Stand by whole house generator...
 

We have been talking about having a whole house stand by generator installed for several years now and think we will get that done this fall. Generator will be sized large enough to handle our modest house. The shop is on the same meter loop so it will need to handle lights and the heater fan there.

The system will automatically come on in a power outage and cut off from the utilities. Fuel will be LPG and the brand is likely Briggs and Stratton or GE as that is what the dealer in this area handles.

Any one have personal experience with either brand? Anything to watch out for?

I travel a lot with my job and want a reliable no fuss system.

Thanks guys....

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

That's something I have been thinking about too for about a year now. I'd have to locate mine behind my house since there isn't room elsewhere. I am planning to build a shed on a concrete pad to house it and secure it inside a steel cage that I'll build inside the shed that the bad guys won't be aware of until after they break into the shed.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Sounds like a good plan ten ring. Ours will sit out in the open next to the meter loop and should be ok. We are way out in the sticks and fortunatly rarely have a power outage. Last one was about three days winter before last and I was away from home. Lucky Dad was here to drain water from pipes and save the meat supplies in the freezer.

In the 70's an ice storm took out all the electric poles and we didn't have power for two weeks. We heated with wood then and had a tractor powered generator to run the place. It was a bit of a hassle to get by.

Lotta work to live without electricity.

Anyway, do you have any systems you have been researching?

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Thanks man. Drug use has really gotten bad in WV. I no longer take mail at my house (got a PO box) since someone got in there and stole a package last year. Also last year two men very nearly broke in, but a neighbor scared them off. I was working nights then and it scared me so much, I took a week off and would not leave the house if it was dark. For months I would park my car in front as if I was home, leave the usual "at home" lights on, and walk to and from a friend's house where I would park a borrowed car. I finally got expanded metal up over my french door glass and backed that up with double cylinder dead bolts (come in through a window but you can't get out a door), and a huge latch and biggest padlock I could get on those french doors. It looks intimidating from the road and people talk about the house now. It's worked so far.....no one has tried again.

So whatever I build now has to be pretty secure. Had I been home, I am confident I would have terminated bad guy #1 and maybe accounted for the driver. I think they were later arrested and had knocked off dozens of houses.

Let me get this magazine I came across, it had an article. Here it is.

Consumer Reports October 2015. It had a great breakdown of such generators and why certain ones were better. You might can find this at a library, college library, or via an online magazine search. A college library would be best to ask and perhaps calling one will do.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Thank you ten ring. Will check out the CR article. Sounds like a scary problem there due to the drugs. We don't have any problem with theft around us and feel very fortunate.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

paying for the price of a whole house generator when you rarely need it?

i have a 5000 watt generator that runs my whole house fine
i just turn off the main breaker and plug it into the welder plug in my shop
i have $400 in the whole setup vs many thousands to have the whole house with transfer panel

we're on a well, have gas heat and hot water; so other than the fridge we don't have a lot running
i bought it after the big power outage that hit the whole north east for 3 days back in 03
they installed a lot of generators for other utilities, so that we no longer lose internet or cell phones :D

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Yep, paying for piece of mind for when I am away from home. Wife can't hook all that stuff up. Looking out for her and not putting the hassle on friends or family.

We have a large tractor powered generator. Now Dad won't have to shuttle it between our houses when needed.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

I travel also. I have a Generac whole house generator that runs on natural gas. No issues to speak of and I've had it for about 7 years. It cycles once a week on its own. Yes, they are a lot of money, but my wife deals with enough when I'm gone and I don't need her dealing with no power.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

That's great man. Myself, I am purely in a planning phase.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Thanks Willowrun. I will check into Generac too. Always a bummer when you are far from home, wife calls and says...power's out, getting cold in here.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

I have a new boiler for my house heat and it's sensitive to line voltage issues. I purchased a yamaha portable inverter series square wave generator for camping needs and tested fine for my boiler use as well. I have aladdin kerosene lamps if i get desperate. I don't know if other furnaces/boilers are this way but with all of the electronic controls it's a remote possibility.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Thanks 68C10airstream. I will check on our furnaces sensitivity to line voltage issues and the generators ability to maintain steady voltage.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Get an Onan 1800 rpm genset from a RV. They last for years compared to hundreds of hours like the screamer 3600 rpm contractor versions. Try craigslist and search for Onan. I have two on big tire mobile carts. You can have an actual conversation standing next to one. For the $$ you spend on a screamer, you can get an Onan that lasts a lifetime. They are larger as the generator head has 4 poles as opposed to the 2 of 3600 rpm units.

I have $250 for my 5kw unit with less than 200 hours on it.

http://youtu.be/q2lVNJkbQs0

My YouTube channel link in my sig block has a couple more vids of how I set mine up.


