Generac

[wmiles]

I finally became frustrated with the lack of electric dependability in my neighborhood. We would lose power or experience diminished power output anytime the weather was somewhat severe. After the Texas outage I decided it was time to get a standby generator. I went with a 16kw natural gas powered system. I purchased the system thru Faith Electric in Edmond and it was pretty much a turn key operation. I did prep the area where I wanted it installed and made sure it would pass city ordinance requirements. Anyway, it has come on twice since the install and it "exercises" weekly without any issues. It is WIFI enabled also. Faith has a significant amount of experience with installation and what I would recommend is make sure the system will totally run your home including heat and air. I would also try to schedule it when it is not peak severe weather season. Faith will do a free install estimate but if you are thinking about doing this, pull the trigger so you do not have to wait on the Generator Company to catch up with back orders. I went with Generac

 

[Snattlerake]

Faith did mine too.

 

[davek]

No natural gas piping out my way. I have an all electric house. I've been thinking about going diesel for backup power. I also have a 50HP diesel tractor. I've looked at the PTO generators but I wonder about the quality of the power they put out. Anyone have any experience with those?
Getting a dedicated standby system would be very spendy, but would likely be more ready in an emergency. But the idea of having a 300 gallon diesel supply I could also use in the tractor is also appealing.

 

[Snattlerake]

No natural gas piping out my way. I have an all electric house. I've been thinking about going diesel for backup power. I also have a 50HP diesel tractor. I've looked at the PTO generators but I wonder about the quality of the power they put out. Anyone have any experience with those?
Getting a dedicated standby system would be very spendy, but would likely be more ready in an emergency. But the idea of having a 300 gallon diesel supply I could also use in the tractor is also appealing.

Propane and propane accessories.

 

[cowadle]

No natural gas piping out my way. I have an all electric house. I've been thinking about going diesel for backup power. I also have a 50HP diesel tractor. I've looked at the PTO generators but I wonder about the quality of the power they put out. Anyone have any experience with those?
Getting a dedicated standby system would be very spendy, but would likely be more ready in an emergency. But the idea of having a 300 gallon diesel supply I could also use in the tractor is also appealing.

nothing wrong with the power that a pto generator produces. but i would recommend to anyone that has standby power to get a kilowatt hertz meter. for your pto gen you need to adjust your throttle until the hertz are 60 under load. probably use alot of fuel but perfectly fine

 

[filbert]

^^I noticed the same. I'm not dissing on you, but for me it's like Will Rogers said if you have to ask how much it costs you probably can't afford it.

No, he asks because he wants to know if it is worth it. And no, it costs way to much and isn't worth it. I don't know if Will Rogers said what you quoted, but you are stupid if you don't ask how much something costs. When you consider how often power goes out for 5 days or longer, which is not very often, and how much you spend on a whole house generator, just pack up and go to a hotel and relax, swim, eat out, etc.

 

[wawazat]

We used ours twice since we moved in a year ago. Each time was for more than a couple of days. We have two refrigerators and a deep freeze that are stocked at all times. As long as our generator saves us from food loss two more times, it will have paid for itself. Not to mention that my wife and I work from home and can continue to work with no change during a power outage. The only things that arent powered are the electric ovens and upstairs geothermal unit. Luckily we do have electric backup for our upstairs water heater that is hooked up to the generator panel. We are also on well water, so losing power means losing all water supply.

We had ours wired in during the build and ended up having 3 200 amp panels installed. The panel with all of our important stuff and common living spaces is backed up by the generator.

I dont remember how much it added to our electrical cost, but it wasnt much. Where they really wouldve made money was selling us the Generac system and the final connection on it. I think they quoted us $10k for the generator and final connections to the transfer switch. We bought the generator from an online certified dealer for like $4500 shipped and paid cash to a couple of licensed folks we know to do the electrical and plumbing connections.

We have a few regrets on some of the decisions we made on the house, but the Generac hasnt been one of them by a mile.

 

[Parks 788]

We used ours twice since we moved in a year ago. Each time was for more than a couple of days. We have two refrigerators and a deep freeze that are stocked at all times. As long as our generator saves us from food loss two more times, it will have paid for itself. Not to mention that my wife and I work from home and can continue to work with no change during a power outage. The only things that arent powered are the electric ovens and upstairs geothermal unit. Luckily we do have electric backup for our upstairs water heater that is hooked up to the generator panel. We are also on well water, so losing power means losing all water supply.

We had ours wired in during the build and ended up having 3 200 amp panels installed. The panel with all of our important stuff and common living spaces is backed up by the generator.

I dont remember how much it added to our electrical cost, but it wasnt much. Where they really wouldve made money was selling us the Generac system and the final connection on it. I think they quoted us $10k for the generator and final connections to the transfer switch. We bought the generator from an online certified dealer for like $4500 shipped and paid cash to a couple of licensed folks we know to do the electrical and plumbing connections.

We have a few regrets on some of the decisions we made on the house, but the Generac hasnt been one of them by a mile.

This is interesting and sounds like a great idea. But i have a question. You have three 200amp panels. You said one for the generator is for the "important stuff and common living spaces." What do the other two panels feed? This may be something we look at if we end up building.

 

[wawazat]

This is interesting and sounds like a great idea. But i have a question. You have three 200amp panels. You said one for the generator is for the "important stuff and common living spaces." What do the other two panels feed? This may be something we look at if we end up building.

We have light circuits in bonus room, exterior decorative lights, upstairs circuits except for the hot water tank, electric ovens, appliance circuit in kitchen and pantry I think, exterior outlets, my wifes garage, etc.

I guess we skip the microwave, ovens, and dishwashers while we are on generator power. Our cook top is gas, so that is fine. I do need to make a better list, because there are some things I would like to move around. I am slowly making a spreadsheet identifying our circuits in better detail than the labels in the panels.

The third panels is only half full and is mostly the higher load, but not necessary circuits. My garage has 4 220v circuits, the 5th car has a 220v circuit, etc. We planned this out to be our forever home, so we tried to plan around as much flexibility as possible. I think having a third panel added less than $200 to the electrical line item.

 

[Perplexed]

nothing wrong with the power that a pto generator produces. but i would recommend to anyone that has standby power to get a kilowatt hertz meter. for your pto gen you need to adjust your throttle until the hertz are 60 under load. probably use alot of fuel but perfectly fine

This, in a nutshell. A PTO generator is handy for field work like using a welder to fix pipe fencing and such, but using it to power a household isn’t ideal. You’d be better off getting a propane-powered standby generator and a big propane tank.