generac standby generator

[birdseye]

We installed a 15kw Generac w/ LP when we finished building our house last October, So far we have been very happy with it so far. We've only one 3-4 hour outage and it did fine. It does make a little noise but things are so quiet around here you can her the leaves fall.

 

[mikim]

birdseye - there used to be a mexican restaurant just south of town - not on the freeway -- backroad -- I think it was old stage road ....that had killer margaritas .... do you know - is it still there? The lady that ran the place was from New Mexico (Arizona?) originally and had her own recipe.

 

[kennyd]

I would like to get it as cheap as possible but I am figuring $3500-4000 range

With that budget in mind, I think your only option is the new 16kw Generac unit in the link I posted above. The unit will cost $3,400, and after misc, materials to install (stone for the base, gas pipe and fittings, regulator, breaker for your main panel, ect.) you will be right under your $4000.00 max target price.

Do you have LP or natural gas?
Are you going to install it yourself?

 

[hvac1]

Kennyd, I will be doing the installation myself,I have LP gas. At this time I am not sure whether to install a didicated tank for the generator or install a 1000 gal tank for the house and generator. The gas piping and electrical are part of my business so the cost there shouldn't be to bad. From what I gathered from these post are that the generac should be fine for temperary operation. Which is what I hope to use it for.

 

[Tdog]

hvac - I've got more experience living off a generator than I want. I used a 10 hp 8500/5500 watt B&S gas generator for a month before I got my power back after Katrina. Ran it almost 24/7. I amassed a large collection of gas cans. Finding & paying for that much gas was not fun. I swore I would not go through that again.

I had the 15kw generac plus installed in February with a 200 amp transfer switch. I had a 200 gal. Propane tank installed too - - would have gotten a larger one, but none were available. The generator will run everything in my house except I cannot run both my heat pumps simultaneously. As has been mentioned, it comes on automatically once a week for exercise. It has worked fine the few power outages we have had - - except for one: Our daughter was visiting & we took her out to dinner one night about a month ago. A nasty storm blew through shortly after we left & knocked out the power. On our way home I noticed that no one had lights for the last mile or two before our house. I was pretty smug, ‘knowing’ that my generator would allow me to open my garage door. Wrong. I got pretty rain soaked gong inside to open up.

Chalk it up to operator error on my part - - near as we can tell both the heat pumps came on at the same time, the unit overheated & automatically shut down. After about an hour we went to bed in the dark with the windows open. Almost immediately I heard the generator start. It ran for over an hour just fine before the power came back. Now, when ever we leave, we try to make sure the thermostats are set so that only one heat pump will come on.

As for noise - - yeah it makes some. But a lot less than my B&S gas unit. Besides, last September when I used the gas generator 24/7, all my neighbors were running similar units. The whole countryside was pretty rackety.

BTW, if I had to do it again & I had the money, I’d move up to the liquid cooled 25kw unit. That was & is more than I could spend.

Jack

 

[kennyd]

Kennyd, I will be doing the installation myself,I have LP gas. At this time I am not sure whether to install a didicated tank for the generator or install a 1000 gal tank for the house and generator. The gas piping and electrical are part of my business so the cost there shouldn't be to bad. From what I gathered from these post are that the generac should be fine for temperary operation. Which is what I hope to use it for.

FYI:
Mine runs off of a 1000 gallon tank that was installed when I built my house, I tapped into the high pressure regulator at the rear of the house (2lbs pressure) then ran pipe to the generator location where I put another regulator dedicated to the genset, it had to be set at 11"-14" WC as per Generac requirements. I even had to make a manometer to set/check the new regulator.
I could not come off of the manifold in the house because its regulator is set at 6"-11" WC for regular appliances, and the piping run would total over 100' instead of the 16' I have now.

Let me know if I can help more...

 

[InlineDieselFan]

reading through many of these posts about automatic on generators got me thinking.

This all depends on your lifestyle and schedule, so this may or may not pertain.

When my Uncle and Aunt put in a propane generator in the foot hills of the Sierra mountains of California I asked a manual start, not automatic, why go cheap?

Thier reply was in the summer if we are away and there is a forest fire they may not be allowed back to thier home for days at a time. During the winter if it snows and they are away they may not be able to get home for several days at a time. Earthquake, who knows when they will make it home. In any case they could run the propane tank empty, for an empty house.

So we discussed this, when we wired our house and here we have earthquakes and volcanoes, in either case if we are at work we are both stuck at work for up to several days at a time.

Something to think about for your own situation.

steve

 

[kennyd]

reading through many of these posts about automatic on generators got me thinking.

This all depends on your lifestyle and schedule, so this may or may not pertain.

When my Uncle and Aunt put in a propane generator in the foot hills of the Sierra mountains of California I asked a manual start, not automatic, why go cheap?

Thier reply was in the summer if we are away and there is a forest fire they may not be allowed back to thier home for days at a time. During the winter if it snows and they are away they may not be able to get home for several days at a time. Earthquake, who knows when they will make it home. In any case they could run the propane tank empty, for an empty house.

So we discussed this, when we wired our house and here we have earthquakes and volcanoes, in either case if we are at work we are both stuck at work for up to several days at a time.

Something to think about for your own situation.

steve

Steve,

On the Generac's, and probably all automatic standby gensets, you can just turn the unit from "AUTO" to "OFF" if you are going to be away for any significant length of time.

 

[ronjhall]

Steve,

On the Generac's, and probably all automatic standby gensets, you can just turn the unit from "AUTO" to "OFF" if you are going to be away for any significant length of time.

Ours has this option. But so far we have left it on Auto. The first thing I did after installing the standby generator. Was install a UPS power supply on computer, and alarm system. This allow the time it takes to switch power sources. Depending on how cold it is outside. It can take 5 minutes for switch over.

 

[dbdartman]

Have a Guardian, CNG fuel, with the 1-cylinder air cooled Generac (6KW?). It runs all the important things in the house (heat, water & septic pumps, fridges & freezer, satellite system, & roughly half the lights & outlets). It "exercises" itself automatically every Friday afternoon for 15-20 minutes & is fairly quite inside it's enclosure. Since we have no close neighbors, noise is not an issue (my bro's bedroom is closest to the genset, about 50', & it doesn't bother him). It was installed about 6 months after we moved here in late '04 & has only been called upon twice; first for about 90 minutes & then for about 6 hours due to the same storm front that blacked out St. Louis a few weeks ago.

Peace of mind! That's why it's there. No worrys about losing food, & no worrys about frozen pipes should power go out in the winter!