Time for a generator!

[Long Island Baba]

OK, time to bite the bullet on purchase of a whole house generator. Enough is enough!
Have a list of 10 neighbors interested. Can you folks with units kindly share some do's and don'ts for us? We are looking at whole house, automatic start up at power failure, propane I would imagine.
Thank you in advance for your help!

[ishoot308]

Originally Posted by Long Island Baba

OK, time to bite the bullet on purchase of a whole house generator. Enough is enough!
Have a list of 10 neighbors interested. Can you folks with units kindly share some do's and don'ts for us? We are looking at whole house, automatic start up at power failure, propane I would imagine.
Thank you in advance for your help!

I had the Generator Connection supply and install my 20,000 watt Koehler generator. Can't say enough good about them! They handled everything! I also recommend their maintenance plan which is very reasonable for what they do. Most of today's whole house generators have computer circuit boards in them and if something goes wrong you really need a pro to fix. There was a recall on the boards in my unit and I had no knowledge of it. The generator connection contacted me and came right over and replaced everything free of charge.

My advice is to make sure you get one big enough for everything in the house including your electric oven/s, central AC, etc, etc. I also recommend a 500 gallon propane tank which your supplier should supply for free. There may be a small connection charge to attach to your generator.

Dan

[ITD]

Originally Posted by ishoot308

I had the Generator Connection supply and install my 20,000 watt Koehler generator. Can't say enough good about them! They handled everything! I also recommend their maintenance plan which is very reasonable for what they do. Most of today's whole house generators have computer circuit boards in them and if something goes wrong you really need a pro to fix. There was a recall on the boards in my unit and I had no knowledge of it. The generator connection contacted me and came right over and replaced everything free of charge.

My advice is to make sure you get one big enough for everything in the house including your electric oven/s, central AC, etc, etc. I also recommend a 500 gallon propane tank which your supplier should supply for free. There may be a small connection charge to attach to your generator.

Dan

Dan, would you care to tell us how much that setup set you back?

[ishoot308]

Originally Posted by ITD

Dan, would you care to tell us how much that setup set you back?

I don't remember the exact figure as it's been about three years since we had it done. Heck I barely remember what I had for breakfast! �� If I find it I will post the figure no problem. My wife will most likely remember.

I do know the price included all permits, licensed electrician doing connections, concrete pad under generator and they worked very closely with my propane supplier (Rymes) to coordinate the tank install and connections as well as scheduling. I didn't have to do a thing. Their crew was top notch as well!

Dan

[ITD]

Originally Posted by ishoot308

I don't remember the exact figure as it's been about three years since we had it done. Heck I barely remember what I had for breakfast! �� If I find it I will post the figure no problem. My wife will most likely remember.

I do know the price included all permits, licensed electrician doing connections, concrete pad under generator and they worked very closely with my propane supplier (Rymes) to coordinate the tank install and connections as well as scheduling. I didn't have to do a thing. Their crew was top notch as well!

Dan

No problem, I'm thinking about doing an install myself. I actually had an appointment with a guy many years ago, but he never showed.

[DickR]

Ours has been in service for about a year, and it has been good to have the few times it has been needed, most recently being the March 14 wind/snow event. I chose a 14KW Kohler for a few reasons. The size allowed me to install it with a "service-entrance" transfer switch, for whole-house availability, rather than have just a few critical circuits handled. I chose Kohler over Generac partly because it has hydraulic valve lifters, instead of solid lifters, requiring that extra annual service step of checking clearances.

As for tank size, I wondered about getting just a 250 gallon propane tank, since nothing in the house otherwise needed propane. But the propane company sales rep looked up my 14KW size on a chart and said the 500 would be needed. At design minimum temperature, there must be enough tank surface area to absorb heat from ambient air to vaporize liquid propane at a sufficient rate to feed the generator to run at full capacity.

