Home Generators

[NY10]

I am in NY and with the storm approaching I have decided in the future I want to not have to worry.

I contacted Generac and they're gonna be coming to my house on the 20th to assess how to put in a generator for my house.

I'm not gonna get one of those portable ones, I'm getting the home one that runs off the gas line in my street and that can power my whole house.

Just wondering if anyone else has and what they really think of them. Worth the heavy price tag?

[jlstyle]

I thought about it for my home as well but concluded that it doesn't worth it. We rarely get power outage that lasts long enough for me to consider one. And that doesn't add any resale value to home either.

[KingOfJericho]

It's a huge nut, that's for sure. I went portable. We were out for a week during Sandy but those instances are SO rare that I couldn't justify the additional outlay.

I thought of it like this: it's like flying to Hawaii first class. Yeah, flying coach isn't very comfortable but the cost of first class is 4x higher. When the flight is over you've been through a less comfortable journey BUT you have an extra $3k in your pocket.

My total outlay was about $1,700 for an 8,000 Briggs & Stratton portable and the hookup install. I have 10g of gas in the house at all times. It's not nearly as convenient as the backup but in those rare situations, "good enough" is all that's really necessary.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by jlstyle

And that doesn't add any resale value to home either.

That is heavily location-based. If I drive down a street I'm thinking about moving onto and 6 of 10 houses have a generator, the house I'm looking at darned well better have one too.

I looked at Generacs but did not want giant propane tanks in my yard so I went with a smaller, more manual gasoline option. Takes me about 5 minutes to bring the power back online, runs everything except the oven and clothes dryer. Uses about 8 gallons a day. (I shut it down at night. Yes I have had outages longer than one day. We're, uhmmm, rural.)

If I had natural gas I may well have gone with a Generac. The convenience is unbeatable. Do be aware of the fact that they require maintenance, and that they run themselves through a startup/shutdown sequence approximately once per month. If you have a friendly electrician try doing the whole deal with them, it may save you some money up front.

[zx10guy]

I have a 20KW Generac installed in my house.

What got me to decide on having it put in was due to a number of power outages I've endured. Since buying my house as new construction, the local power company has been inconsistent with the reliability of power. This is with underground power lines and a power substation just outside of our development. The periodic power outages were annoying. But when we get a strong thunder storm, we would lose power and would be the first even before the neighboring development which is much older than mine. At this point, I would have at most a couple to a few hours of power outage. The big one was when Sandy blew by. We lost power for about 3 days. That same year another storm blew by which caused us to lose power for another day and half.

At this point, I had made up my mind to get a whole house generator. But certain things came up which prevented me from doing it that year. Last year was when I had the generator put in. I initially thought about doing a 11KW generator but decided since I was almost to the cost of a 20 KW which can power the entire house, I went for the 20 KW. It was certainly an adventure with all the various trades required to install the generator.

It was expensive but I'm glad I now have that piece of mind. Also with a baby now, I can also feel good that my family is going to be ok during a storm.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I can also take pictures of the generator, the transfer switch, and the load centers the electrician put in.

[RickFLM4]

I'm in FL and looked seriously at a Generac standby after three storms in 2 years about 9-10 years ago. It would have been a major investment because I have no natural gas access and would have needed to bury propane tanks. Additionally, if you really research it, the cost of actually running one is quite expensive and it should really be on a maintenance contract.

I opted instead for a very large portable (17.5) that I can plug into my panel when I need to use it. Basically a portion of the electrical panel (including our smaller central a/c, water heater, refrigerator, stove/oven and various lights and ceiling fans) is in a separate panel the generator can run. No need to run extension cords to plug into generator - the generator plugs into the panel. Total cost was under $3K vs. over $20K upfront for standby and since laws were passed to require all gas stations to have generators I'm less concerned about having gas available for it (got 6 empty 6 gallon plastic gas jugs I have in the garage). Ongoing maintenance is also much less of a burden.

