WHOLE House Generators...experiences?
 

Hey all,

I am just thinking about adding whole home generators that run off gas line. The idea attracts me...but i hear that they can be quite expensive to install ($15-20k easily).

Anyone care to comment? Good? Bad?

I have researched those in the past and I do like the LP/NG models. Sure beats having to store gas or diesel.

I am building a whole home UPS… which provides me more day to day value than just emergency power.

The system also prevents me from having to actually run the generator constantly just to keep lights on. I can run off-battery and run the generator to either support larger loads, or charge at a faster rate and then shutdown.

You don’t need solar to make this work, but I am adding some panels to assist. My generator is a 2000 watt Yamaha Inverter model which had a tri-fuel kit so I can run off propane.

It’s designed around the Victron Quatro inverter, so it accepts two AC units, and two AC outputs, and a DC battery bank.

I think it depends on the frequency that you loose power in your area.
I have a 13KW gas generator, Honda power that I bought just prior to Y2K, as my wife was freaking out then.
It's strictly hook up when needed and we needed it once for a couple of days about 10 years ago.
If you can justify the expense, what you quoted is realistic, if not more, then that combined with your outage frequency will give you piece of mind.

That’s the thing...we have had only a few outages, last one lasting for close to 2 days, which is what made me thing about it. And that was just hard rain. But yeah, the price installed is huge.

How much do you really need/want to keep running if you had a power outage? Usually a good place to start the conversation.

While the peak load of the home might be 10-15kW, you might tone down the use of large loads during an outage.

Lighting, fridge, and other small critical loads I can sustain off battery for 3 days straight without even needing to fire up the gen. If I do need to run the oven my inverter can load share, which means I get to use a substantially smaller generator in conjunction with my battery for peak loads only.

Something I've noticed is power company's are getting into this business, have you checked with your provider.
Entergy is my provider their prices are lower than going through a third party, not by much though.
Something else to consider is the maintenance/run schedule that is recommended you do on them if you have one.
Kind of like engaging 4x4 regularly so it works when you need it.

Yeah, my power provider is now in the biz. Still expensive. The maintenance and upkeep are what i am worry about.

Me living in a Tornado ally with a Hurricane every now and then, 14 yrs about a day without power. For me that's a bad investment, looks as your situation is not much different $15-20k can buy alot of ice, lol.

Edit: I have it good though, I'm on grid with Entergy's Maintenance facility underground power feed 1/2 mile away.
Katrina hit 2005 lost power for 5 hrs plus 6 of my neighbors, the other 150 homes in hood lost power for 4 days gotta love it.

To me having a generator is just good insurance. Living in Florida we're under threat of hurricanes pretty much every year. Back in '03/'04 I bought a portable 6500 KW tri-fuel (honda motor) after were hit by several storms back to back, nothing major but enough that power went out a couple of times.

Being an older generator it doesn't provide the "clean" electricity that some newer appliances require, but I haven't had any issues (knock wood)

I've looked at whole home gensets and they can be had from under 10K. Buddy of mine just moved into a home that came with a 22K Generac and a 100 gal in-ground LPG tank, really nice setup.

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that a whole home would be nice, we can get by with what we have. It's more than enough to power our fridge, some light circuits and a portable AC. I've noticed as well, at least in our area that the relative frequency of outages during storms has gone down quite a bit..we made all the way through the worst of Irma when it passed by in '17 only to lose power early in the morning and that was just because a transformer blew. power company had us back online in about 6 hours..that's tolerable.

Been losing power a few times a year but last year it went out about 12 times. This forced me to consider a generator.

After thinking about the critical needs when power is out, I decided on a 4k watt genny from HF. It has plenty of juice to power my fridge, freezer, pellet stove, and a light for about 11 hours on a tank. Running anything else is unimportant and a waste of electricity for me.

I also found the genny pretty darn useful outside the house where there are no outlets.

Since you stated you have found uses for the generator "outside" the house, I sure hope when using it for inside power you still have the generator located outside, I sure don't want to hear someone has died from carbon monoxide!!!

I know most know to have the generator outside and not inside while it's running it, but there are some for whatever reason doesn't know that it can kill someone, so consider this post as a FYI/Public Service Warning for those not knowing the danger of running a generator or any internal combustion engine inside the home!!

During the last couple of hurricanes here in the southeast there were several deaths from generators being ran/used inside the houses without power!!

Sorry I worded that wrong. Genny is always outside. I meant for using power tools to do work outside where it normally requires an outlet + miles of extension cords.

I have an electric chainsaw that sees alot of use and the generator makes using it so much easier.

I agree generators are very useful for outdoors chores of all kinds, I'm in construction and use them often on jobs early on before they get temporary power installed onsite.

I own 3 generators of various sizes.