Whole house generator recommendations

[usmc-nav]

My wife and I are in the beginning stages of a whole house generator. I see a 24kw by Generac. Any one have one of these. Does anyone know a place with honest reviews of the different manufacturers? Ours will be natural gas.

 

[AustinBR]

My wife and I are in the beginning stages of a whole house generator. I see a 24kw by Generac. Any one have one of these. Does anyone know a place with honest reviews of the different manufacturers? Ours will be natural gas.

My family has the 24kw natural gas version and has been using it since Sunday afternoon. Another 2 family members have the 22kw (I think - it's one size smaller than the 24kw) and have been using it as well.

Everyone has had great luck with it and no problems. I've been working before from two of the houses and had the generator kick on for it's monthly or weekly few minutes of running and the transition is almost not noticeable.

All in all, everyone that I know that has them highly recommends them.

 

[Musicmasterd12]

Generac seems to be the way to go. No one I know with them has had problems. My aunt has a Briggs and Stratton and has had nothing but problems with it. It has broken twice since it was needed on Sunday, for what it’s worth.

 

[MetalVendor]

Generac or Kohler is the way to go. Both brands are very low maintenance and easy to service. We sell the Kohler versions and I often hear they are the only ones comparable to Generac. See which one you can find a better price on and go with that one. You can’t go wrong with either brand. I don’t know about the warranty on a Generac, but Kohler has a base warranty of 5 years or 2000 hours, with options to buy extended warranties. My family have all been using natural gas Kohlers for years with no issues. Runs the whole house, and even the neighbor’s house if need be.

Edit: The model my dad has on his house is a Kohler 20RESA. We’ve been running my parents’ entire house since the power in Kenner went out during the heavy winds. No problems so far. We have shut it down a couple times just to check things out and make sure it had enough oil. Other than that, we’ve been staying here with both my parents, my fiancée and I, my sister, her husband, and their two kids and we’ve been living like the power was never lost.

 

[Bigchillin83]

i have bout 10 coworkers that have them 7 of them love them, 3 of them have no power right now, 2 of them keep thowing error codes and will run but not power up pannel..the other has low gas flow and possibly will need to try to get a bigger regulator at the street but that may not fix it... they were told 2 weeks before a rep/service man can get out there.... they both now using protable 6500watt gens..


edit,forgot about the one with the low flow gas pressure cut off

 

[Jstudz220]

My sister has a 24kw generac and they seem to really enjoy them. I was considering doing this myself last year and opted not to regrettably now. Everyone I spoke to recommended me to the generac brand.

 

[340six]

My wife's Aunt has Generac and it has been good to go.
My friend has Kohler he is aslo happy.
Generac used to many years ago buy engines But now make their own. They have come a long way in quality.
I am going to go Generac when I do but do not think Kohler woukd be out. Whatever of the 2 would be better deal installed price wise would lean me that way.
As think quality is very close on both lime tossing a coin or at least what my buddy says who does them.

 

[usmc-nav]

Thanks to all for the replies.

 

[jneubig]

I have a Generac 17KW air cooled and my parents have a 22KW. Both were installed in 2009 after Gustave. Mine has been churning along since Sunday mid afternoon only stopping for an oil change. Theirs was taken out by flying debris and I was unable to get it running when there yesterday. I found the parts I needed for theirs in Lake Charles yesterday and will try to get it going today. One of the best investments I have made. Just not losing the freezers is one of the best benefits. I did hear at the Generac dealer yesterday that there is a 44 week lead time. Basically you pay now and get a genny in a year.

 

[mforsta]

I have a 22kw Generac. It was so nice to hear that thing crank up 10 seconds after the power went out Sunday night. It ran without a problem until yesterday when the power came back on. The 22kw powered my whole house including central A/C without an issue. We purchased from Optimize and had them do the install. It was one of the best experiences I have had with a purchase/install. You will need a high flow gas meter installed at your house or your generator may starve for gas. Check with you gas supplier on that change out.
Best of all was not having to worry about scavenging for gasoline.

Lead time is very long, my sister order one back in May for a installation slated for October.

 

[noob]

Just curious, when y’all get your bill next month. I’m wondering how much a few days in natural gas costs?

Also, I have a bunch of neighbors with generators, one had theirs crap out, one wouldn’t start, one died after 6 hours, and another didn’t have the right gas meter installed even though the paper work was submitted when the house was built earlier in the year. So their generator can’t run correctly so doesn’t run at all. But there are some that are running like champs

 

[shrxfn]

So for a whole house at full load you are using 4 gallons of fuel, according to google 1 gallon is equal to .134 cf of gas which is how entergy charges for it. So at full load it is 96 gallons for 24 hours. So a sample bill for 100cf from entergy showed about a $100 charge for that month of usage but some of the charges seemed to be monthly charges and aren't based on usage of NG so at their rate of 58cents per CF of NG it woudl be about $13 per day in NG but then there are the add-ons so not sure how that would play out.

 

[TecheTitan]

We just got a 22KW Generac installed a few months ago and so far I am happy with it.
I originally tried to go through Generac directly for a consult and estimate, but the company they set me up with never contacted me or answered the phone. Not sure what was up with that.

