But a new Huntington-based company hopes people in areas without power will hear nothing in the future but silence.

The Powerwagon gasless generator can provide enough power to run power tools at construction sites, emergency equipment in remote locations or houses with no electricity, said Nathan Daughtery, executive vice president.

“It’s a generator with no fumes, no noise and no need for gas,” he said.

The Powerwagon was the brainchild of Paul Wilks, a military veteran and former truck driver who started working on the invention about seven years ago. He developed the idea while trying to come up with a way to provide power to his home during electrical outages.

“This is the answer to quite a lot of problems,” Wilks said.

Simple Concept

The mechanics behind the Powerwagon are relatively simple: Each unit has an axle with a pulley. That pulley turns a belt that runs a heavy-duty alternator. The alternator charges deep-cycle batteries while the wagon is being pulled.

When power is needed, an inverter provides 5,000 continuous watts of electricity and up to 10,000 peak watts.

It is such a simple, easy-to-use mechanism that Wilks still has the prototype he originally built.

“They’re pretty easy to use and maintain,” he said.

The Powerwagon unit often demonstrated today is one specifically designed for the construction industry, Daughtery said. It has a three-section box sitting atop the frame and single axle of a pull-behind trailer. The back of the box has space to haul power tools. The center box contains the alternator and batteries. The front compartment holds the inverter unit.

Recharging the batteries doesn’t take long, Daughtery said. If the batteries are taken to their lowest level, they should be fully recharged after 55 to 75 miles of travel. For most uses, it would not take that long, however. The length of time it takes to recharge is directly proportional to the amount of electricity withdrawn from the batteries, he said. One version of The Powerwagon also allows users to recharge the unit from a traditional electric outlet.

Lots of Potential

But using the Powerwagon on construction sites and in emergency situations is only the beginning, Daughtery said. The company has lots of other uses in mind as well, and it soon plans to begin producing units designed for those markets.

The Powerwagon already has been used in real-world situations, Daughtery said.

The Powerwagon provided enough power to power lights and a patient’s bed, he said. The unit provided 40 hours of electricity on one charge to that patient.

Powerwagons also made their way to one of the areas hit hardest by the February ice storm, Daughtery said.

Their original intent was to hook Powerwagons to the homes of Hospice patients, Daughtery said. But local emergency relief officials asked them to connect to stores instead.

Having money meant residents could once again buy the supplies they needed, including gasoline for traditional generators, which could not be pumped out of the ground without electricity, Daughtery said.

The Powerwagon team foresees lots of potential uses for their product, Daughtery said. In disasters such as tornados or hurricanes, Powerwagons could provide power for search crews. In addition to hours of clean electricity, The Powerwagon also is quiet, which would aid rescuers searching for survivors.

There is no limit to the potential uses for the Powerwagon, Daughtery said. This spring, the company plans to introduce a version specifically designed for RVs.

“With a Powerwagon, the world becomes your campground,” he said.

Green Manufacturing Jobs

Seven people now work at the Powerwagon shop on West Eighth Avenue in Huntington, Daughtery said. But if all goes well, that soon could change. He expects to have up to 40 employees by the end of this year. And the sky’s the limit. Powerwagons now are being sold in the Carolinas, Texas and other parts of the country, he said.

Wilks pointed out that no generators currently on the market are manufactured in the United States.

“They’re all from overseas,” he said. “We need jobs and opportunities here.”

So this is an opportunity for American ingenuity to lead to American manufacturing jobs, Wilks said.

Although the price might initially seem prohibitive to some, it pays off in the long run, Daughtery said. The construction version of the Powerwagon sells for $8,000 to $8,500; the RV version should be in the $5,000 to $5,500 range. However, the units require little maintenance and no gasoline, diesel or oil. According to Daughtery, a typical gasoline-powered generator uses 5 1/2 gallons of fuel at half load for eight hours. He estimated that the total purchase price of a gasoline generator, plus maintenance and fuel, to be $8,700 to $15,000 over three years and $17,400 to $30,000 over six years.

The estimated cost for a Powerwagon is $8,250 to $8,500 for three years and $9,000 to $10,000 for six years. The Powerwagon is working with area unions, such as the United Steelworkers and the West Virginia AFL-CIO, Daughtery said. The company is involved with those unions’ Blue Green Alliance, an effort to expand the green economy.