Whole House Generators

[lightman]

I'm looking to buy a generator and automatic transfer switch to run my house. I'll run it on natural gas and it will probably be 20 or 22 kw. Does anyone here have one and what do you like/dislike about it. Looking for brands mostly. I'm retired now and don't have a bucket truck sitting in the driveway like I did for 35 years! Thanks

[Bonz]

Love my Generac 15kw powered by naturaly gas. If I bought another, it would be a larger "water cooled" model

[Poygan]

Consider a Generac. We have a 10KW. It cycles once a week for ten minutes. Up here we have a battery heater which you may not need. I've been told that Generac won't stand behind the product if it wasn't installed by a person certified by them. Our unit has been installed for three years without any issues. Change oil and filter every two years.

[Outpost75]

I have a Generac 20Kw Guardian series with solid state ATS controller and 500 gallon LPG tank. Fuel consumption is 1.85g/hr. at 50% load. If I had it to do again would have put LPG tank underground and made it 1000 gallon. Have had it 5 years, have 200 hours on the engine. Reliable, no issues. I replaced flooded lead-acid battery with an Optima Yellow Top AGM at last PM. Battery is not heated, but is in an insulated box.

[DCP]

We have a Generac 16Kw NG runs the air and everything in the house. It cycles once a week for ten minutes. Works great

[Edward]

I being a happy home owner installed the same ,(Generic 10K) 5yrs and still runs test once a week ,it passes with no grief and I think it cost me $4300.00 and it keeps the wife happy !!!!!

[fishnbob]

I am on my second year with a 17K Generac and it runs everything in the house 'cept the clothes dryer. Even runs the air. It fires up once a week for 12 or so minutes and the installer changes the oil and checks it over once a year for $65. I hardly know when the electricity goes off. I have a LP gas backup on my heat pump so I can switch it to emergency heat and have whole house heat. I would hate to have to run it for a long period because it would run my tank down. I should have installed a designated tank for it. Hind sight is 20-20.

[bandsmoyer]

I have a Generac 20.000 runs everything,run it on propane.no problems.

[Geezer in NH]

ONAN, I worked in a city whose hospitals, nursing homes, fire stations and PD's and the dispatch and radios was run on full gen during power outages. They used the NATURAL gas fired units that lasted for years without replacement and small maintenance due to the clean burn of NG. The biggest problem was with the batteries to start and the cure was deep cell MARINE batteries and a 3 month maintenance on the batteries.

[lightman]

Thanks for the replys everyone. I'll probably pull the trigger on this next week. The new Generacs are 22kw and thats probably going to be my choice. They have a huge local following here with pretty good support.

I have already been on the phone with the gas company for service (all electric now) and have contacted a local plumber. I have a place picked out for it and I have enough wire and conduit to hook it up. Am I missing anything?

We've had 2 outages since I've been off work, 3 hours last night (comfortable weather) and 11 hours last July (miserable hot weather). Since I'm not working anymore the response time is around 2 hours before anyone even gets to town. Mrs Lightman says thats not acceptable!

[rancher1913]

mines an older generac, pto driven and 60kw, takes a few horses to run it but it will power the whole place if I conserve electricity. takes about 5 minutes to back a tractor up to it and get it going.

[13Echo]

After a certain hurricane ten years ago we were without power for four days. Hot, muggy, miserable. About six months later I came home from work and there was a fresh poured concrete pad for a generator. A week later and there was a 20kw natural gas water cooled Generac on the pad. My wife was determined "Never again." I don't even remember being consulted. It must have worked as in the last ten years we haven't lost power longer than 30 minutes at a time.

Jerry Liles

[Gator 45/70]

Have a 15 hp Generac, Tri-Fuel and a Honda 8hp, Going all Honda real soon.

[winelover]

Generac 20KW for three years, running on propane. Only maintenance done, so far, was yearly, oil changes. Have a 1000 gallon buried tank. Can only bury the tank, if you own it and that also allows one to shop around and get the best price on propane. With a leased tank, I'd have to buy from the supplier that provided the tank at whatever price he determines.

Currently, the largest air cooled unit, offered by Generac is the 22KW (20KW in the past) and is sufficient to run my 4000 sq.ft. house. If you require a larger unit, they offer them in water cooled, at about twice the cost.

Most homes in my area run entirely on electric and one of the biggest draws is the electric water heater. In my case it's a 90 gallon one. When I built this house, I knew that going in, and installed a 40 gallon gas for a standby/backup. During extended outages, I can take the electric one off line and fire up the gas one. I also have geothermal heat and A/C and a super insulated home (ICF or Insulated Concrete Forms) so the heat and air draw is a smaller than a conventional house.