[ITD]

Originally Posted by DickR

Ours has been in service for about a year, and it has been good to have the few times it has been needed, most recently being the March 14 wind/snow event. I chose a 14KW Kohler for a few reasons. The size allowed me to install it with a "service-entrance" transfer switch, for whole-house availability, rather than have just a few critical circuits handled. I chose Kohler over Generac partly because it has hydraulic valve lifters, instead of solid lifters, requiring that extra annual service step of checking clearances.

As for tank size, I wondered about getting just a 250 gallon propane tank, since nothing in the house otherwise needed propane. But the propane company sales rep looked up my 14KW size on a chart and said the 500 would be needed. At design minimum temperature, there must be enough tank surface area to absorb heat from ambient air to vaporize liquid propane at a sufficient rate to feed the generator to run at full capacity.

Makes sense, any idea on how long 500 gallons would run it?

[Cobalt]

A propane company will only fill a tank to 80% of capacity. Therefore, a 500 gallon tank will offer 400 gallons of propane when filled. There is no guarantee the tank will be immediately refilled after each use, and having extra capacity compared to a 250 gallon tank (200 capacity) is a good move.

I installed a Kohler 20kw generator fifteen years ago. The engine is a Ford inline four cylinder which was a small commercial engine at the time. It has a 2000 watt block heater which adds about $60-$80 a month to the cost of electricity during the cold months.

Estimates are 2-4 gallons of propane per hour for a 14kw generator, and 4-6 gallons per hour for a 20kw depending on load.

My generator has been relatively trouble free, and for any issues I use Rowan Electric.

[MeredithMan]

Originally Posted by ITD

Dan, would you care to tell us how much that setup set you back?

Since Mr iShoot couldn't recall his price, I thought I would chime in with what we paid, just as a point of reference. $14+K for a 20KW Generac, including all permits, installation, inspection, etc. Note that this was at our primary home in CT when we lived there, (everything is more expensive in CT!), and, it was about 4+ years ago.

We had the automatic fail-over switch and the 500 gal tank of propane, which is a great set-up. The town we lived in in CT lost power regularly, and for days at a time. We were on well and septic, so without the generator, things got really gross really fast. It is not a trivial expense, but if you have the dough and lose power often, I would highly recommend it.

[joey2665]

I had a 20kw Generac installed on Long Island NY after Sandy for 15k all in and in my home in NH I am having one installed by Ed Electric of Laconia same unit 4 years later for the same 15k all in


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[MRD]

You can purchase a 20,000 watt koehler generator thru Home Depot for $4600. It ships from the factory directly to you. You dont need a concrete pad. You do need a level surface. The bottom of the unit is weather proofed. Then you need a trench to the tank and to the house. I think the trench had to be about 18 inches deep. We dug it by hand. Then hire a electrician for a day to hook it up. You should be able to get the unit bought and installed for far less than the prices being quoted if you get involved in the process. If you want a hands off installation then the costs being quoted are in line but if you buy it and hire an electrician to do the installation you can save quite a bit of money. I have done it this way at three locations with no problem. Also most towns let you as the home owner pull the permit yourself saving electricians time.

[codeman671]

The prices listed do seem high, and a 20k watt is a LOT of power. I cant recall exactly, but in my last house I had a GE (Kohler) generator, I think it was a 12-15k. I bought it landed for around $3k with the whole house transfer switch from Home Depot. I spent $1400 on the electrical, a few hundred to get the trench done and bought my own 1000 gallon underground tank for $3000+/-. All in I think I was $8k, and had huge LP capacity. I was running a 4300sqft home with hydro air heat (draws a lot of power), hot tub (kept it running but wasn't using it during outages), etc.

[ishoot308]

Originally Posted by MeredithMan

Since Mr iShoot couldn't recall his price, I thought I would chime in with what we paid, just as a point of reference. $14+K for a 20KW Generac, including all permits, installation, inspection, etc. Note that this was at our primary home in CT when we lived there, (everything is more expensive in CT!), and, it was about 4+ years ago.

We had the automatic fail-over switch and the 500 gal tank of propane, which is a great set-up. The town we lived in in CT lost power regularly, and for days at a time. We were on well and septic, so without the generator, things got really gross really fast. It is not a trivial expense, but if you have the dough and lose power often, I would highly recommend it.

