Whole house generator

[jem041279]

I think that the folks that live in hurricane country are more than justified going with a whole house standby generator.

Oh and by the way I was suprised to learn that those propane generators burn lots of fuel, I can't remember exacts but it was at least a gallon and hour FYI

 

[grsthegreat]

There are lots of ways top cut down the size gen set you need.
1. Go to propane water heater
2. Have propane back up heat source if you have a heat pump system
3. if you have a deep well, install a 1000 - 2500 gal shallow holding tank that can be pumped with a small booster pump motor. And be more frugal with water waste.
4. florescent lamps in house.

with these steps Ive installed 5 kw systems in houses that have successfully powered the main items to make it thru a power outage.

Ovens, elect water heaters and elect range/cooktop and elect heat are the worse things on small gen sets. Deep water wells also take their toll.

 

[whistlepig]

Its kind of a trade off. A little bit of discomfort during a power outage or a whole house set up that costs several thousand dollars that just sits there and loses value. For the hurricane folks a whole house system is the way to go. For us folks that deal with a power outage once every five years I would think this would be way overkill.

 

[kenmac]

I totally disagree with these statements. I have had good luck with two generac home standby generators. Both air cooled

I didn't expect everyone to agree. I'm ok with that. I said in my opinion. This statement was straight from generac back when I was a dealer / installer. I didn't make it up

 

[whistlepig]

I am trying to make the home generator thing affordable. We moved to the country 5 years ago and have a couple of horses and a couple of dogs. So where are we going to go with two horses and two dogs for a week? Nowhere. We bought a portable generator and had a manual transfer box wired in to our electric. Total cost for a brand new Honda 6500 watt generator and the transfer box was $2,800. We lost our power for a week during an ice storm this past February. The portable generator set up got us by. We had heat, water for the horses, and water to flush the toilets. These whole house standby discussions can scare a home owner from even owning a generator at all because of the cost. Makes the country life seem unaffordable. Its simply not so. All our neighbors are running the same portable setup and they have livestock.

 

[Pilot]

Did a little more research. Here are some options, depending on how much you want to pay:

Option 1, portable 7250W, run, 8250W peak unit from Costco, $850. 10 circuit, 50 amp transfer switch thru Amazon, $450, plus 50 amp power cord inlet box, also Amazon, $80. Allowing $200 to install the transfer switch (my wild guess) & box, gives a total of $1,580.

Option 2, 10kw running, 12.5kw peak, portable also from Costco, $1,900. Add transfer switch & inlet box & labor & you're at $2,430.

Option 3, the 14kw propane powered standby whole house unit from Costco (12kw natural gas), $2250 after $250 rebate, plus $1,000 installation, $3,250.

 

[jmanatee2]

I didn't expect everyone to agree. I'm ok with that. I said in my opinion. This statement was straight from generac back when I was a dealer / installer. I didn't make it up

Not to argue with you,... However, Per Generac's website, They say this air-cooled generator will power a 4 or 5 ton air conditioning system.
Generac Power Systems - Guardian Series 14 kW

In fact they say the various size AC's that all the Guardians 10kw and bigger will support

 

[whistlepig]

Did a little more research. Here are some options, depending on how much you want to pay:

Option 1, portable 7250W, run, 8250W peak unit from Costco, $850. 10 circuit, 50 amp transfer switch thru Amazon, $450, plus 50 amp power cord inlet box, also Amazon, $80. Allowing $200 to install the transfer switch (my wild guess) & box, gives a total of $1,580.

Option 2, 10kw running, 12.5kw peak, portable also from Costco, $1,900. Add transfer switch & inlet box & labor & you're at $2,430.

Option 3, the 14kw propane powered standby whole house unit from Costco (12kw natural gas), $2250 after $250 rebate, plus $1,000 installation, $3,250.

So you can get a whole house 14k standby installed for about $750.00 more than I paid just for my 6500 watt Honda portable generator?

 

[Pete Judd]

We have long outages here once and a while, I have found that an 800 watt honda inverter genset gets us through just fine. We heat with a pellet stove that uses very little power, can cook on camp stoves, light with white gas lanterns (and they also provide a lot of heat). Get water to flush toilets from the pond or creek. When a big storm is coming, we fill clean milk jugs with potable water and store them in the bathtub of the second bathroom that we don't use. We were flooded in without power a couple of years ago for 6 days, and went through less than two 5 gallon jerry cans of gas. Had internet, plugged in the frezzer at night, It was cold enough outside to move food out of the fridge into coolers. Not much of a ordeal. I don't think that for us a whole house system is needed. The load of the well pump would push the price up to high.

