Curious about a generator

[Badger]

I know absolutely nothing about a generator for the house but thought it may be time to look into them. I would like to have one that automatically turns on to keep the air conditioner, refrigerator, other appliances and lights functional. The breaker panel says it is a 200 amp service.
Can anyone help me with suggestions on brand, prices, and cost to have installed?
What else do I need to know? Maintenance, type of fuel to run, etc?


Cheers!

 

[Ronstar]

I have a 16kw Generac. Not whole house, but most of it. 16 circuits including heat, ac, well, water heater, fridges, microwave. Has its own sub panel / transfer switch fed from a 70 amp breaker from the main panel. Runs on natural gas.

I put the generator on a gravel pad, and moved the 16 circuits from the main panel to the sub panel, installed the sub panel and connected it to the main panel. Had an hvac guy hook up natural gas to the generator as a tee from my gas line at the meter. Gas company replaced my 250 cfh meter with a 415. I think they charged me about $100. 215 cfh meter was not big enough to handle generator and furnace.

I paid $3209 for my generator and $499 for the transfer switch at Menards in 2015. Don't know about installation costs since I installed it myself.

Maintenance is yearly. Charge battery and change oil.

It's great - fires up automatically whenever there is a power outage and shuts off when the power comes back on. And it is somewhat quiet.

 

[RunningBum]

My neighbor's runs weekly for something like 15 minutes for maintenance. It's reasonably quiet but I do hear it, 3 lots down. I think they set up something like Ronstar's, because they said they were asked what they wanted on the generator up to a limit.

 

[SumDay]

We got a bid to have a Generac installed. It was $10K. Shortly after we got the bid, the HVAC needed replacing, so we did that instead. We may still do it.

We have a portable generator, but DH is getting less and less able to wheel it around and keeping it running, so Generac it is.

 

[Souschef]

I bought a 4500 Generac. It was the biggest one I could physically handle. It will handle our refrigerator and 6 cu ft freezer.
I also have a six outlet power strip to charge phones, tablets, etc. I offered the service to my neighbors.
I also measured the temperature in our refrigerator during an outage. It rod se 3 degrees in 8 hours

 

[Amethyst]

? Was this with or without the generator?

I also measured the temperature in our refrigerator during an outage. It rod se 3 degrees in 8 hours

 

[Amethyst]

How big is a typical outdoor footprint for an installed generator? Our lot is not huge and I've already cluttered it with a mini-split and a carbon water filter.

 

[Souschef]

? Was this with or without the generator?

That was without the generator, Just keeping the door closed.

 

[Amethyst]

thanks, I thought so, but wasn't sure.

That was without the generator, Just keeping the door closed.

 

[Ronstar]

How big is a typical outdoor footprint for an installed generator? Our lot is not huge and I've already cluttered it with a mini-split and a carbon water filter.

Ours is 2' x 4' and it's 4' from the house.

 

[youbet]

type of fuel to run, etc?

If you're talking a large, whole house generator, the only realistic choices are natural gas or propane. Diesel generators can be quite expensive. Gasoline generators require, well, gasoline. Gasoline is a real pita to store in large quantities.

 

[Winemaker]

I, too, have a NG Generac 16KW sitting on a 2x4 pad that I poured. It ran about $6,000, it is whole house for us. However, we cook and heat with gas, and the electric range and dryer circuits are disconnected in the breaker box. The power provided by the 16KW generator cannot run an electric dryer, range, the AC and other appliances at the same time, so the range and dryer are disconnected, so that a future owner won't fry the unit or burn the house down.

 

[wolf]

One caveat. If your natural gas line is disrupted, no electricity. However, since gas lines are under ground, less likely to happen.

 

[OldShooter]

If you're talking a large, whole house generator, the only realistic choices are natural gas or propane. ...

+1 Neither diesel nor gasoline are stable over long periods. Also the submersible pumps that get them from their underground tanks into your jerry can need electricity to run. If you are out of electricity, they may be too. I worked hurricane Michael in Florida with Red Cross. Someone in the damage area needing a functioning gas station would have had quite a drive even if they could manage the road debris.

I think Genrac is the share leader in larger automatic generators. I would do your initial research by looking at their product line, then branch out to other suppliers as necessary.

Some generator installations feed the whole house/all circuits. Others omit some high power circuits like electric ovens. This reduces the maximum draw that the generator must support and hence its size and cost. In our case, northern states, our generators/manual transfer panels do not support the AC and several other non-critical circuits.

