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Originally Posted by Slickcraft
We have a Kohler PRO7.5E portable and had the house wired for it: external connector wired to breaker panel and transfer switch interlock. Cost for generator plus electrician was about $2,200. I do have to start it, plug into the house and activate the transfer switch. Generator is 7.5 KW starting and 6.5 KW operating.
All outlets are powered however can't run electric dryer or more than one electric stove burner. The rest is good to go; water pump, oil heat boiler with domestic hot water, heat pumps, all lights, etc.
Looked at a Kohler stationary, good product. We don't have propane; if installed fuel delivery trucks will not come up our driveway in the winter to refill after an extended outage.
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Similar to the above, I bought a Generac portable with 12k starting and 10k running. Of course I have to wheel it out the basement walk out, plug it into its 50A outlet which is connected to a transfer switch with all our power needs. It takes literally 2 minutes to set up and flip the transfer switch.
We run the office/internet, TV, boiler/hot water, well pump, basement outlets/lights for a freezer, refrigerator, electric range, garage door openers and living room outlets. The bathrooms and new addition (bedroom and bath) stay dark and we use a battery camping lantern to light those areas.
I can’t say enough good about the Generac. It starts (electric start) and runs without a hitch, last week being 2 outages of 18 hours then 4 hours 2 days later.
My wife and I are comfortable in any outage situation. Next best thing would be a larger, fully autonomous standby with the whole house powered but we are extremely happy and grateful for what we have now.
By the way, the cost for our setup was in the $1600-$2000 range including the transfer switch, cables and outlet and not counting storing 15 gallons of gas. My brother who is a master electrician, did the transfer switch install and didn’t want to charge me but I gave him a couple hundred for his trouble.