Considering a backup home generator

[Dennis Droege]

The electric easement behind our house has many large trees. We have experienced several outages in the past, the most recent being over the July 4th holiday. I want to have a backup generator installed; I wonder if anyone else has had this done, and what pointers they might give me. Thanks much for any help.

[Larry Frank]

I have a Generac whole house generator and has worked ok but with several small problems. I would check for references from who ever you consider buying. Go see the installations and make certain they do a good job.

I would suggest buying the extended warranty as it will cover any issues that come up.

[Jim Becker]

There have been a bunch of threads on this over the past few years and many of us have whole house generators, myself included. In fact, it was the first project we did when we moved to this house just over two years ago. Having had one at the previous residence (and greatly sorry we didn't do it ten years earlier than we did), there was no way we wouldn't have one here. We opted for a Generac 22kv with auto transfer at both properties. It only powers the house; not the shop. Failover when the power drops takes about 15 seconds so I have small UPSs on critical electronics for 100% power all the time. The old property had NG; here we're using LP. That did affect our installation cost here as we had to add a tank to meet requirements.

[roger wiegand]

We have one (Generac whole house), it's been useful for a few long outages we've had. Our main concern was an outage like our neighbors across the street experienced -- 13 days in the middle of winter. If that happened while we were on our typical month someplace warm in the winter we could have a real disaster with frozen pipes. I don't find the more typical 4-6 hour outages bothersome, and probably wouldn't have one for those. The thing is very irritatingly loud, both for us and for our neighbors. I find I need to shut it off for a while to take a break.

[Paul F Franklin]

We just had a 26KW GE/B&S nat. gas generator installed. I chose the contractor first, going with the firm that did our HVAC install a couple of years ago because they did a really first rate job on that. They rep several brands, including Generac and Kohler. I believe Generac is by far the leader in sales of residential generators, but was not impressed by their responses to the many BBB complaints about poor reliability and service. My contractor recommended the B&S brand as being in the same tier reliability wise as Kohler but at a more affordable price point. As I hoped, they did a great job on the generator install also.

Some things to consider:

You can get by with a smaller generator if you use load shed modules that turn off big loads such as A/C, electric water heaters, etc., when the generator is heavily loaded. The modules are not cheap, however, and complicate the install process. In my case, it was only about $1500 difference to go with the larger generator that doesn't require load shedding. Worth it to me.

Most home generators are air cooled, but larger models may be liquid cooled. If you are in a very hot location, liquid cooled will probably be best, but they are a lot more expensive. And require more maintenance. They do tend to be quieter, however, as they usually run about half the speed of air cooled engines. And their long term reliability is probably better.

Think about what sort of monitoring you want/need. You can get no remote monitoring, a hardwired display that mounts in the house somewhere near your panel, wireless monitoring that you can check with a phone app, and probably more variations. If you travel a lot and want to be able to check the generator status from on the road, you will want support for that. Some brands require a subscription plan for the best remote monitoring because it uses the cell system for connection.

Ask about routine maintenance. Oil and oil filter/air filter changes are the most common, and you can do yourself if you're handy with such things. Most generators require occasional checking/adjusting of the valve clearance, that may be more than you want to do yourself. Ask about service contracts, what they cost, and what they cover. Also, ask about parts availability and what parts fail most often. You may not get straight answers, but you can usually tell if they are being genuine.

Depending on generator size, you may have to have your gas utility (if you have natural gas) supersize your gas meter. This may be free, or it may be expensive, depending on multiple factors. Generators running at full load use a *lot* of gas, natural or propane. I have to upsize from a 250,000 BTU/HR meter to a 450,000 BTU/HR meter. It should be free to me, but the gas co. won't be out to see for a couple more weeks.

Think about placement. Generators running a full tilt are fairly noisy, so outside your bedroom window may not be best. In my case, the gas meter and electrical service entrance were on opposite sides of my house. We chose to place the generator near the service entrance, so the new gas line had to be run all the way through the house. Fortunately, I anticipated this and left access for this when I finished our basement. Contractor said it is generally cheaper to run a long gas line, rather than a long electric line, but it's not a major difference. IF they have to trench for fuel or electric, that can get expensive fast, depending on distance and such.

Check the condition of your main electrical panel. By code, they will have to convert your main panel to a subpanel, with the external transfer switch becoming the main. This means the grounds and neutrals in your panel have to be separated. Depending on your local codes, this may require that your main panel be updated to meet current codes, which will likely be a big added expense given the cost of panels and advanced breakers these days. Ask your contractor about this. Fortunately, I did not have to do this.

Hope this helps, good luck.

