 W dual fuel portable generator w/ a 50A inlet, but if I am not home, there is no way my wife could deal with it. If you're in Spring Branch, I honestly wouldn't be all that concerned. You are much more likely to be without power for longer periods (hours / a couple of days) during the spring and summer due to storms with straight line winds, tornadoes and thunderstorms although you don't have to worry about freezing, you will just be hot and muggy. Most of the times, the local weather folks can give you a 10-day warning that something is about to happen to plan around it.
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I agree with everything you state. I've lived in Central Texas since 1990, Austin, and now Spring Branch. Since then, 2021 has been the worst situation I've seen regarding climate and the grid. But interesting enough this past freeze, last week, we had relatives and friends located in Austin who were down for several hours. Also last year, similar circumstances occurred with power off. That said, a portable generator might be a wise investment and piece of mind.
 
gkw4815 said:
As an aside - it's interesting that, during the 2021 ice storm, some parts of Texas were able to successfully implement short-duration rolling blackouts, while others were not.

My folks live in New Braunfels, not far from Spring Branch, and they were also on a 45/15 minute on/off schedule IIRC. Their well plumbing froze up temporarily, but they had no permanent damage.

Meanwhile in Houston - I experienced two separate outages, both well over 12 hours, and other parts of the Houston area fared worse, with 24-48+ hour continuous outages. We likely would've experienced at least some plumbing issues (plus a good deal of discomfort) if not for our generator.
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You make a valid point and with the 10,000 watt generator discussed above, the two 3 hp pool pumps and other plumbing can be handled. Just a good piece of mind. Tks for your feedback.
 
On this topic I wonder if anyone knows whether the "dirty" power made by many of the standard generators will cause problems for pool electronics including VS pump controllers. Many have total harmonic distortion of up to 20% under load, which is generally bad for electronics. Inverter generators don't have this problem, but at ~4x the price.
 
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FWIW, my VS pool pump and the rest of my electronics seem to run fine on the "dirty" power produced by my generator. The only odd behavior I see while on generator power is that some of the cheaper LED bulbs in my house flicker.

Having said that:
-My first Calimar VS pool pump developed an intermittent undervoltage error message and was replaced under warranty. I don't think this was caused by running on generator power (the failure first occurred over a month after my most-recent use of the generator), but it is a possibility. I have experienced no other electronics or appliance failures in my house with 40+ hours of generator use so far.
-As a precaution, I do try to limit my use of "sensitive" electronics while running on generator power. For instance, I might use my bedroom TV, but leave my home theater system switched off. If I were facing a multi-week outage on generator power, I'd probably cut my use of non-essential appliances and electronics as much as possible, to reduce the probability of damaging something.
-If I were in the market for a new generator today, I'd probably go with the Westinghouse Wgen11500Tfc, which claims only <5% THD despite being a large single-cylinder non-inverter model (the slightly smaller Westinghouse generators, like my Wgen9500df, claim <23% THD). It's a great unit for $1500, combining lots of power, tri-fuel capability, and low THD.
 
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generessler said:
On this topic I wonder if anyone knows whether the "dirty" power made by many of the standard generators will cause problems for pool electronics including VS pump controllers. Many have total harmonic distortion of up to 20% under load, which is generally bad for electronics. Inverter generators don't have this problem, but at ~4x the price.
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I’m looking at an inverter, Westinghouse or Champion 10,000. About $1200. I was concerned about the Pentair board etc. I’m willing to spend a few extra $$ just in case.
 
gkw4815 said:
FWIW, my VS pool pump and the rest of my electronics seem to run fine on the "dirty" power produced by my generator. The only odd behavior I see while on generator power is that some of the cheaper LED bulbs in my house flicker.

Having said that:
-My first Calimar VS pool pump developed an intermittent undervoltage error message and was replaced under warranty. I don't think this was caused by running on generator power (the failure first occurred over a month after my most-recent use of the generator), but it is a possibility. I have experienced no other electronics or appliance failures in my house with 40+ hours of generator use so far.
-As a precaution, I do try to limit my use of "sensitive" electronics while running on generator power. For instance, I might use my bedroom TV, but leave my home theater system switched off. If I were facing a multi-week outage on generator power, I'd probably cut my use of non-essential appliances and electronics as much as possible, to reduce the probability of damaging something.
-If I were in the market for a new generator today, I'd probably go with the Westinghouse Wgen11500Tfc, which claims only <5% THD despite being a large single-cylinder non-inverter model (the slightly smaller Westinghouse generators, like my Wgen9500df, claim <23% THD). It's a great unit for $1500, combining lots of power, tri-fuel capability, and low THD.
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Tks for the suggestion and will look into it
 
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