All that being said... I have been fortunate to never use it since I got it. I sometimes wonder if I had done the standby if it would need to be replaced in the next few years - nothing lasts forever. Additionally, I think I'd be more inclined to put up the hurricane shutters and leave for somewhere north and further inland if a big storm comes (or if we stayed and power was out more than a few days). The large portable provides a happy medium - much better than nothing but not a huge investment relative to the frequency it will likely be used and the alternative to leave if power is out for very long.

[Irishsig]

I work at my Aunt & Uncles home office in Beverly Hills and believe it or not there were getting tired of power outages last summer so they invested in a generator from LT Generators.
Same concept, it's fed by the natural gas line on the property.
It worked like a charm to power the whole house a couple times.
Unfortunately I think they only service Southern California, but it's the same concept.

[NY10]

Thanks for the info.

Where I live on Long Island we get hit with stops a lot. With sandy there was no power for a week, they told us 3. Right now it's raining, just normal rain and we lost power twice and they keep going on and off.

In the winter we loose power because the lines freeze, in the summer we loose power with all the acs going. Our power company is a nightmare and it takes them forever to restore.

I figure that although expensive, when we do loose power again I will have piece of mind, and even if it's for a few hours, it's a few hours of hot water in my house, heat in the winter ac in the summer and the ability to cook. With Sandy the entire town was shut down and with the gas shortage we had there is NO way I'm waiting on line with my car and gas tanks to get a few gallons to light half my house.

This way power goes out, 15-20 seconds later it's back on. I know about the maintenance it requires and to me, although expensive and no added value to my home, it beats sitting in the freezing dark for days and days staring at the walls starving.

[ciaranob]

I realize a very area specific question but not having done research as yet I am curious to know of ball park costs for these systems - perhaps on a house sq ft basis or whatever - sorry being lazy and could google it but total real costs are not always transparent on in web searches!

Originally Posted by NY10

Thanks for the info.

Where I live on Long Island we get hit with stops a lot. With sandy there was no power for a week, they told us 3. Right now it's raining, just normal rain and we lost power twice and they keep going on and off.

In the winter we loose power because the lines freeze, in the summer we loose power with all the acs going. Our power company is a nightmare and it takes them forever to restore.

I figure that although expensive, when we do loose power again I will have piece of mind, and even if it's for a few hours, it's a few hours of hot water in my house, heat in the winter ac in the summer and the ability to cook. With Sandy the entire town was shut down and with the gas shortage we had there is NO way I'm waiting on line with my car and gas tanks to get a few gallons to light half my house.

This way power goes out, 15-20 seconds later it's back on. I know about the maintenance it requires and to me, although expensive and no added value to my home, it beats sitting in the freezing dark for days and days staring at the walls starving.

[M_Six]

FIL just had a natural gas operated one installed at his house. Flips on automatically after a power loss. I think his ran about $6k installed. Big sucker that runs the whole house. Set up on a slab with a locked case around it. Hard wired to the electrical system with all the anti-feedback stuff.

They went through a week-long power outage in a freak October ice storm a few years back and started looking into them right after that. I have to believe he'll recoup that money when he sells the house.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by wdb

That is heavily location-based. If I drive down a street I'm thinking about moving onto and 6 of 10 houses have a generator, the house I'm looking at darned well better have one too.

I looked at Generacs but did not want giant propane tanks in my yard so I went with a smaller, more manual gasoline option. Takes me about 5 minutes to bring the power back online, runs everything except the oven and clothes dryer. Uses about 8 gallons a day. (I shut it down at night. Yes I have had outages longer than one day. We're, uhmmm, rural.)

If I had natural gas I may well have gone with a Generac. The convenience is unbeatable. Do be aware of the fact that they require maintenance, and that they run themselves through a startup/shutdown sequence approximately once per month. If you have a friendly electrician try doing the whole deal with them, it may save you some money up front.

Based on what I see with my generator, I don't know what people are talking about concerning maintenance. The only big maintenance item is to check the valve lash and adjust. At the one year mark and my generator told me via an amber light on it, I did the maintenance required. The manual stated to check the valve lash and adjust if necessary. I didn't check it yet. Other than that, I did an oil and filter change. I bought a kit online which had the oil, oil filter, air filter, and spark plugs to do the maintenance on my generator. Cost of the kit was $50.

