Standby Generator

[oldhudson]

I'm considering getting a whole house stand by generator. I wondering if any community members have experiences with them and thoughts they'd be willing to share.  I heat with natural gas. Thanks.

  

[Sycamore67]

I have a Generac running on natural gas. We are very pleased with it.  It runs everything including the well and AC.

 

[TAIrving]

12 hours ago, Sycamore67 said:

I have a Generac running on natural gas. We are very pleased with it.  It runs everything including the well and AC.

 

Same here.  Ours is 20KW, the largest one that is still air-cooled, they get more expensive and more effort to maintain if liquid cooled.  We have a maintenance contract to service it twice yearly.  

We just came off a week-long episode of being powered by the generator, thanks to tropical depression Beryl.  We were really happy to have it.  

[browders]

I do not have one, but several of my neighbors do. They are expensive, but can certainly be convenient if not life-saving during a power outage. All of the ones I'm familiar with are either Kohler or Generac. The installer I spoke with sells both. He said he believes they are comparable in quality but Kohler has a more expensive name. His one complaint about Kohler is availability of parts. My brother has a Kohler and when it needed parts, it was out of commission for several months waiting on them. The generators in my neighborhood are all powered with LP gas. Here in NW Montana the weather can reach frigid temperatures during the winter. Las winter we had a week long period with temperatures reaching close to -30F. Those generators with propane tanks above ground failed due to the lines freezing. This was what the installer reported as the problem. The ones with buried tanks worked fine. 

A long letter from one who doesn't even own one, but just the observations of a nosy neighbor.

Jim.

[Scrappile]

I do not have one, wish I did, wish I could afford one.  It would give a lot of "peace of mind"

[oldhudson]

1 hour ago, browders said:

I do not have one, but several of my neighbors do. They are expensive, but can certainly be convenient if not life-saving during a power outage. All of the ones I'm familiar with are either Kohler or Generac. The installer I spoke with sells both. He said he believes they are comparable in quality but Kohler has a more expensive name. His one complaint about Kohler is availability of parts. My brother has a Kohler and when it needed parts, it was out of commission for several months waiting on them. The generators in my neighborhood are all powered with LP gas. Here in NW Montana the weather can reach frigid temperatures during the winter. Las winter we had a week long period with temperatures reaching close to -30F. Those generators with propane tanks above ground failed due to the lines freezing. This was what the installer reported as the problem. The ones with buried tanks worked fine. 

A long letter from one who doesn't even own one, but just the observations of a nosy neighbor.

Jim.

Some great info. Big thanks!

[Hawk]

Had one put in and a week later the dam near us gave way, we ran on it for about 3 weeks. Best investment I ever made. When the power goes out, 90 seconds later the power is on!

[kmmcrafts]

Interesting topic, I too have been considering one of these...

Interesting to hear about the LP freezing up and not working. Don't normally get that cold around here but still something to think about and consider. 

My inlaws have one that runs on LP.. one day while they were out of town I was there to cut the grass for them.. it turned on and scared the heck out of me since I was standing right next to it.. I thought the power must have went out but later learned that it is set up to run for a few minutes every week or every other week.. I don't remember now but it's on some sort of timer deal to run every so often I just happen to be there when it was time.. 

[Hawk]

On 7/22/2024 at 9:25 PM, kmmcrafts said:

Interesting topic, I too have been considering one of these...

Interesting to hear about the LP freezing up and not working. Don't normally get that cold around here but still something to think about and consider. 

My inlaws have one that runs on LP.. one day while they were out of town I was there to cut the grass for them.. it turned on and scared the heck out of me since I was standing right next to it.. I thought the power must have went out but later learned that it is set up to run for a few minutes every week or every other week.. I don't remember now but it's on some sort of timer deal to run every so often I just happen to be there when it was time.. 

Thats what mine does, runs a diagnostic that I can check on the app. Mine is on natural gas though, no tanks to deal with.