Standby generator: Power whole house?

[My Old Tools]

Just looked at a house with a 35 KW Genrac that had it's own propane tank. Sized for a 5 bedroom house with two heat pumps, full kitchen load, etc.

 

[ctfjr]

Very nice install Chrispyny! My L3400 front loader couldn't pick the genset off the trailer it came on (only rated 1000 lbs). I ended up calling a towing company. easy peasy for him. He dropped the genset in the garage & I pushed it in place with the Kubota.

What no one has mentioned so far is what the purity of the output of these gensets look like. Some of the less expensive units have sine wave outputs in name only. Some electronic equipment would have a tough time on that service.

 

[hippie2cams]

I feel some of your pain, when hurricane Ike hit, I was without power for just over 21 days. Low Priority zone for centerpoint energy. Plus we were in one of the hardest hit areas on the northeast of houston in a rural area. I can understand when some of you say never again and I join you, I don't care how much it cost

 

[larry4406]

...I ran a 30 amp power inlet box next to the panel on the outside of my house. Installed an interlock kit on a 30 amp panel to backfeed to my whole house.

I'm no sparky but I would not think 30A backfeed breaker via interlock is ok for entire house. My guess is you have at least a 200A main. Perhaps with manual load shedding this works along with your gas appliances. I can't imagine the AC units working.

 

[chrispyny]

I have window shakers now. It should handle a 10k btu and one 5k btu.
Larry, my main service is 150 amps to a newly installed square d QO panel.
I'll upgrade to a ductless minisplit system next summer. The genset will handle that just fine. They are highly underrated. The genset weighs over 1k lbs. the rotating mass of the generator head is huge. It takes start up loads like a champ. Just a grunt from engine, a small black puff of smoke, and it keeps going.
One can get a monster genset and burn thru fuel of any type very fast, or reduce your load, plan ahead, think smart, and one can run whats needed perfectly fine.
I also upgraded most of my lights in the house to LeD.
I went thru the house one day and turned on most everything but the clothes dryer (lights, tvs, etc ) and it barely registered on the genset. Like it never happened.

 

[reader2580]

The 8.5KW standby generator at my previous house ran for 65 hours during an outage in 2013 and used less than $20 worth of natural gas. That was with the generator pretty heavily loaded. If I went with a 50% larger unit I think I could handle an extra $10 in gas for a 65 hour outage.

I figured it cost me $75 an hour for every hour my standby generator ran during an actual outage.

My current generator install I hope to cost less than $2,000 total for a 10KW Kohler standby generator.

 

[4x4_G30_Sportvan]

What was approximate cost of the 2 MILSURP Gens?
Thanks. Looks like a very nice setup.

I won an auction for an air cooled mep-002a military diesel genset with 89 hours on it 2 years ago. Mep means Mobile Electric Plant. It was highly robust, capable of around 8,000 watts. It was awesome but loud

I won an auction on govplanet for an mep-802a with 22 hours late last summer. Current power generation for our military. It has a onan licensed lister petter engine, sips 1/2 gal an hour of diesel at full load of rated 6300 watts but will do more. The military underrates its gensets. . The best part is it is liquid cooled and quietly purrs along while running.
I ran a 30 amp power inlet box next to the panel on the outside of my house. Installed an interlock kit on a 30 amp panel to backfeed to my whole house. Made a generator pad from blue stone and pressure treated lumber, and installed a power outlet box on the side of the genset. Also installed a 24v solar panel to keep the batteries topped off.
I read on another site that one guy had a whole house ng generator he ran for a couple weeks during an outtage due to a hurricane down south. The next month he got a natural gas bill from his energy company for over $900 or something. Less is more.
And no one needs a transfer switch of any kind. My interlock kit lets me power my whole house without designating circuits or purchasing thousand dollar transfer switches to ensure enough circuits have juice during an outtage.

 

[Pwrgeek]

I read on another site that one guy had a whole house ng generator he ran for a couple weeks during an outtage due to a hurricane down south. The next month he got a natural gas bill from his energy company for over $900 or something. Less is more.

Yeah the NG units will rack up a bill. I know during Ike a bunch of the guys I was working with figured their overtime checks were going to just about wash with the next month's natural gas bill

And no one needs a transfer switch of any kind. My interlock kit lets me power my whole house without designating circuits or purchasing thousand dollar transfer switches to ensure enough circuits have juice during an outtage.

I probably don't need it but it sure is nice. The storm rages outside, the lights go out, and about 15 seconds later they come back on. Meanwhile I stay in my chair (or even better my bed) not having to go outside in that mess. Also auto transfer is nice because I don't have to worry about the fridges and freezers while we are out of town. I have mine set up where I get an email to let me know it is running.

 

[lat905]

I have a Generac whole house unit on natural gas. 14 KW, auto transfer switch. The guy who installed it came out before he quoted it and took amp reading with a clamp on Fluke meter in the panel. He had me turning stuff on and off to see what the loads would be. Then he quoted the size. I had thought I would need a 20 kw based on the online stuff I had read.

I refuse to live without one ever again.

Most of my appliances are gas, so the gennie is running the lights, the HVAC blower, the AC unit if its on, the blower on the water heater, and whatever other electrical stuff we have on.

The inrush when the AC cycles on will make the governor open, but otherwise the unit just idles along. Ac is the only big load I have.

I bought the system right after hurricane Sandy. We only lost power during that for a few hours, but I know others who were out for 3 weeks or more.

Last summer we had a bad wind storm and power was out for 3 days. It was hot and humid and miserable that week. We were fine.

 

[esparzatj]

I live in Edmond, OK and we had a Kohler 20kw 20RESD installed by Imajenus, Broken Arrow, OK. The total project cost was $9,230. The generator is powered by natural gas and included an automatic transfer switch (ATS) with load management. Separately, I purchased a carburetor heater & OnCue Plus management software from Home Depot. I opted for a wired installation vs a wireless install for the OnCue.

 

[DoorBreaker]

A reasonable source for good generators can also be the cell & phone companies. In my area they replace them at around 500 hours run time. $4,000.00 gets you a 30-45Kw NG/Propane unit that makes both single and 3 phase power.