House generator advise

[Just1more]

Was in Nashville for daughters wedding so catching up now.
All your great suggestions are a lot for me to understand but i will pass them all on to my other half as he's the mechanical one We are looking for a small not overly expensive generator as my intention is to move once retired southward somewhere in next 5-7 years. We are not able to spend what is needed for the many better generator options mentioned here unfortunately. thanks again !

[esh21167]

Generac makes great residential generators. That's what I would go with if I were doing a whole-house one. They have them where they self-test monthly and if you hook it up to your internet it will even contact the company if there is a problem.

I researched this for our previous home which was on well water. Well water is going to be your largest draw of electricity depending on it's size. I had a 3/4 hp and estimated 9kw just for starting that. We also had a small house with propane so the rest of the house was lower power usage.

Is your water heater electric or gas? If it's electric you may want to look at getting a gas heater instead. Electric water heaters can draw 6-9000 watts easy. A gas water heater probably draws a few hundred watts at most.

You need to figure out how many watts you need and then size a generator 20% more than the total. Get one of those "Kill A Watt" meters and find out how much power everything you plan on having run by a generator draws. You can leave it in over a period of times to get an average and spike draw rate.

For fuel, ideally you want propane. Propane does not corrode or degrade over time. You can use your utility natural gas but make sure to have it inspected as the NG can corrode long term. Also, you are depending on your utility provider for fuel during an emergency. NG lines also need power and can stop providing during a regional emergency.

Whatever you get, make sure you test and follow maintenance on it. Later today I have to go tear apart my little Generac 2kw generator because I left some gas in it long term and forgot to get the non-ethanol gas.

The sizing is where I get lost. With those start up draws, you're already pulling 18k. I suspect the generator ratings are peak, not continuous. I'd be right there, plus our geothermal heat pump, which I believe is another 8k. I always thought the understanding was that you probably can't run everything at once, but a few posts here are saying a 20-24k lets them run everything.

I wonder about that. I have a 15k continuous rated, 22k peak, gas portable. The prior home's owners had a manual transfer switch, but what I found to be odd was no connection to the heat pump. I had an electrician bypass the transfer switch to power the entire panel with one of those slider interlock switches. He said there is no way that 15k could power the whole house, and recommended alternating running only the heat or A/C for a bit, then shutting that off to run other selected circuits.

I can't decipher the 'sticker' on the heat pump as there are like 10 different options/amperages/wattages listed. I think dependent on zones, etc.

[dannyb]

Had Generacs in 3 homes. Never had a problem - mostly because I had professionals install them. I know my limitations. Our current house is solar with Tesla power wall. Was great all summer, and the couple of brief blackouts in the area didn't affect us at all. Still, I'm wondering about portable solar panel plus solar generator with secondary battery as a back up. Anyone have experience or real-world knowledge?

[cephas]

Couple questions for yinz with a whole house generator. Say there is going to be an extended outage. Does the generator run continuously or can the generator be programmed to run at specific times, say 2 hours on 4 hours off?
Does the generator run one speed or does it adapt to load like a Honda with eco-throttle?

[skylark]

I have a Generac 22Kw whole house generator and the new ones do adjust speed based on load. Mine does not have the ability to set run times (other than the weekly testing). Once running with power out it will keep running until restored. You can manually shut it down from the panel to rest it and/or change/add oil as may be needed during an extended outage.

[gghbi]

This guy does a nice job explaining it all...

[sota]

yea, the generator threads on all my forums are blowing up right now.
this bomb cyclone really stuffed a hairy icicle up quite a few butt holes.
plus the whole TVA thing is definitely opening some eyes.

[Walleye Hunter]

yea, the generator threads on all my forums are blowing up right now.
this bomb cyclone really stuffed a hairy icicle up quite a few butt holes.
plus the whole TVA thing is definitely opening some eyes.

What 'TVA thing'?

[sbmania]

PECO just sent out a message on Christmas Eve that people should try to cut back on electrical usage in order to avoid the possibility of power shortages or rolling black outs. And yet we should all sell our gasoline cars and buy electrical vehicles, so we can increase the electrical demand even more! LOL! Glad I have our whole house generator! And good old fashioned gas powered cars!

[cephas]

What 'TVA thing'?

"The TVA, or Tennessee Valley Authority, was established in 1933 as one of President Roosevelt*s Depression-era New Deal programs, providing jobs and electricity to the rural Tennessee River Valley, an area that spans seven states in the South."
As sbmania eluded to, rolling blackouts and other power disruptions there.