 

[MRG]

If you're talking a large, whole house generator, the only realistic choices are natural gas or propane. Diesel generators can be quite expensive. Gasoline generators require, well, gasoline. Gasoline is a real pita to store in large quantities.

+1

I've been around tier 5 data centers that have diesel generators and IIRC they contracted to rotate their fuel every 6 months. Not something home owners would like to do.

 

[Shredder]

I still have a big heavy "portable" !0,000W peak, 7500W generator on a manual transfer switch. We only use it maybe twice a year, but when we upgrade it definitely will be a generac.

Two days after hip replacement surgery in 2018 our power went out in a big snow storm. My wife pulled the truck up close to the garage and I went out with a walker. She drove me the 200 ft to our pole barn, I got out and directed her to wheel the genny outside while I did the necessary switching. Quite the ordeal. And of course we had to put everything away when power was restored. A generac auto start would have been many times easier.

 

[Sunset]

While we had a power failure during heavy rainstorms, which caused our sump pump to not work and flood our basement (just 2 inches).
I borrowed a generator to get the sump running and prevent further flooding.

After that I bought a generator, a 4K portable one, I've never used it in the past 10 years. Actually I've never used it !!

About 4 years ago, the power company put in new lines, and eliminated our power failures.

 

[travelover]

The need to power the air conditioner is what drives up the size of the generator a great deal. If you can do without AC, a portable generator will power most necessities. If you don't need 240 volts for a well pump, you can go even smaller.

 

[braumeister]

While we had a power failure during heavy rainstorms, which caused our sump pump to not work and flood our basement (just 2 inches).

FWIW, I had that problem about ten years ago in our last house and I bought a sump pump with battery backup. Came in really handy a couple of times!

Basement Watchdog

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I bought a 4500 Generac. It was the biggest one I could physically handle. It will handle our refrigerator and 6 cu ft freezer.
I also have a six outlet power strip to charge phones, tablets, etc. I offered the service to my neighbors.
I also measured the temperature in our refrigerator during an outage. It rod se 3 degrees in 8 hours

Same here but I put an extra panel with breakers and an isolator. It runs everything we need when the power goes out. BUT, we are on the same grid as the local hospital so we have never lost power for more than about 15 hours, even after a hurricane. So the small 4500 generator works fine for us.

 

[JoeWras]

BUT, we are on the same grid as the local hospital so we have never lost power for more than about 15 hours, even after a hurricane. So the small 4500 generator works fine for us.

I will consider investigating this for my next house. Hospitals are #1, but right behind are retirement homes. Rarely have any of our friends behind the retirement communities been out for more than a few hours. Meanwhile, we've suffered up to 96 hours after hurricanes.

 

[Souschef]

Our main concern is the power company shutting off power during high fire danger here in Southern Calif.
That being said, when they re-energized one of the lines it started a 4,000 acre fire that caused us to evacuate

 

[Dash man]

We have a 20KW whole house Generac NG generator. Three times since we got it we’ve had significant power outages of at least a day. Once it failed immediately (something with the NG pressure that hasn’t repeated), once it failed after running for five hours (oil pressure switch failed) and once it ran during the entire outage. Not real satisfied considering the money I spent. I keep my gasoline powered generator for backup.

 

[Walt34]

We have a 4500 (peak) watt Honda "super quiet" generator fueled by gasoline. Yes, gasoline is a pita to store, I put preservative in it and put it in the vehicles every six months or so and repeat. The generator will power the NG furnace, computer, TV, refrigerator, freezer (although we haven't needed to power that yet) and a few light bulbs. In the summer "Plan B" is to hunker down in the bedroom with a window A/C as 4000 watts will not power a central A/C. I knew that when I bought it 20 years ago. When we lived near DC we used it often because the power lines were all up on poles, which in turn had trees grown up around them. So when we had storms, more often than not the power went off. Going without power for four days after an ice storm was the final incentive to buy it.

When we moved to WV I had a transfer switch put in and we've used the generator exactly one time in 18 years. The power lines here are all underground so much more reliable than the ones in the "established neighborhood" (i.e., old) where we used to live. We have no plans to buy a whole-house generator.

 

[braumeister]

We have a 4500 (peak) watt Honda "super quiet" generator fueled by gasoline. Yes, gasoline is a pita to store, I put preservative in it and put it in the vehicles every six months or so and repeat.

That's exactly what I did at our last house. All I really cared about was enough power to run the refrigerator, a microwave, a few lights, and a little portable heater if wintertime. Those Honda generators are remarkably quiet, much better than any other brand I looked at.