[Brian Runau]

We put in a Kohler unit. Check annual service contracts costs and if they offer 24 hr service, should you need it. I wound up using a different service company. Original Company wouldn't guarantee me they would change the oil annually under their service contract, nor were they available to send someone on a Saturday! I like the unit didn't pick well on who to buy from. Brian

[Charlie Velasquez]

I went a different route.
The day I moved into my present house in 2018 we had a major rain/thunderstorm storm; no electricity and 10” of rain in just a few hours. Without the sump pump there was nothing we could do but watch the water build up in our basement.

My son’s house sits on a high water table and his sump runs about every couple of hours regardless of weather. He bought a small Honda generator to run his pump if need be, I thought I would do the same. But I found a great deal on a 12,500 watt peak/10,000 watt continuous portable (edit: dual fuel).
I installed an inlet in my shed and ran conductors to my main panel. That and an interlock kit and I have access to any circuit in the house. I can run my a/c, dryer, or stove, just not at the same time. The rest of my house runs as normal.
So, conduit, conductors, inlet, interlock, breaker for the panel, and generator - out the door for about $1,100.(I did all the work)

[Keegan Shields]

Nice cost effective solution Charlie. Thanks!

[Brian Tymchak]

Yes, I'm also seriously considering a whole house generator now. The weather is going to extremes more often. Last summer we had our first ever rolling outages due to a failure in the grid coupled with peak demand due to heat. I suspect we will see more of this type of outage. I also want to have power on the sump pump as well as the refrigerators and freezers.

[Roger Feeley]

All,
if all you care about is the sump pump, check out Liberty Pumps. They sell a backup pump that’s powered by city water. I had one bak in Kansas and I have two here in Northern Virginia. Now that I have a whole house generator (Generac, 26kw, air cooled), I don’t need them so much. I guess they would be nice if the electric pumps dies.

[Bill Dufour]

If you buy a new or used generator you can replace the carburetor with a duel fuel one to suit your needs cheaply..
The cabins we stay out has a good sized generator. It is not auto start. Owner lives on site and he waits five minutes or so before starting the generator. Most power outages in the woods are under five minutes and he feels this prolongs engine life and maintenance. I would want automatic start but add a delay on timer
Bill D

[Paul F Franklin]

I did (do) have a 7500 watt portable generator with proper transfer panel set up to run critical loads. That's fine if someone is always home to deal with it when needed, but not helpful otherwise. Since we plan to travel more now that SWMBO is retired, moving to a whole house automatic setup seemed best. Plus storing enough gas for a prolonged outage and keeping it fresh is a pain. But if you're mostly home and don't mind dealing with the fuel, a portable is a great way to go and very cost effective.

[Allan Dozier]

I am also in the process of installing standby generator at our mountain house. We rarely lose power there but with a generator I won't have to winterize the house again. Out of the four main manufacturers Generac, Kohler, Cummings, and Briggs, we decided on the B&S since they seem to have the best warranty, at least on my cursory research. For one thing if we have a problem THEY call the electrician who is a rep and is the one who installed it. He also happens to be the electrician we used for house construction. It also seems they don't use as much proprietary parts. The B&S Vanguard engine is used for many applications and parts are thus easy to find for it.

If you plan on doing the maintenance like I am I would suggest having the generator raised at least somewhat above grade will make draining the oil much easier and cleaner.

[Bruce Wrenn]

The biggest load on most stand by generators is an AC, or heat pump condenser. There are soft start kits (not to be confused with hard start kits) that allow for up to three ton units to start using only a 5 KW portable unit. We have a 5 KW portable, electric start built into it's own enclosure. Enclosure includes a light, an exhaust fan and automatic louvers which come on when engine is running. Engine (11HP) has a fuel pump on it, so I added some fuel line disconnects, and a hose that allows me to draw fuel directly from fuel cans, or in case of an extended outage, from fuel tank on truck. I supply power to house with a four wire #10 cord set. Have a four pole plug built into breaker box on side of house. Two duplex outlets in wall fed from fused disconnect where cord set plugs in. We use three extension cords laid on floor to power both refrigerators, one on each leg of the 220.. Have a dedicated (100', #12 ) drop cord to power booster pump on water tank. Just today, lost power for three hours, due to thunder storm. Fifteen minutes after rain let up, we were up and running. We heat water using LP gas, and have back up heat sources for winter time. In our bedroom, we have a 6000 BTU window unit for when the AC is out. Generator has no problem running it, but the 5K that we used to have, generator struggled to start it.

[Jack Frederick]

I had a 9kw Generac on our house in the foothills. The Music of the Mountains is the many generators starting up when the power fails, which it does frequently and for days. I had no problems with the Generac. By comparison with others here it was very small, but in the re-model we built to minimize power consumption. Th shop was not on the system. I installed it myself. The 7-9kw units are single cylinder machines. As I understand it dealers don’t like those. I stayed up with the maintenance and valve adjustments and the machine was great. If you go LP, get enough tank. We ran out this past winter after 5 days of operation and couldn’t get power or lp for another 5. I don’t know how close your neighbors are, but they do make noise, so placement for you and them needs some attention.