at my last home I had a 20kw Generac propane genset that came with their full package of autoswitching and autotest features. It worked flawlessly for four years. My sister installed the same one in her NJ house and it also ran perfectly. Both of us used professional installers and I believe my all in cost back then was about seven grand. My sister's for the exact same thing was 9. Because she lives in Princeton NJ and gets overcharged along with all her neighbors. The point is, first of all, the gasoline 3600 rpm units ran perfectly. Yes, annual oil changes on synthetic. Air filter never got any sign of dirt on it and plug changed every two years. It looked almost like new. Propane really keeps the engine clean; too bad they don't offer an 1800 rpm version making 12kw(?)
But there was a big concern with the unit. It constantly flickered the lights when the heat pump kicked in. One five ton unit, but 100% electric, toaster grid emergency heat. But even on regular heat, the lights would flicker and you could hear the unit groan and recover. Plus it was pretty noisy echoing off my next door neighbor's home.
So here I am at my new home, with a newish Westinghouse electric start 9000/7500 genset and extension cords. I exercise it monthly for several hours with several heaters plugged in. Always starts and runs great.
I feel pretty exposed actually; a tornado came down half a mile from my home last year. Freak tornado but one nonetheless. And in the last ten years they had one week long outage here.
It is very hard for me to pick up a full can of gas or diesel due to my arthritis and physical restrictions. So a whole house gen is my only option and I have a 500 gal propane tank all ready for it. Two gaspacks in the house plus one heat pump. Electric kitchen and two electric water heaters plus an electric instant on demand heater for the remodeled bathroom. So a lot of potential amp draw. 400 amp service, two 20 circuit 200 amp panels entirely full. So...all new panels needed, sigh, and power them with what?
The absolute best bang for the buck right now seems to be the Generac 22kw for say 4500 bucks including all the major parts needed.
The problem is that once you get past our "lawn mower engines" and go to basically car engines powered by propane or LP, the price jump is really huge. Now instead of 4500 bucks it's 11 grand and more and everything expensive is now a la carte. Plus more expensive install because the panels are usually bigger or have to be upgraded.
So I haven't done anything, as I'm kind of depressed about thinking about 15 grand generators. Heck, bet it would be closer to 20 to run that whole panel.
am thinking of a new panel with a subpanel running key circuits, like the center gaspack, skip the heatpump for the second floor, for sure skip the 4kw hot tub heater, and simply budget my usage to the limits of the 22kw unit. It seems to be the tried and true unit. Though I bet the Kohler is similar; then it gets down to the Ford/Chevy argument of whether you prefer a Kohler 999cc unit vs a Vanguard/Generac 999.
The only other gen I'd consider would be a Kubota diesel. I saw one of those at my prior Kubota dealer and it was a seriously fine looking piece of equipment. Not high value though, just high quality. Actually they appear more industrial/commercial units than residential grade. If I were keeping greenhouses with plants in them going in the dead of winter and used fuel oil for heat, they would be a nice solution. but too big for a house.
Great discussion here. And I think we all care about cost, or more relevantly, getting good value for our money.
sorry to go astray a bit; the OP's interest in a Westinghouse caught my eye and yes it is a good unit.
