Whole Home Generator Help/Advice Needed

[MilitantBEEMER]

Do you really need a whole-house unit? I have a dual fuel 8500-watt unit that I haven't even started yet in 3+ years. My power has never been out for more than a few hours. I got it just to run the fridge so the food won't spoil. Everything else I can live without for a short time. I have plenty of stoves and BBQ's to cook with and a battery "generator" that will run my CPAP for a few days. If your power goes out that much it might be worthwhile, but if it only goes out for a few minutes to a few hours why spend that kind of money?

I am more concerned about extended rolling blackouts. Based on the direction our economy and this current administration is heading (quickly) I truly believe that is the biggest risk we face in the near term

 

[DDriller]

My neighbor put one in today. 22k Generac and the bill was a little over $13,000. Why so much and was told $750 for permit, $20/foot for wiring, $20/foot for gas line, plummer for gas, electrician for wiring, and labor to install. That $6500 dollar Generac was just half the cost.

 

[Shadowrider]

My mother has a 14kw Generac with fully automatic ATS. Purchased and installed by Faith Electric. It was 2014 and cost $7145 total installed. No issues at all with it and it saved her bacon during the last freezemegeddon as she was going through chemo and radiation. It ran for 9 days straight with me shutting it down to check oil daily and doing one oil change towards the end of that blackout.

Have them come out and give you a quote. Have a couple done at least. They should check all your appliances and talk to you about what circuits you want the genset to run. One guy just looked around and said 20kw. Faith Electric plugged everything into a tablet and came up with 14kw. It'll run everything in her house, just not all the burners on her stove with the oven and A/C running all at the same time which she doesn't need to do anyway. They tested it upon installation and it did run her A/C, electric oven and one burner on the range while have some lights, TV etc. all on. It used to take 20-22kw to run the average house, but not anymore. 14kw has her with a bit of breathing room. 1800 SF house with gas heat, gas dryer and hot water. Everything else is electric.

Some notes.

1) Oil change intervals are 200 run hours (if running full synthetic oil). If you don't have a power outage this will take you 2 full years if running on NG.

2) They do in fact break it off in you on oil changes, tuneups, and maintenance. They charged my mom $175 for a battery change. After warranty is up it's quite easy to do normal maintenance yourself. They have maintenance plans, extended warranties, etc that may help you.

3) The engines are made in Wisconsin and are very durable. This one has been perfectly reliable too.

4) On long runs they will burn a bit of oil so you need to check them daily. This is normal when loaded. I had to add oil twice (about 1.5 quarts total) with one oil change towards the end. Total runtime before power came back on was 216 hours, IIRC. It ran day and night non-stop except when I came over to check on it. Mom was the only one around with lights until a couple of days went by and you could hear a lot of portables running in the neighborhood.

At the time mom bought this Generac, Kohler gensets were pretty good but their ATS was garbage. That may have changed since but it doesn't sound like it from the post above. That's why I had my mom go with Generac. Like I said the only thing this one has ever needed has been a single battery and it's probably getting due again now.

 

[Parks 788]

I sent in a request to Generac about a week ago for someone to call me and set an appointment to come out to our new place and quote us. We have no NG in the area so will be putting in a 1500 gallon propane tank Will eventually move most appliances to propane. We were told by several neighbors that if a storm hits the grid in our neck of the woods we are about the last to get power back on. Probably looking at a 22kw unit for our property. Should put our minds at ease by having it installed.

 

[dennishoddy]

That's what I figured. That's why I wanted one that ran on gas and propane. But, same thing with propane. Once it's in my tank, it's mine. But there's lots of potential interruptions in getting to my tank. There is a propane mod that's available for this model. There may be a natural gas mod, too. I didn't look.

I was attracted by the price, the clean power, and the ease of setup. Plus, the portability factor means I can use it for other things if needed.

We were in South Tx during their major power outage two winters ago.
When there is a sustained widespread, total blackout of power, the gas stations couldn't pump without electricity, and the propane companies could only fill the trucks using generators to pump the propane into the trucks until they ran out of fuel for the delivery trucks and generators.
Natural gas was the only source of energy for some homes that were plumbed with it.
The first couple of days wasn't much of a problems as a lot of stations had gas, but when the first week rolled over everything came to a halt.
People were using their EV's to power their homes and RV's until they ran out of fuel.
We kept our batteries charged with a pickup using what fuel we had in the tank. Fortunately our RV's propane tanks were full and we had a couple of spare bottles, but there was an end to that coming as temps remained in the 20's.
A buddy that lives there year around had a friend with a full 1000 gallon propane tank, so we took some of our empty bottles and got a refill.
We made it just fine, but alot of folks had burst pipes as the temps never get below the 40's at it's worst in South Tx. Same latitude as Miami Florida.
It was amazing to see how energy supplies started shutting down when fossil fuels weren't present.
Everything comes to a halt including the wind farms that froze up and the solar farms covered in ice.

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

We have one 500 gal tank. We're looking for another 500 or 1000 gal tank. Currently we have electric heat but we have a propane fireplace as a backup. We'll fill the 1000 with 850 gallons and leave it shut off and run what we need to run off the 500. That should do nicely even for an extended outage. But nothing lasts forever. I prefer propane over natural gas just because once it's in the tank it's yours. No pipelines that break or whatever.

 

[dennishoddy]

During the Okla Ice storm our wood burning fireplace saved the day. No shortage of wood in our neck of the woods.

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

…I have a dual fuel 8500-watt unit that I haven't even started yet in 3+ years.

Any standby emergency generator needs to be “exercised “ at least once a year, preferably quarterly.
Start it and run it under a load for at least 20 minutes. For a load you can use any kind of electrical resistance appliance; toaster, space heater, hair dryer, soldering iron.

 

[Georgie 1]

I am considering a whole house system that runs on Natural Gas. Anybody have experience with providers in the Tulsa area? Who do you recommend? Who to avoid?

I like the look of the 18kw Generac. It looks like ~$7k though when installed.

I am a complete noob to this and will have to farm the job out, I do not have the time or means to do myself.

ANY help is appreciated.

Go 20 it’s great. Power my whole house with every electrical appliance running.

 

[C_Hallbert]

I am considering a whole house system that runs on Natural Gas. Anybody have experience with providers in the Tulsa area? Who do you recommend? Who to avoid?

I like the look of the 18kw Generac. It looks like ~$7k though when installed.

I am a complete noob to this and will have to farm the job out, I do not have the time or means to do myself.

ANY help is appreciated.

If you are connected to a Natural Gas Utility, Natural Gas is the most reliable and trouble free system that you can obtain. Petroleum Fuels deteriorate in their tanks in storage over time; so if you don’t use them up, they must be drained and replaced periodically. My son has a Generac System in Alabama and it starts and functions flawlessly during occasional outages.