My wife went to Lowes and they actually sold them there and got a company to come out, give an estimate, and line up the install. The good part is I got a military discount for the generator purchase through Lowes. The install costs the same or more than the generator itself.

As others mentioned, you will need to get the gas company to put a booster on your meter. The install company will also put regulators as required. I had to have regulators installed in my shop because I have gas lines run for a stove and water heater. Just something to think about if you have more than one line fed off the same meter.

 

[340six]

Just curious, when y’all get your bill next month. I’m wondering how much a few days in natural gas costs?

Also, I have a bunch of neighbors with generators, one had theirs crap out, one wouldn’t start, one died after 6 hours, and another didn’t have the right gas meter installed even though the paper work was submitted when the house was built earlier in the year. So their generator can’t run correctly so doesn’t run at all. But there are some that are running like champs

NG is less than Pump Gas. Just think about how much Pump gas I have, three 15-gallon Metal Drums on hand as A RULE for an emergency with Sta-Bil and a hand pump and barrel wrench.
Then plastic 5 gallon VP Racing Fuel Jugs and 5-gallon lawn type cans.
Fill all of them at $3.00 a gallon plus Sta-Bil and see the cost.
BTW} I went and filled the 5 Gallons I had already used and saw 4-5 nickel 9mm spent cases 50 feet from the station

 

[Bigchillin83]

could be wrong but i think my buddy said after the last storm of 8-9 days with stand by generator his was around $650 for the month.

my buddy at work is using a standby on with his own tank and he just got it filled think a 65 gal, he ran it for 4 days and had 1/8 of the tank left, said it cost $365 to fill it back up, and would have to get it filled every 4 days or so.... pretty sure it was propane,

edit
just texted him and he is ocd about numbers and keeps it all in a note book .. this is what he said, he has a 17K gererac

during gustav it cost him an average of $35.79 a day to run

during katrina it cost him an average of $71.22 a day to run

and last year durring the miscellaneous storms cost him and average of $51.23 per day to run

of course just like gas prices it changes with the current market ect..

 

[Bigchillin83]

i still have a protable 6500w, i have it wired to the house, i am currently running 2 6000btu window units, every fan/light swithc /receptical in the house/shop, 240v water pump, 1 fridge, 2- stand up freezers,washing machine, 1-2 burners on the stove, oven to bake chicken ect, and hot water heater, yea my whole house isnt a/c but we are more than comfortable in 2 rooms lol, only thing i cannot run is central ac/heater and dryer.. so far i am in the hole for $240 in gas, but with that i filled my truck up that was on 1/2 tank and i currently have 54 gallons of gas in my shop in cans waiting to be used...and if power comes on today its like i get 2 free fill ups in my truck, not really lol but its still used .

You can do alot more than you think with a standby gen. its all about load balance. and of couse theres not a easy button,its not auto... you do have to fill it up, you do have to turn off window units for 30mins or so to run hotwater heater or oven, i can run all with 2 burners on stove at the same time ... With that current load on mine i am averaging 5-6 gals gas used every 14-15 hours...

 

[shrxfn]

That's exactly why when we built the house I went with a gas stove and gas tankless water heater so that I could use a 1000W gennie and still be able to cook and bathe. Rita taught me a ton of lessons.

 

[noob]

NG is less than Pump Gas. Just think about how much Pump gas I have, three 15-gallon Metal Drums on hand as A RULE for an emergency with Sta-Bil and a hand pump and barrel wrench.
Then plastic 5 gallon VP Racing Fuel Jugs and 5-gallon lawn type cans.
Fill all of them at $3.00 a gallon plus Sta-Bil and see the cost.
BTW} I went and filled the 5 Gallons I had already used and saw 4-5 nickel 9mm spent cases 50 feet from the station

But the whole home generators typically runs the AC units etc. Vs gas you may be getting lights and a window ac unit and fridge/freezer

 

[Bigchillin83]

But the whole home generators typically runs the AC units etc. Vs gas you may be getting lights and a window ac unit and fridge/freezer

correct i can run everything in my house as normal whole pannel is hot, minus my central unit or heater and elect dryer.. but the washer works as normal, only 120v and 15amp... but can run an average of 14,000 btu cooling and hole house with a med load on my generator, prob could get away with 3-6000btu but dont need that many...

 

[Bigchillin83]

just personaly not feasible to spend $9,000 plus on a generator installed for the average of only 24-36 hours with no elect per year in my area, some may loose power when the wind blows and that might change my thinking lol.. yea once every 5-6 years you get to use it 100-150 hours but even that to me isnt worth it for the convience of a "easy button auto standby" when just a little work by me and looking ahead and getting gas even just 12 hours before the storm and an average of $500-700 invested for everything for a protable and i can run my whole house as normal including 2 window units minus central ac and dryer... Now if i had a sponsor, heck yea id get one lol..

last time we lost power for as long as this was 16 years ago.. other than that its been 12-36 house for a small hurricane or bad storm