All it took was one time for my parents to have to empty their frig and freezer when they lost power when they were on vacation for 2 weeks. So once they got their new place all done the way they wanted they made the investment for the stand by generator. Things quiet as heck too. It does a "maintenance" start and idle every so often, the central air unit is louder than the generator.
-Ryan-
91 Slow'noma - 14 Cruze Diesel - 16 Ram 1500 Limited
16 KTM 1290 SuperDuke R - 18 GasGas TXT300GP
-Ryan-
91 Slow'noma - 14 Cruze Diesel - 16 Ram 1500 Limited
16 KTM 1290 SuperDuke R - 18 GasGas TXT300GP
I thought about it, but opted for a large 10kw portable. Reason being, the maintenance and complexity of the whole house, plus I am only on a 120 gallon propane tank and I was afraid it'd really just burn through that thing quickly. The portable I have required no permits and was much cheaper overall.
If I were on natural gas, I probably would have leaned towards a whole house generator.
The natural gas stand by units are just so much money... $4000-$5000 for just the unit, then the switch panel. My gas powered unit I back feed to the house was like $300 used and will power the water well, furnace, fridges, wifi and a computer and TV easily. I normally have plenty of fuel in the barn, so unless we need to run for several weeks we are ok. Only kicker would be if I'm out of town, the wife can't set it up.
Those are the reasons I have a large portable with a direct back-feed to my fuse panel.
been using this set up for 23 years.
Back-up Power .jpg
For about $3500 you can get a natural gas/propane 10kw generator with a 200a smart automatic transfer switch (smart meaning it can tell your AC unit to turn off if frequency drops). It's kind of a bargain.
I have a bunch of generators. I mostly use my 7kw inverter generator these days. It's big enough to run the whole house (all electric) as long as no two big things are running at the same time (range and water heater for example). I recommend an ATS so you can go back to utility power as soon as you want instead of loading up your generator... regardless of whether you have a portable or standby generator. A non-service-rated 200a ATS is about $600. They also prevent stupid from happening.
$350 used generator
$80 25’ extension cord
$20 power inlet box
$90 romax
$25 circuit breaker
$67 circuit breaker lockout, physically can’t have generator back feed breaker and main breaker engaged at same time MUST HAVE
Runs the entire house for 14 hours on 5 gallons of gas
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks