Home Generators, Choices, Pros & Cons, Needed?

bigwheelzip said:
Need to look at more than sticker. Gensets are never incentivized. In the OP's state, solar and storage is eligible for state tax incentives that could cover installed costs up to a maximum of 60 percent, up to 7500 dollars. Federal tax credits are 26 percent for that type of system. Do your homework, and it could be a very sweet deal. :)
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Thanks, BWZ. Something to consider, for sure.

Reading through this, if money were no object, I think I'd go with a whole house, auto-switch on propane system with a 500 gal tank professionally installed and maintained.

It's a very useful discussion. There's a lot to consider here, guys and gals, and I appreciate all the advice and experiences related.
 
mick1213 said:
I’m reading the posts with interest. We lost power for 5 days after Sally hit us. I had a 1500w gen and a 4000w portable, luckily the weather didn’t turn unbearably hot and I was able to get by with the small gen running refrige, fans and tv plus a few lights. Good thing was a tank (1 gallon) of gas would last around 9 hours. I had a 40 gallon boat tank of spare gasoline but elected not to run the larger gen. I dislike filling the large gen especially then my yard was flooded and the gens were in my flooded shop.


Since then I built this to house the two generators and have converted the larger one to lpg since I already have the tank.

I realize this isn’t suitable for everyone but at this time for me I’ll be able to get by ok with outages. The photo was taken several days after the storm, the flooding had dropped quite a bit.
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Wow. That tree came awfully close to the house. Any damage,from it?:eek:
 
No, I have a small heavily wooded lot and lost 7 large pines. None did any damage other than taking out the electrical service entrance .That tree is actually under the eave of the house, it must have twisted on the last 45 degrees of fall to have ended there with no house damage.

bgrafsr said:
Wow. That tree came awfully close to the house. Any damage,from it?:eek:
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I have not heard the generator run yet, as we're not living in the house until all re-modeling gets done, so I don't know how noisy it is. I do know it won't be as loud as my portable Honda is. I gave that to my Son for when he needs it.


Our generator is behind the house and 12 feet from it, per installation instructions for exhaust safety. The transfer switch is mounted on the back wall of the house, and our bedroom is in the front of the house, so if it's noisy we shouldn't have a problem with it.


The AC unit is also at the rear of the house, and both units are mounted on concrete pads with gravel under them.


We just had to have the foundation dug up as we found mold on the front basement wall in my gun room and we were getting water in the gun room, and when they dug it up, there was a crack in the block wall and the footer tile was almost completely blocked. Walls were double sealed with tar, new plastic pipe laid for footer tile, 50 tons of gravel to fill up excavation, and about 2 or 3 feet of dirt on top of that to grade. They also had to redo the lines to the septic tank.

Of course when they dug up the foundation, they had to remove the AC compressor and pad, and that will get re-installed once the weather warms up and the ground settles.

Just got the bill for this work: $19,000.00:eek:


uqNbNDVl.jpg
 
Someone should write a book on this topic. It takes that much space to cover all the information. A lot depends on the budget for the job and how fully automatic you need the system to be. Very large generators that run everything consume a lot of fuel. A 22,000 watt system could use 3 gallons per hour. This will go through a propane tank in a hurry running 24 hours a day.My wife and I are retired so we are home most of the time. We have a Generac whole house 12,000 watt unit. I don't leave it on automatic. If the power goes out and we are grocery shopping we don't care. If it is out and will likely be out for some time, I go push the automatic button and away it goes. I'm happy to manage it so that we save on fuel costs. Others don't want to even touch it and just let it take care of them. That's fine too if they have the money and choose to spend it that way. I know people who want to keep the swimming pool heated when the power goes off. God bless them. It's just not me. We have a basement. We will go there if it is very hot outside rather than running the AC off the Generator. Everyone is different in their wants and needs.
 
Onomea said:
Ouch! Now that is a firm bite in the backside!:eek: (Insurance helped, I hope...)
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Unfortunately, NO. We didn't get a home inspection done when we bought the house and as there had been no rain for awhile, there was no water in the basement.


Contractor said the previous owners knew about the water problem and should have disclosed it to us.

Talked to the Real Estate Agent also, but we decided to forgo any litigation against the previous owner, and took the hit ourselves.
Live & learn.:cool:
 
jeffrefrig said:
Yeah, that is a bunch of $$$! But, before I saw the numbers, I would've thought quite a bit more for all that work. Depends where you live and having decent, hopefully honest contractors.
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We have an excellent contractor who does quality work. No complaints about that.:)


We bought the house last July and the re-model is still going on. What started out as just a little re-modeling is going on and on.

Hopefully by Spring we can get moved in.
 
Built a new house in 2018. During construction, bought a Generac whole house generator from the local electrical supply company. At that time, Generac was offering a free automatic transfer switch with purchase. Installation concurrent with wiring the rest of the house, so not a lot of additional cost. Hooked up to a 1000gal. underground propane tank that also fuels heater and stove.
Most recently lost rural, coop power during an unseasonal ice storm in October. Generator ran for approx. 30 hours and burned about 50gal. of propane. Well worth it for power and peace of mind.
Now threatening rolling blackouts, so no worries.
Ren
 
I have found that I can reduce the noise considerably by closing the door to the guest room and the master bath and walk in closet doors which are also on the same wall as the generator. I know when it has been activated in the middle of the night because my alarm clock is blinking.

I think though that if it ever appears that the power will be out for more than a few hours, I will switch it off for a while and try not to open the refrigerator and then switch it back on to save on the propane consumption. My house, being new construction is insulated very well so I can do without power for a few hours at a time. It sure is nice to have. My neighbors have to rely on their fireplace, a gas BBQ for cooking and battery operated lanterns when the power fails.
 
We bought a 10Kw Briggs and Stratton Fortress after much research. Since we have no natural gas on the street, we ended up with two 100 gallon propane tanks.

It will power the whole house, kicks in automatically, self tests on Sunday mornings.

Generator, electrical work, pipe fitting, set up and testing came to $7,500.00.

Electrical work included new service into the house, a new meter box, and transfer switch. Fortunately we didn't need a new circuit breaker box.

We could have got a portable for less, but there is no way my wife would lug it out of storage, connect it to the house, and start it up. Especially in the winter with snow on the ground.

Someone mentioned service contracts. Well worth it in my opinion.
 
The portable ones were very popular after our ice disaster in 2009. And then in 2010, you could buy a "only started once" or "still new in the box" generator for about 1/3 of the sticker . . .

oldbrownhat said:
I bet the generator dealers are going to be VERY popular once this subsides. Maybe it's all been somehow engineered by them to drum up business...:eek:
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oldbrownhat said:
And I bet those folks are kicking themselves now- perhaps as much to stay warm as anything.
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Nah. The people they sold them to have 11 year old generators which probably didn't start last week and they bought new ones from Lowes, ready to stimulate the used equipment economy again in about a year . . .
 
Great info in the thread - I will not be redundant

however my .02

when sizing a " standby whole house generator"...........
use the same mentality as when you purchase a gun safe......
the bigger the better

expensive - yes !
but when you need it - you will feel at ease.......
 
I didn't originally plan for a generator as big as I ended up buying. Nor was my original plan for a whole house unit.

After looking at all of the factors, I determined that it would cost more in the long run to try and cheap out.

Chief Wiggums said:
Great info in the thread - I will not be redundant

however my .02

when sizing a " standby whole house generator"...........
use the same mentality as when you purchase a gun safe......
the bigger the better

expensive - yes !
but when you need it - you will feel at ease.......
Click to expand...
 
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