While I do not remember the exact price I can tell you that I definitely did not pay anywhere near that price! It was definitely less than 10 grand...

Dan

[Long Island Baba]

Thank you all for the great info on generators!

[Descant]

In 2004, I had a 6KW Dayton installed. I did my own concrete pad and dug the trenches for propane and electric feed, about 50 feet each to get the unit into a protected area away from the house. I don't recall anything about permits, but maybe the electrician did that. The longest I've been without power was 5.5 days and no problem with propane. This is pretty much "whole House (3200 sf, although we don't run clothes dryer and oven at the same time. Our cook top is the only other propane use, and we don't have central A/C.) We were more interested in keeping the computers powered, but when you lose power, you often lose internet/cable too. Bummer.
Little service needed. The propane folks do charge a minimum delivery fee if you don't need much product, so unless there is prolonged use, we only fill once a year.
The generator does shut down automatically if the oil level gets low. We learned that when we called for delivery after several days when the generator shut down. The delivery man filled the tank , but said it wasn't near empty. "Did you check the oil?" Hmmm.

We're very happy, and so are the friends and neighbors who visit to take showers. We think of winter storms, but the first time it came on was June of 2004. Thunderstorm. We were traveling and the neighbors watching the house said it worked as advertised. They were quite envious.

[ishoot308]

Originally Posted by ITD

Dan, would you care to tell us how much that setup set you back?

Wife tells me we paid around $8,500.00 for everything. We did nothing, Generator Connection did everything.

Here's another thread discussing Generator connection with a couple quotes...
https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums...tor+connection

Dan

[DickR]

Originally Posted by ITD

Makes sense, any idea on how long 500 gallons would run it?

The manufacturers typically have technical info on their web sites that show consumption vs generator size at 25, 50, 75, 100% of full capacity. For a 14-20 KW unit, consumption averaged over time could be up to 2-3 gallons/hr. There will be a small amount used for periodic auto-test. For my 14KW Kohler, that is 20 minutes once per week, at low % of full power, whatever that comes out to.

Our 500 gallon tank started out at 80-85% full in March of 2016. A few short-duration outages and weekly testing had brought it down to around 80% on the little gauge by this winter. After the March 14 storm outage of about 30 hours, it was down to around 70%. Those are very crude estimates, as I wasn't really concerned about levels. I think that if we expected a really lengthy outage, then we'd start doing things like shutting it down overnight and watching our electrical usage more, to make the tank last longer.

[wifi]

Another thing to keep in mind is loading. I have run many prime power generators in remote locations. I inherited one site that ran 90% loading (crazy, I know), engines lasted about 18 months. Replaced them with loading of 50%, and they lasted 15+ years, and are still running.

I know oversized costs more to loaf along, but rounding up (moderately) on expected use, can save a lot of grief.

[2DAMTS]

17k Natural gas Generac installed in Nashua 6 years ago for $6400 all inclusive. Are the propane tanks that expensive?

[Marauder]

Originally Posted by Long Island Baba

OK, time to bite the bullet on purchase of a whole house generator. Enough is enough!
Have a list of 10 neighbors interested. Can you folks with units kindly share some do's and don'ts for us? We are looking at whole house, automatic start up at power failure, propane I would imagine.
Thank you in advance for your help!

I had a whole house generator installed this past October, a Generac 20K by Deyab Electric. I am more than pleased with his work and work ethic. Good luck!

[NH.Solar]

Any chance you might consider one of the new hybrid solar/9kWh battery storage systems?
The up front cost would run about $34K, but after the Federal 30% tax credit and NHPUC rebate are applied you'll be out of pocket $21K, about twice what a good whole house generator will cost. With a hybrid solar/storage system however there will be no fuel to buy and store, no yearly maintenance contract needed, it's silent, and when properly sized will also knock your electric bill down to near to zero for the next 40 years.
If this is of interest you can get more details on from the tab of my webpage titled, "Energy Storage and the NHEC".