Generators

[codeman671]

Originally Posted by ITD

I have a Generac installed 2 years ago. I do my own maintenance, pretty easy. I have 24 kw unit and a 500 gallon (400 gal) capacity. I figure I can go at least 3 to 4 weeks without running out of propane with the tank full at the start. My unit easily runs our 4 ton central AC. We commissioned it about 3 days before the Christmas outage 2 or 3 years ago. Kept the house cozy for over 3 days until power was restores. Has run many times since then. Last time was about a month ago, we were out, came back, went in the house and I kept hearing a low groan. So I checked out the generator, and sure enough it was on. Had been running a couple hours. I verified we had no power, called NHEC, sure enough, only our house was out. It might of run for days if I hadn't noticed.

I would not count on 3-4 weeks out of 400 gallons. A 24kw Generac burns 2.5 gallons at 50% power and almost 4 gallons at 100%, which equates to 6-7 days of run time. My twin Kohler 20kw each run about the same consumption rate and tied to a 1000-gallon tank (800-850 actual) after a week I am scraping bottom.