It seems that the two most often referenced standby generators are Generac and Kohler. A couple of years ago I looked at both and finally picked a 14KW Kohler. What tipped the scales for me was that the Kohler unit has hydraulic valve lifters, whereas the Generac has solid lifters, requiring (by the manual) checking of valve clearances as part of annual maintenance. So I opted for the simpler annual maintenance, an easy DIY oil & filter change.
I bought my own generator online, had the propane supplier put in the tank it needed, and had my own electrician wire it up. I had sought installation from a couple of the area "authorized dealers," but one declined to handle a unit provided by the homeowner and suggested the other might do it. As it turned out, the inlet valve needed replacement, and I called in that second dealer to do the work, who replaced the valve (under warranty, of course), registered the unit for me, and verified proper operation. Guess who will get any repair work needed in the future. However, all things considered, if I had to do it all over, I might well have had a dealer get the unit and install it, turnkey.
Since it has been in service, we have needed it a few times, and having that has been wonderful. That size (14 KW) let me install the transfer switch as "service entrance," so that the whole house is covered rather than selected services. During an outage, most of the time the generator is loafing, and we don't have to be too concerned about what we use. The biggest draw is the hot water heater (4.5 KW). The heating system (GSHP) draws only 1.7 KW, and the handful of other draws at any time don't add up to a lot. During an extended outage, we could if needed just turn off the breaker to the hot water heater in order to have other things run, then turn it back on to recover when we are done doing other things.
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