Comparison Home Stand By Generators

[piercedtiger]

Why do you think that (so many buying) is the case?

Maybe the price for the perceived usefulness is seen as attractive?
Worries that the grid will fail, be hacked, whatever?

I bought a portable one as it was all I could afford at the time, and having 2 floods within 5 years in my area made me concerned with being prepared in general. The first flood in 2006 was claimed by many to be a "100 year flood." I'd like to know what those people thought when there was minor flooding a couple times within the next couple of years and then an even worse flood in 2011. Grocery stores we normally shopped were shut down for weeks for repairs and cleanup. Made me wonder what we'd do if it more directly affected our house. I don't have fuel to last weeks, but it's a start. We stock up food, try to have a couple tons of pellets for heat on hand, and I'm trying to get a solar powered UPS system for the pellet stove so it could run off-grid if necessary, without the generator running. At least that would give us heat in the winter, city water from the reservoir on the hill, food, and candles/flashlights. Generator as needed, for now. Ideally the house would be on solar and/or wind, but it carries us through the minor power outages at least. We live in a small town so the power doesn't generally go out often, or for long. However, things get cold quickly in February when there's no power for the heating systems! A whole house one with ample fuel supply is a dream, so for now we have a short term solution.

 

[daugen]

if one had the room, and liked diesels, one of my favorite generators was that batch of gigantic Detroit Diesel 2-71 two stroke diesels, putting out I think 20kw. Maybe more. Nothing like the smell of a Driptroit getting hot. Had 8V71TI's in a boat long ago and what a marvelous piece of machinery they were. A very distinct and likable sound for those 8 and 12 cylinder Detroits. I bet that 2-71 just howls. Not for a close suburban setting for sure.

It would be nice if Consumer Reports did a thorough evaluation of the top three or four units in each class.
One thing for sure, the Chinese engines on the portables have gotten much better, but I have no idea if the electrical ends are any good.
I might trust the Lifan engine on a portable, but how do I know how good an AC generator from the Huah Wang Electrical Corp is?
And who has parts and who can fix it? If I see an CE or UL sticker, can I trust it? I wonder how many knockoff UL stickers there are.
And has anyone scoped the unit to see if the power output is clean; the waveform a nice sine wave? Or are the tops of some of those waves getting chopped off... So yes it starts, but how do we know the output meets some acceptable spec?

 

[buickanddeere]

The Champion 7200/7500 watt continuous generator appears to be one of the best values in it's class.One of these is a simple cost effective and safe transfer switch. That can also be transplanted to a another utility service if you have several properties to supply power to.

GenerLink.com - About GenerLink - The easy way to connect a home generator

 

[Marks481]

I very much doubt that the major generator manufacturers would knowingly put out a product that wouldn't hold up to use.

Read the reviews on Amazon. The smaller models (10-14 kW) have really crummy reviews... lots of anecdotes of generator rotor failures. I have found similar stories elsewhere, which changed my mind about putting in a Generac 14 kW. Conversely, once you get 17-20 kW models, people seem pretty happy with them. I guess that might be one reason to "oversize" your generator choice.

Standby generator is a necessity in my case, as I have a deep well, and need a decent amount of power to start the well pump. I have no problem dragging out my portable generator when I am home, but it would be a domestic-catastrophe if we lost power while I was traveling on business. I am almost done with a GenTran 10 circuit transfer panel for my portable generator, and will park it permanently in a shelter outdoors to make it more convenient for the wife to use when I am gone.

I started my search looking for a whole-house generator, but have decided that was a bad way to go. A huge generator (17-20 kW, ok huge for me) loafing along when my average load is about 3 kW (with spikes for well pump, hot water heater, dryer, stove) is a waste of fuel. I can manage what I need easily with a 6 kW generator. My B&S Vanguard 10 kW is overkill with the selective loads I am powering.

 

[orezok]

When you have the largest share of the market,you also have the largest number of complaints. Generac would have to have 18 times more complaints than Cummins to be worse!

 

[Sprinklerman]

I found a diesel light tower , its a 6 kw generator powered by a 3 cyl diesel with a 35 gallon tank . Picked it up for $ 800.00
Havent ran it more than a day , but It does what I need it to do.

 

[ultrarunner]

^^^ Sounds like a heck of a deal!

Probably quiet too and a trailer to boot!!

 

[GManBart]

I found a diesel light tower , its a 6 kw generator powered by a 3 cyl diesel with a 35 gallon tank . Picked it up for $ 800.00
Havent ran it more than a day , but It does what I need it to do.

Pretty handy if the light tower is also functional!

 

[daugen]

Pretty handy if the light tower is also functional!

For sure. What a novel backup generator! Sprinklerman, you get the prize.
Though close to it would be using your welder generator on the truck.
Or?.....

The issue of light loads is a critical one. Really needs to be explored here. I loaned my gas portable gen to a friend who blew it up after running it for days on almost no load. Even with all the fancy additives I had in it, it carboned up the valves and cylinder head so badly it would not start.Needed the whole top end cleaned. so YES, don't put too large a gen in, and definitely give it a serious load at times to make it work hard.
Now diesels like to run at 80%+ load all day; not sure gas engines are that tough. In fact my guess would be not unless they were high quality with good cooling, perfectly maintained, running synthetic oil, etc. But when you use propane, you don't get that fouling of the cylinder head because the fuel is so much cleaner. I'm sure you can foul a propane/NG gen but it should take much longer than on a gas unit.

I run my portable gen once a month and load it up with a electric space heater. Probably should use two of them but hopefully in January I'll have a 22kw Generac put in. Unless I hit the lottery and then I'd salivate over one of those diesel units. A tornado touched down less than a mile from my home last year, and a hurricane a few years back knocked out power here for a week. What I could do in my 30's I just can't do in my 60's and I'm buying for the next ten years, when unfortunately I will get even older, not younger. So it just makes sense for me.

 

[daugen]

can anyone suggest a meter, digital preferably, showing the amps consumption?
Putting a clamp ammeter on the feed line I suppose would work, but how about
a nice wall gauge or even a small one that would fit where a breaker is...
I'd love to see what the system surge and constant draw numbers are to best shed load if need be.