Here is a forum post that has a huge following.

http://www.smokstak.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Thanks aknovaman. Checking it out now. Amazing forum on generators. That one in the video is pretty quiet.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Rv park guys dont tolerate a screamer, ever. Mine is even more quiet in person than on video.

A 10 to 15kw will run everything in a house including a huge furnace or ac unit in summer. I see 15kw units for less than $2000.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

I installed a 15KW Coleman(Generac) in my mom's house for peace of mind. The best thing I ever did. Obviously, the most difficult part for most is installing the ATS but that's in my wheelhouse. As far as noise, this one is like most of them, it's enclosed so you barely hear it run.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

I would be curious as to how many hours of runtime these Generac have.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

I don't really know but unless you are in the backwoods somewhere it shouldn't run that much. I put my mom's in probably 10 years ago. It starts and runs for an hour once a week and has been a life saver(literally) on many occasions. I don't remember what it cost but that money has been recouped several times over and if it crapped the bed today I would go buy a new one and install it. The upside to replacing one is that you wouldn't have to replace the ATS. That's a large part of the expense.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

I can tell you this, I'm in the power business and deal with 3600 RPM generators on a daily basis. There's no reason the generator itself should go bad. The engine is a different story.

The majority of the power produced in the US is produced from 3600 RPM, 2 pole generators. As far as I know, with a few exceptions, the only 4 pole generators are on nukes.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Definitely. Couple years ago we had a 2 week long ice storm and one of the old guys i work with had a disabled wife that refused to go to a care facility after the powrr company took forever to fix the lines. Another coworker loaned him a generator and ran it non stop. It was a real life saver. Sometimes its better to do that type of thing rather than totally mess up an old persons personal life by relocating. Yes we used tons of gas but it was worth keeping the peace.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

My advice to anyone looking into a standby is to assess your power needs carefully before you buy one. For instance, my mom's home is heated and cooled with an electric heat pump. She has a gas insert in her fireplace so she can stay warm in an emergency. The standby runs on LP as does her insert. The standby is ample enough to run the compressor portion of the heat pump but not the 10KW heat strips. So if she were in normal winter mode and had a power outage, she would be attempting to run the strips with the standby and would obviously trip a breaker. The ATS has several spare contacts so I wired a lockout contact on her heat strips so when the ATS is in standby mode the strips won't run but the heat pump will. Then she can fire up her insert and stay warm. Things like this need to be thought out or either buy a unit large enough to handle the entire load.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Smart move. Some people think they can just trip the main breaker and plug in a suicide jumper cord. Not a smart move.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

works for me :D

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Guys, thanks for the advice and your experiences.

We went with what our local dealer sells and had them install the Briggs and Stratton 16kw unit. It will handle our house and the shop in winter or summer as long as I don't run the compressors or welder.

I wanted a turn key no hassle solution and I think this is it for us.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Nice looking unit and should do you a good job. Small price to pay for the peace of mind when you are away on the job.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

For sure Ray. There have been times the power went out when we were away at work, which put the burden of keeping our pipes from freezing on others. That isn't fair to them when they have their own power problems to deal with.

I did ask about the life expectancy of the engine and the dealer said 5,000 hours. Supposedly due to the industrial design of this engine. Frankly, I don't know if I believe that. That is a ton of hours for most any gas engine.

Pretty slick set up with the control panel and the automation. We opted for the heater kit which keeps the battery and engine oil warm in cold weather and skipped the remote monitoring. The remote monitoring was $1,200 for 3 years which seemed too pricey to me.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

We put a Generac 10k with the auto whole house transfer switch in my Dad's house. He's had it 3yrs now, like they said runs the whole place including the barn. Our area was out for 3 days last year He ran every thing just like normal even yard lights on the house and barn. We just change the oil every year just before winter, runs on propane so very clean have yet to change the plugs. This was the best setup for them all automatic, nobody even has to be home no freeze ups or floods from sump pump.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Ive installed a couple of the Generacs up to 10kw natural gas, 1 B&S that was 7kw nat gas and a whole slew of 2+Mw generators. I have yet to get a call back on the residential models. They seem to run pretty well. One thing that I may suggest is to exercise your generator at least once a month if not more. Some of the Generacs had an exercise timer that could perform the function as scheduled.
Its an important PM that will ensure that your power will come right back up when the utility goes out. The transfer switch needs to be cycled too otherwise they will start to stick and not transfer. It takes about a month to get through all of the generators where I work and we do it 4 times a year lol.
Enjoy the new genset! You made a good choice.

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

Just re read that you got a 16w. That's a big 'un for a house. Id venture a guess that you'll be very happy with it!

Re: Stand by whole house generator...
 

That is good to hear about the reliability of the residential models. This unit self starts once a week and runs for 20 minutes so the engine part is good. I will need to check on the transfer switch. Wouldn't be good for that to stick. The 16kw was recommended as it supplies the shop too so I can keep the heat on. No running welders or compressors though!

Thanks for your experiences!