Powerboost ProPower, good boy. Powered house after wind storm

[Mosey]

I love my truck. Strong wind damage in west Michigan but the house is powered. I do need to work on better load balancing.

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[SonarChief]

I still consider it an underrated feature by Ford and the industry in general! The only people I’ve heard put it down are those without it.

 

[powerboatr]

Outstanding
And today Ms, al, TN, etc are in the cone of omg weather

Ford missed the boat of advertising the pb
It's like they are embarrassed???
Even us non pb folks fully understand the huge merits the pb packs

 

[Jeff F]

When you're powering your house how long does a tank of gas last approximately?

 

[Whoosh]

When you're powering your house how long does a tank of gas last approximately?

My one experience with my 21 Powerboost was less than 1/4 tank in 9 hours

 

[UGADawg96]

When you're powering your house how long does a tank of gas last approximately?

Last time I had to use it, used about 1 gallon in 6 hours not using any AC.

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/powerboost-is-ready-for-helene.28317/post-517455

 

[hamelnator]

I love my truck. Strong wind damage in west Michigan but the house is powered. I do need to work on better load balancing.

Quick question
I have a 7.2 powerboat on order
If one wire coming from truck
How do you divide load from box to truck.
I was just gonna pick and choose from my big panel and not have a sub panel.
Will I be only using half my power.
thanks in advance for any thoughts
Have electrician coming in April to add a outside plug and main panel switch

 

[Jeff F]

My one experience with my 21 Powerboost was less than 1/4 tank in 9 hours

That's amazing

Thanks

 

[GrandpaD]

@hamelnator This thread (and a few others) gives you and your electrician info on transfer switches, etc.
https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/installed-transfer-switch-in-house.1267/

 

[Mosey]

Hamelnator, there are plenty of threads on this topic that go into far more detail, but here is a simplistic overview. This is very long, sorry.

The 7.2 KW powerboost generator can output power to two 120v circuits, call them A and B. Coupled together these will form a 240v circuit. The extension cord you see has four conductors, one wire for circuit A, one for circuit B, another for neutral, and the last for ground. This feeds to into my sub-panel just like the wire coming to your house from the power company. This is why you have single breakers for 120v circuits and double breakers for 240v circuits.

My sub-panel also acts an a disconnect from the utility power line. When I am powering my home I don't want electricity feeding back into the utility system and electrocuting a line worker. This is required by code.

But the powerboost generator throughs a bit of a monkey wrench into the works. The generator in the powerboost is bonded. I cannot really explain what neutral bonding is, but think of it as a kind of back-feed needed to complete the circuit. It is similar to ground, and in fact they eventually connect together in the breaker panel. I will leave it to someone else to elaborate on this and/or correct me.

The upshot of the generator on our trucks being bonded is that it "cannot" share the neutral circuit with the neutral coming into your house from the utility. I quote "cannot" because some people will not connect this wire and only use the ground. The generator will function fine but there is a risk of electrocution. OSHA requires bonded generator on worksites so that is why Ford probably does this. (Please no debate on the how's and why's of this requirement, it is what we get from Ford.)

If you look closely at the photo of my sub-panel, you will see the interlock at the top has three breakers, two are for circuits A and B, the the third is for the neutral. This is what disconnects the sub-panel neutral from the main panel and allows the truck to power my house using the neutral circuit from the truck. If I did not have this third breaker the truck's generator would trip and not allow power to flow.

 

[tbeneteau]

When you're powering your house how long does a tank of gas last approximately?

I went approx 48 hours on about 1/3 of a tank. Running air conditioning in the house intermittently with water heater (not at the same time!) 2 refrigerators and lights/tv etc.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Bonded Neutral. There are two ways to set up the generator. Floating neutrl and bonded neutral. In the Bonded neutral the neutral wire and the ground wires are connected together inside the generator. In the floating neutral they remain electrically separate. The issue is there can only be one place in your home wiring where the neutral wire is bonded to the ground. There are problems that can arise if there is more than one place they connect.

 

[Kodiak]

As long as you are not using so much power that the PB needs to run continuously, you should get about .2 to .25 gal per hour of usage. This is when the PB cycles the ICE on for about 2 minutes while it charges the battery and then turns the ICE off for about 8 minutes while it runs off the battery. YMMV but this what I get with numerous usages.

 

[fwunder]

When you're powering your house how long does a tank of gas last approximately?

~0.2 gal/kWh

We use 9 kWh per day to run our house ( critical circuits ) so it takes ~1.8 gal/day.

 

[Hullguy]

Quick question
I have a 7.2 powerboat on order
If one wire coming from truck
How do you divide load from box to truck.
I was just gonna pick and choose from my big panel and not have a sub panel.
Will I be only using half my power.
thanks in advance for any thoughts
Have electrician coming in April to add a outside plug and main panel switch

Im a master electrician and this is what I installed in my house to use the PB correctly to power my house.
https://www.generac.com/residential-products/standby-generator-transfer-switches/home-link/6853/
a lot of electricians don’t know about the PB bonded neutral, don’t let them try and sell you a cheaper transfer switch that doesn’t switch the neutral!

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