Whole house generator

[grsthegreat]

All I can say is onan used to be a great generator. Cummins bought out onan but the cummins unit is no where’s as nice of a unit. I used to own an Onan cast iron 1800 rpm 7500 watt generator that was amazingly quiet. Id still have it if it wasn’t for the fact that I needed more power for my large home. That unit was bullet proof.
I really doubt there’s much difference in quality on any air cooled unit. They all run 3600 rpm on a 1 or 2 cyllinder engine. Their not designed for long time use, only emergency use.

generac has about a 90% market share of the residential air cooled market. From personal experience I do know that their air cooled units do a great job, as I have few major repairs over the years on Them. I have limited experience with kohler, but they seem like a nice unit. I have no experience with cummins series, as I have never received a call to install one or service one. I have chatted with installers that have placed cummins units, and their only complaint as I recall was lack of working room in the unit. Overall they work just fine. Their just as noisy as any air cooled unit. I have no idea if cummins offers extended warranties like GENERAC does.

the old military diesels are great units. But nearly every one I’ve seen is in the 10 kw range. I would love to get ahold of a nice 20KW unit At a good price. But I do love the small footprint of the propane generacs.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I have one of the old cast iron 1800 rpm Onan generators, they are GREAT, but now Onan is not cast iron, and they run at 3600 rpm. SO, as far as I'm concerned, they are living on their OLD reputation!

They just aren't what they "use" to be!!

BTW, I DO have an newer aluminum version to compare it to, too...

SR

 

[TheMan419]

We had a pretty good freeze here and the power was out for a week. A bigger generator might be a good idea and I'm curious bout this one. I'm not sold on Generac and I've always thought of Cummins as being a good brand. Anybody know anything about this generator?

Cummins Power Generation A071Z402 Cummins RS20AC - 20kW Quiet Connect™ Series Home Standby Generator System 200A Service Disconnect

Buy Cummins Power Generation A071Z402 Direct. Free Shipping. Check the Cummins RS20AC - 20kW Quiet Connect™ Series Home Standby Generator System (200A Service Disconnect) ratings before checking out.

www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com

I thought about that when we were out for a couple of days in the middle of winter. However the longer I thought about it the more I realized we have been in the house 5 years and run the generator 3 times. One of those times the power was back on in 4 hours (after the power company told us 36 hours).

So to me not worth the price.

Might be good to just know you guys can lose power like that for a week and plan fuel accordingly for the generator set up you already have.

Of course we have a horse barn as well so some thought has been given to wiring that for generator as well and buying a second portable unit to power it since it has a separate well.

 

[grsthegreat]

Wells and animals that require well water are the leading reasons why I sold and installed generators. Horses and cattle cannot go long without water.

the only reason I myself have a fully automatic backup generator is I got it for free. If I had to buy it, I would have stuck with my old onan. When we have outages, over the last 25 years I’ve lived here, they are generally always over 24 hours in length, stretching to up to 2.5 days.

this year we have be especially hard hit. We had 2 outages lasting over 2.5 days each, and I believe 4 others lasting over a day.

 

[TheMan419]

Wells and animals that require well water are the leading reasons why I sold and installed generators. Horses and cattle cannot go long without water.

the only reason I myself have a fully automatic backup generator is I got it for free. If I had to buy it, I would have stuck with my old onan. When we have outages, over the last 25 years I’ve lived here, they are generally always over 24 hours in length, stretching to up to 2.5 days.

this year we have be especially hard hit. We had 2 outages lasting over 2.5 days each, and I believe 4 others lasting over a day.

We have now had three outages this year requiring the generator. Two of them in the last 60 days. So now the wife is pressuring to get a standby generator. I am starting to see the wisdom in it.

I would want the ability to shut the generator down though so as not to burn fuel all night when I don't really need to.

 

[grsthegreat]

A whole house can be shut down manually without any issues. Just turn off breaker in generator, wait a min or 2 for gen to cool down, turn off gen.

i do this with mine at night when I sleep. Don’t need it running

 

[ponytug]

If you lived closer to @grsthegreat I would definitely recommend him to do your generator work.

There is also getting solar with batteries...

All the best,

Peter

 

[sandman2234]

If you lived closer to @grsthegreat I would definitely recommend him to do your generator work.

There is also getting solar with batteries...

All the best,

Peter

Does he make house calls...to Florida?
David from jax

 

[Steelauzzy]

I run my propane gens on nat gas and vide versa with no mods. The fuels has slightly different energies and of course propane may need a vaporizer for cooler climates.
I am mechanically inclined so I went with a used genset off the web. I paid 8000cad for 2x 45kw in questionable condition and 1x75kw Cummins nat gas in great shape.
I run 24/7 to power my small welding shop, house, server farm and I have a solar array feeding in to offset fuel costs.
Nat gas may have come up but if you compare to your hydro prices it’s almost 100% of the time cheaper to generate your own power than to connect to the grid.

 

[grsthegreat]

I run my propane gens on nat gas and vide versa with no mods. The fuels has slightly different energies and of course propane may need a vaporizer for cooler climates.
I am mechanically inclined so I went with a used genset off the web. I paid 8000cad for 2x 45kw in questionable condition and 1x75kw Cummins nat gas in great shape.
I run 24/7 to power my small welding shop, house, server farm and I have a solar array feeding in to offset fuel costs.
Nat gas may have come up but if you compare to your hydro prices it’s almost 100% of the time cheaper to generate your own power than to connect to the grid.

Not sure where u live, but here i pay $0.065 per KWH for grid power. No way i could generate it for less.