Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Whole house generators?

Just put a down payment on a NG 20KW Briggs & Stratton. Total install 15800.00.

Think he said the generator was $8k, misc. parts and labor was another $8k. Plus pays a monthly (via WiFi) monitoring fee.

I totally agree with your daughter.

That solar is very expensive, it fails when you need it, and WON'T "pay for itself" like the snake oil salesmen say it will.

What is wait time?
1/2 down ?

It only makes sense if you live in an area where power outages can last for days. Around here, a good portable of around 10,000W, and a wired in hookup works fine. I don't even have a gen set that big, and can get by with the essentials for a couple days with 5,000W, since I have a gas water heater and furnace. I keep a couple of small portable AC units for the summer.

Rockinbbar, that is a cool hook up to your tractor, my only problem is I can’t get tractor’s to start in 20 below to even feed cows, have to do it with p/u’s , so I can’t depend on in winter.

I feel for you guys who can't start your diesels in winter. I use my tractor about as much in winter as in summer. Lots of hay hauling/moving in winter here.

Why no mention of sine waves and electronics?

About 2 weeks. Final payment upon completed install.

Thanks. Lots a good info

I'm rocking the 3500 watt Predator from Harbor Freight

I run the AC through the hot part of the day and recharge my batteries. If you run the coffee maker, instapot or microwave the same time as the AC that seems to be about all the little Predator wants.

Before the heat wave and the increase in gas prices, the generator AND motorcycle was burning less than $10.00 per day in gas.

Not relevant to the conversation but someone might find it useful.

Same notion here. I heat primarily with wood, my kitchen stove is propane, so really the generator is about keeping the freezers cold, the well pressurized, and having hot water. I don’t feel I need a big whole-home genset installation.

We’ve got a major disaster looming in the PNW; turns out there’s a really bad cyclical earthquake that wasn’t known when most of the infrastructure was being built out. When it goes, government projections have us going MONTHS without basic services. My notion is that with my generator I could ride it out for around 6 weeks if I had to. There’s a creek on my land, so I’m not dying of thirst, and I keep a lot of food in my freezers.

On the other hand, if someone has $20k and nothing better to spend it on, there’s no denying a whole-home auto start genset would be pretty slick. I can think of plenty of ways to spend $20k before I’d go there, though.

I almost took the WH generator leap before crovid. I settled on a 20kw Kohler. It’s on my 3rd from the from front back burner, which is currently out of gas.

Most modern Whole house generators are good to go for powering electronics.

https://www.kohlerhomegenerators.com/


I’ll check to see if there are any dealers around

This advice from this guy.......

I have a 22kW Cummins generator with a 2.4L liquid cooled inline 4 cylinder engine. I have needed it for both hurricanes and ice storms. I have had it power my entire home for 3 days uninterrupted use several times. With my previous 5 ton central AC unit with scroll compressor I had to install a SecureStart soft start module (NOT a hard start kit) on my 5 ton AC unit. Fast forward several years, replaced my central AC with new unit which starts at ~ 1/3 full compressor load then ramps up to whatever compressor load is needed and no soft start module required (or even possible - different compressor technology). So get your electrician/HVAC guy to come out and take readings on starting loads of your AC units as that is typically the deciding factor on how much generator you need. For those with multiple central units you need to have electrician install a kit to prevent both central AC units from starting at the same time as the starting surge from two central AC units at the same time is typically more than most standby generators sized for the load of your home can start.

When I needed it on my older AC unit the soft start module used on my AC which had a scroll compressor was a SecureStart module. It was worth the purchase and installation cost even when the generator wasn’t powering my home as the central AC unit startup was easier on compressor even while running on power grid. Link to SecureStart module below in event you need it for older scroll compressor AC units.

https://www.copeland.com/en-us/prod...for-residential-applications/securestart

We have a Generac propane fired, air cooled, 22KW (they have a 24KW AC model now) whole house that we bought from the largest electrical contractor/certified Generac technicians in the NW FL area. W bought the mobile contact, alerts your smart phone and the annual maintenance. They sent their VP, a retired US Navy Necular sub commander, came did a computer needs review, listed all the equipment in my barn, my shop and in my house, listed by make and model, actual power use and start needs, including the deep well, submersible pump, potable water backup system. Told him to add 15% for future new stuff.
I put in two 1,000 gallon, underground, propane tanks, that I own. So I can buy gas from anyone.

We live out in the woods on a tree farm, with near daily outages from above ground power lines that go through tree lined narrow easements. Wind bends the tall trees and they ground out the power.

A couple of observations:
A) If not installed by and started by a certified technician, no warranty
B) You must have an automatic off switch, to prevent a back feed into the main power line, otherwise you could fry a repairman down the line.
C) You should have an automatic start switch with a delay, ours is 30 seconds. Prevents a start and stop with minor power outages.
D) A simple plug in battery backup on electronics like computers, TVs, amplifiers, etc., cleans up the power from the generator. A multiple start by AC units can make a dip in power, we are running three central AC units at the same time.
E) The generator reads out codes on a digital screen on the generator itself, the cel phone program reads actual problem messages that you and read and understand and sends a start message with any problem to the electrician owner's phone.
F) It starts at 9:00 AM every Saturday and runs 15 minutes as its test and report to the electrician.

The generator had one problem, we did not even know about, they just showed up at the gate, we need to repair an internal switch, did so and left. So the cel system works and works well.

We have had four tornadoes and a cat 5 hurricane, Michel. The generator ran flawlessly for 10 days and nights at one time plus multiple 4 day/night runs. I ask myself, why I waited so long, trying to use the little portable generators.

For the most part good advice. However the only thing that didn't like the dual fuel Champion (<5% THD) was the UPS that powered my computer rack at our old house. It wouldn't charge off it.

Interesting...

Thanks for the intel.