Comparison Home Stand By Generators

[K man]

There has to be a reasons Generac is top seller of generators. Here are some Quality, pricing, service, warranty and durability. I have seen so many Generac generators installed in my area that I have spoken to the owners who are very satisfied with them. This is what made me lean towards and purchased a Generac. Some day I am planning to go off the grid and would need a back up generator so I have it. Love it so far.

 

[PILOON]

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.

I had occasion to service one that had 800 hours on it. The engine was just like new inside looking barely broken in.
Only needed valve adjustments.

 

[K man]

I found this great site that sells and reviews the top rated electric portable and standby generators.
Electric Generators Direct | Specializing in Power Generators

 

[Garandman]

Yup. I have a Kohler at the cottage and it has a carb heater kit. Starts in Winter every time, and it gets REALLY cold up there (-30).

I just checked with my dealer (Vermont Generator Systems) and in response to my questions about a carbo heater and battery blanket he said:

You do have a carb heater kit.
We do not use battery heaters as they boil off the acid: charged batteries won't freeze

The one thing I like about the Cummins/Onan is that an interior display is standard.

Costco sells them, who knew?

 

[Marks481]

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 have a TED5000 installed on my house, and it gives me hourly, daily, monthly graphs of power consumption. It is available with a tabletop LCD display or just through webpage hosted on your network. Looking at the graph of my daily power usage, it gives me a good idea of what size generator would be appropriate. It uses a CT that clips over the input power leads in my breaker panel.

Compare TED Pro Home and TED 5000 Series

Here are a few other brands:
Efergy USA - Home power monitors and wireless electricity monitors
https://www.brultech.com/products/ECM1240/default.htm

 

[check]

I found this great site that sells and reviews the top rated electric portable and standby generators.
Electric Generators Direct | Specializing in Power Generators

K Man, I didn't see the reviews of other generators, other than Generac, and indeed it looked more like an ad than a comparison. Did I miss something?

 

[grsthegreat]

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?

it seems to me up here where i live, its in relation to the number of long power failures weve had reciently. The last wind storm took out 2,500 power poles. some people were without elect for 2 weeks +.

i had people calling me daily trying to buy whatever i had.

cant be done. Generac takes nearly 21 days to ship me my last order. they simply didnt have ANY generators in-stock. their warehouse was empty.

it use to only take me 3-5 days to get the units shipped out. Actually, it amazes me that so many people refuse to spend 6-8 grand on a whole house generator system, thinking its a waste of $$$$ , but will dump $15,000 on a quad to play on a few weekends a year without any reservation.

its all a matter of whats important to you as an individual. Alot of my customers live quite a ways from town, and they will be the last on the list to get power restored in an emergency. They simply want to be prepared.

 

[houstonscott]

- Westerbeke

This is the pinnacle of standby power.

HS

 

[grsthegreat]

I just checked with my dealer (Vermont Generator Systems) and in response to my questions about a carbo heater and battery blanket he said:



The one thing I like about the Cummins/Onan is that an interior display is standard.

Costco sells them, who knew?

i do like those remote units Cummins sells. i just wonder, how do they shed off the load against the generator when starting it remotely? any one use these systems? You always want a no load start on any generator, so i just cant figure how these work to shut down and restart a generator while power is out.

if they do have a way to shed loads, i think there a great idea.

 

[farmer2009]

i do like those remote units Cummins sells. i just wonder, how do they shed off the load against the generator when starting it remotely? any one use these systems? You always want a no load start on any generator, so i just cant figure how these work to shut down and restart a generator while power is out. if they do have a way to shed loads, i think there a great idea.

My automatic switch gear senses the outage waits 3 seconds. Starts generator senses power from it then switches. So power is out about 6-7 seconds. Alarms are on 20second delays. So if everything works correctly then won't even see an alarm. Just come home to a generator screaming.