Winelover

[lightman]

13Echo, I think I know where you are talking about. I worked 28 straight 16hr days after Katrina hit and another 12 or 14 days on Rita. Katrina was early enough in the season that it was miserably hot and humid. In 34 years as a Lineman, that was the worst storm damage that I have seen.

Winelover, that 22kw air cooled unit is the one that I am looking at. I would like to have a larger diesel unit, but I don't want to deal with stale fuel, ordering fuel, ect. I also know that a cold dead diesel can be a bear to start.

Thanks for the replys everyone.

[Vann]

I installed a 20kw Generac and their supplied transfer switch in my parents house about 10 years ago. My mom loves it, my dad has ALS and is in the later stages of it so it gives her a bit of security. After about 9 years it's starting to have intermittent problems with the transfer switch, the generator will start but the switch won't throw. It's a rare problem and the switch can be manually thrown so it's not a major issue. I'm sure it can be easily fixed it just happens so rarely that I'm not around when it happens.

The unit is air cooled and so far in the last 10 years besides the transfer switch which is not a generator problem, the only other things that have occurred was it blew up its battery about a year and a half ago and it blew it's control power fuse about 6 months ago. I'm not sure why the battery blew. I couldn't find any problems when I looked at the generator, my theory is my brother didn't get the connections tight enough when he installed the battery and something arced while it was charging which ignited the out gassing of the battery. The blown fuse so far has been a one time occurrence.

My only beef about the generator is fuel consumption. She has a 250 gal lpg tank and if I figured right at full load she empty it it under 3 days, I don't remember the actual figure I really think it was more like 2 days but I figured that up years ago and the exact number escapes me.

[dragonrider]

I have a Generac 8000 watt portable. As power outages here are relatively rare it's all I need. Electric start which is great compared to the Coleman 5000 pull start that it replaced. I won't even start the Generac unless the power has been out for more than an hour hence I haven't use it yet to power the house in the two years that I have had it. I have used it several times for powering tools when working around the property. I was going to get a pto unit for the tractor but that would mean removing the backhoe or the snowblower to use it, too much effort. I start it every month and run it for at least an hour, pretty quiet for a portable unit.

[snowwolfe]

Great thread! We been thinking of installing one of these. I already had the contractor install a 200 amp transfer switch and we have a natural gas line not more than 30 feet away from where the gen would go.

What would we been looking at for costs for a 12k-15k generator installed on site? My guess is about $4,500.

[DCP]

I was told A 200 amp transfer switch must be located outside by the city code enforcer.
Would have add 2k to the bill for the electric work.

I had to have the city approve everything.

[lightman]

I've priced a 22kw unit with a transfer switch for arrround $4800. I'll connect it myself, so except for a very small amount of minor material I'm just looking at the plumbing charges. We don't have a city inspector but I'm licensed, so no problems there.

[Outpost75]

Another thing to remember that your 500 gallon tank will hold only about 400 actual gallons of NG or LPG, because you need to have headspace in the tank for the gas to vaporize properly. Good links with additional info:

http://preparednessadvice.com/?s=generators#.VhE9XuxVhHw
http://preparednessadvice.com/uncategorized/propane-powered-generators-best-choice/#comment-97919

Some photos:

Underground 1000-gal. tank install at neighbors, which I should have gotten.

ATS panel open. Store extra fuses, etc. in the cabinet.

Generac 20Kw Guardian series, with dedicated 500 gal. above ground tank.

150393150394150395

[MaryB]

With the new garage I have been thinking of a generator I could install inside and run the exhaust out the wall... Use a portable with electric start so I can move it around if needed.

[Mal Paso]

With house fires it is now common procedure for the Fire Department to pull the utility meter cutting power to the house. If you have a backup generator it starts right up and powers the house just like an outage. A notice posted next to the meter indicating generator location and disconnect is required now. Might be a good idea for older installations.

Air cooled last about 3.000 hours, water cooled 10,000. Guesstimate the number of hours you will use in 20 years and buy accordingly.

[lightman]

Ok, fast forward to this week. I purchased a generator. I chose a Generac Guardian Series 22kw that I will run on natural gas. I picked it up last Friday and unloaded it near where it will sit. The gas company contractor was out yesterday and talked with me about its location. The locator service was out today to locate the other utilities. I am hopeful that I will have service by the end of the week. I plan to install the transfer switch tomorrow and wire it up. I have the pad in place but have not moved the generator, not knowing what equipment the gas co contractor will be using or how good the operators are.

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy164/PTheodo/IMG_0350.jpg (http://s788.photobucket.com/user/PTheodo/media/IMG_0350.jpg.html)

This guy is pretty heavy. I guess I'll coax a few of my shooting buddies over to help. There is not really enough room to get my tractor and loader in there. I'll post some pics after its up and running.