 

[Pilot]

$2250 was yesterday's price at Costco, in the store, good until 9/17, after which it is $2,500. That's an in-store price only; I don't see it at Costco.com. Installation from a couple sources is expected to run $1,000. It's a Kohler unit.

Saw a similar Kohler unit online for $3,900. That's why I love Costco.

 

[coobie]

We purchased a(LP whole house) 17kw generac (air cooled)two years and could not be happier.From what my generac dealer/installer told me the key to longevity of the air cooled engine was to change the oil after the generator has run for a period of time(say 2-3 days).He also stated to use full syn.oil 5w-30 which I do.coobie

 

[coobie]

Oh and by the way I was suprised to learn that those propane generators burn lots of fuel, I can't remember exacts but it was at least a gallon and hour FYI

I have to disagree with this statement.Our 17kw generac whole house generator (LP )only used 7% in 3 day run time(24 hours per day)under 30-50 % load.

 

[MikeInEburg]

... Our 17kw generac whole house generator (LP )only used 7% in 3 day run time(24 hours per day)under 30-50 % load.

7% of what?

 

[bcjmmac]

I'm curious as to why you would want a 20KW generator. It seems like a huge investment for the number of hours that you would actually use it. And when you do use it, it sucks down a lot of expensive fuel.

Where I'm at, a 5000 watt generator is plenty to run essentials until the power is restored.

Travel during the winter so wanted a unit that would start automatically & be able to handle the essentials - heat, water, sump pumps, appliances, etc.
Have lived through several outages in differing locals of 2 weeks or more (at minus 30 degrees during the ice storm of 99).
20KW actually isn't enough to run my whole household due to the draw of my geothermal unit so only have the backup electric heat hooked up (good enough to keep the house above freezing should we be away during the outage).
Was going to buy a 14KW unit, but my builder got the 20KW for same price. Since we were building the extra cost of installing the unit wasn't that great.
Also use propane for the stove & probably a future propane fireplace when/if I finish the basement.

 

[coobie]

7% of what?

Sorry 7 % gal. of propane.We have a 500 gal.tank.According to the gauge on the tank we used 7% of propane for 3 days running the gen. 24 hours a day.coobie

 

[Toyboy]

I'm looking to install a whole house auto start up unit before winter myself. I'm trying to decide between 14kw and 17kw being run on NG. It will be either Kohler or Generac. Any pro's or cons of one brand over the other?

 

[MikeInEburg]

Sorry 7 % gal. of propane.We have a 500 gal.tank.According to the gauge on the tank we used 7% of propane for 3 days running the gen. 24 hours a day.coobie

So 35 gallons over 72 hours - or JUST under 1/2 gallon per hour. Not bad...
Mike

 

[grsthegreat]

Sorry 7 % gal. of propane.We have a 500 gal.tank.According to the gauge on the tank we used 7% of propane for 3 days running the gen. 24 hours a day.coobie

Hm, according to generac web site, this gen set at 50% use = consumes 1.6 gal/hr and 2.57 g/h at full use. you must have just been ideling hehe

Generac® Guardian® 5873/5874 17 kW Generator

 

[msjanket]

We had a power outage for 3 full days recently. I thought I was protected with an 8kw Dyna (Winco) genset. I was, sorta. However, if you happen to have a number of motors starting up simultaneously, the instantaneous current draw can do some bad things. I lost my expensive dehumidifier and my oil burner and refrigerator sounded a bit weird at times. Most likely due to low voltage at that time. I felt 8kw was ample, but keeping that genset would necessitate my taking some things like our freezer, dehumdifier, and a couple other things off to make sure I don't have a brown voltage situation again. It is also why I'm considering a 14kw unit now. It's a commercial diesel, very well built, and if I project another 10 years ahead with it, it will still have low hours and be worth nearly what it's worth now. It does not seem like a bad investment for me now, all things considered. Still, 3600 bucks ain't cheap, but as I said, it's not gonna lose much value and no function with whatever in the next decade.

 

[coobie]

Hm, according to generac web site, this gen set at 50% use = consumes 1.6 gal/hr and 2.57 g/h at full use. you must have just been ideling hehe

Generacｮ Guardianｮ 5873/5874 17 kW Generator

I believe in my first post I said between 30-50 percent most of the run time.Just the wife and I at home.I was not there most of the time as I am a electric lineman and was putting the power on for 7 plus days(ice storm) for all of the good souls who did not have a generator.Wife at home by herself = little load used.I guess if you don,t believe that I don,t know what to tell ya.coobie