Whole House Generator (Propane)

[Welder]

I have a dual fuel system. Heat pump for A/C and most cold weather and propane furnace for the bad days. No heat strips in my system.

I'm not as interested in cutting corners here and there to save money as I am in reliability and confidence in the system. Our home consistently beats what Duke energy rates as "efficient homes" by anywhere from 10-25% or more. (And "efficient homes" are well below the electric usage of "average homes".)

I mostly want to do this for my wife, (not that she asked), because those days without power wear on her nerves.

So how many KW are you looking for?

I've heard of quite a few people who've had issues with Generac....a lot of it had to do with difficulty of sourcing parts, boards, etc, and certain parts being obsoleted quickly. I just brought back a Generac unit to life that came into a scrapyard -- not that old, but used an offshored diesel which was hard to find parts for. I got the impression during my parts search that Generac used an "engine of the month" back then, just putting whatever engine they could buy cheapest into their units. That was a bigger generator, 125KW, and I don't know if the smaller ones have more or less of an issue with this same thing. They had even cut the I.D. tags off of the injection pump, etc to make the engine nearly impossible to identify and order parts for on the secondary market.

[MickAK]

I have a dual fuel system. Heat pump for A/C and most cold weather and propane furnace for the bad days. No heat strips in my system.

I'm not as interested in cutting corners here and there to save money as I am in reliability and confidence in the system. Our home consistently beats what Duke energy rates as "efficient homes" by anywhere from 10-25% or more. (And "efficient homes" are well below the electric usage of "average homes".)

I mostly want to do this for my wife, (not that she asked), because those days without power wear on her nerves.

One thing to consider is if you're possibly going to add a battery bank (which is getting pretty affordable these days) you want to decide on that before you purchase your transfer switch/load management system. Otherwise you can end up missing out on some good functionality or paying more than you need to add it later.

[NEPAKevin]

We have a propane Kohler whole house 20KW that was installed in spring of 2018 by local Kohler dealer. Initially it was fine, then maybe a year later, it developed an oil leak in one of the seals. The dealer was not able to fix the problem so they replaced the engine with a new one under warranty. Knock on wood, its been good to go to date. Worst power outage was about ten days and it had no problems. HTH

[blues]

So how many KW are you looking for?

I've heard of quite a few people who've had issues with Generac....a lot of it had to do with difficulty of sourcing parts, boards, etc, and certain parts being obsoleted quickly. I just brought back a Generac unit to life that came into a scrapyard -- not that old, but used an offshored diesel which was hard to find parts for. I got the impression during my parts search that Generac used an "engine of the month" back then, just putting whatever engine they could buy cheapest into their units. That was a bigger generator, 125KW, and I don't know if the smaller ones have more or less of an issue with this same thing. They had even cut the I.D. tags off of the injection pump, etc to make the engine nearly impossible to identify and order parts for on the secondary market.

I don't know yet...on size. 18-22...seems in the ballpark.

[NH Shooter]

Bear in mind that outside temperature determines the size of the propane tank you need for a generator, NOT how long you want to run it between fill ups.

For a typical 20kw generator, your propane tank will need to supply about 300,000 BTUs/hour at the lowest outdoor temp you expect to run it. Example: at 20 degrees F. a 250 gallon tank will provide that down to 20% remaining in the tank. If it gets any colder than that, you will need a 500 or even 1000 gallon tank to provide the needed rate of vaporization. Sizing Chart

[farscott]

I have looked very hard at Generac generators more than once as both an end user and a supplier of components. After looking at both sides, I cannot recommend. The price is much too high for what is received, and I doubt many of the units will survive a decade of light-duty service.

I know @blues said a portable generator is not what he wants, but the Honda EB10000 paired with a manual transfer switch is a good way to go. If the outage is long enough or the storm has passed, the generator is wheeled out of the garage, goes behind the fence to where the service enters the home and the transfer switch is located, the connections made, the transfer switch activated, and the generator started. I also chain ours to the fence as there have been instances of generator theft.

When the grid is back up, the process is reversed. Honda generators are reliable and designed to be used on construction sites. Being inverters, the engine speed changes as the load changes, which helps with fuel consumption. I can get 12 hours of runtime on eight gallons of fuel. I do kill some loads. We run the central HVAC in the day to control humidity as much as temp and just a room HVAC at night. I do keep the Wi-Fi running 24/7 as the security cameras use it and it allows us to keep up with events and distract ourselves.

Parts are everywhere as the engines are proven in other Honda power equipment applications. The generator is not exposed to the elements when not being used (which is the majority of time). The other advantage is the generator runs on gasoline, so fuel can be stored onsite and used with other outdoor equipment. I use Stabil and only purchase non-ethanol gasoline. Maintenance is almost the same as the lawnmowers.

One negative is the EB10000 weighs more than 450 pounds when ready for usage. I only have to move ours about 50' on concrete, so it is a snap. If I had to move it through a lawn or field, it would be much tougher to position. I am also comfortable with the transfer switch and understand anti-islanding, which some people do not.

[CSW]

I've a 15kw Kohler, propane fed, that we've had for ten years now. Does the entire home.
It's serviced annually by a local company, and comes on about 30-45 seconds after an interruption in the power.
Small, quiet, and necessary up here in NH.

[Norville]

In 2015 we started this quest, and ended up with a 14kw Kohler. The excellent local electrician said he’d install a Generac for less, but wouldn’t service it as parts availability was bad. Worse if it breaks and you need something in a hurry.

I buy a parts kit and service mine annually, basically oil and filter. It has been a great experience.

Lost power twice in last week’s heavy wet snow. Our neighbor’s one year old Generac failed to start automatically. Luckily they could manually turn it on. Still waiting on service appointment.

[UNK]

You dont really need a transfer switch unless local code requires it.
Just take a 2 breaker slot turn off the main and backfeed your panel.
The backfeed can be rouuted outside numerous ways depending on how your house is set up.
Is your cooktop/propane propane or electric?
In the winter its a lot easier to power your house if you are using some sort of gas.
My point is you may not need to calculate for everything in the house just what you need to run.
Honda has a generator that is used for RVs. Liquid cooled remote start. 50 amp I believe.
An outdoor grill with side burner can take care of a lot of cooking needs if your kitchen is all electric.
ETA numerous companies offer a propane camping oven with stovetop for $2-300.

[Tuefelhunden]

I'm in the same boat as Blues. Wife wants one and I see the logic but dang sticker shock for essentially an insurance policy. Keeping the well pump running is our biggest concern. Last outage I used my Honda 2200i to keep the freezer topped off and moved the fridge contents into our RV fridge running on propane.
Generac is on the cheaper end of gensets but the no fuss no muss concept is attractive. Sounds like much of it comes down to the quality of the service provided from the install company. I'm leaning the big Honda with a transfer switch route due to quality and lower entry cost. Has anyone gone this route and left it outside in place hooked up but well covered? Dragging 450 pounds around in an emergency doesn't sound appealing.