As far as the start up and shut down sequence, it's once a week. You can program the generator at what time and which day to cycle on and off. The weekly power up and down is only 15 minutes.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by ciaranob

I realize a very area specific question but not having done research as yet I am curious to know of ball park costs for these systems - perhaps on a house sq ft basis or whatever - sorry being lazy and could google it but total real costs are not always transparent on in web searches!

Sizing of the generator is not done by the square footage of the house. It's done by how much load you're going to power in the event of a power outage. When I had various electricians come out to do an estimate, the discussion always centered on what I wanted to have powered up during an outage. Based on what I wanted powered up they would do a load calculation to size the generator. Both companies said if I wanted to run my A/C, I'm looking at a big generator due to the initial power up spike from the compressor. I also didn't want the hassle of designating circuits I wanted on backup power. I forget now but I think the price differential from doing a 11 KW to a 20 KW which will power my entire house was about $4k or so. I think I ended up paying around $11k for the entire generator install.

Part of the cost was due to needing a dedicated gas line run from my gas meter and a bigger gas meter. My house is unusual from the rest of the houses in my neighborhood as I have a lot of gas fed appliances. In addition to hot water heater, furnace, and range, I also have 3 gas fire places. The line ran by my builder was too small to also supply the generator. So the additional cost included having a plumber come out to pull a dedicated line off of the meter to feed the generator. I also needed a bigger gas meter due to all the natural gas I could potentially use in my house.

The install was spread out over I think a couple to a few days with one day being the main day where the electricians killed the power to the entire house to wire everything up.

After getting everything connected, a simulated power outage was done. The generator kicked on and I don't think it was longer than a second or two before the house was fully powered back up. During the test, we ran the A/C and the dryer at the same time to see what the load was on the generator. The electrician said the system passed with flying colors.

[NY10]

Well it's not raining but it's windy where I live right now, the power went off about 15 minutes ago and it's freezing here.

Looks like this second power outage in 24 hours from some 10mph winds have proved my point and tomorrow the generator will be ordered.

[zx10guy]

I was out with the wife and kid visiting some friends for dinner. When I got home, I found out we suffered a power outage too. Not a very long one since the clocks in the kitchen weren't blinking. Wife asked how I knew. I said the first sign is the garage door opener. If it goes up slow, that means the opener lost power and is recalibrating for the weight of the door. It was only raining a bit hard and we had a power blip.

[wdb]

OP, it sounds like you have frequent enough outage events to justify the expense of a standby system. Good luck, let us know how it goes for you.

I have a neighbor who travels a lot, including being either on the road or staying elsewhere for most of the winter. He put a diesel generator in plus a 500 gallon fuel tank to keep it running. He can be away for months and not worry about his house freezing because of a power outage.

I talked my father into buying a gasoline generator and home hookup after the last power outage they had caused his basement to flood (sump pumps have battery backup but they ran out of juice). His generator has acted in the Murphy's Law way, i.e. he hasn't ever needed to run it. You just never know.

[ezndo]

I also installed a natural gas 20kw Generac at my house in NJ after Sandy. Had a portable generator, but when you have to venture out in the middle of the night to fill it with gas or go get gas for it and the gas stations have no power either, your SOL. Plus, if I'm not home when the power goes out, the wife doesn't have to fool with the portable.

[zx10guy]

Something else to consider for you dooms day preppers. The Generac generators are dual fuel systems. Even though my generator is running on natural gas, I can have a propane tank put in and switch fuels.

[NY10]

Well the trigger has been pulled. This morning the lights were on then a big boom and the lights were off again. 3 times in 3 days and again, that's with NO survere weather. Contacted Generac and am set up for a free home estimate but they can't get here until the 20th.

I've already made up my mind and am gonna get the one that does the entire house and runs off the gas line. Being I don't have gas in my house but there are gas lines on my block (I'm the only one on my block that doesn't Have it they said they can tap into the gas lines that are already there to hook me up.

I'm gonna walk through the house with the guy and see what he says.

My house is pretty big 3 floors but I also don't think I'm gonna need the major one. I don't have central AC but have Window units so in the summer at least 2 run at a time. Will need fridge power and stove power and of course lights and heat.

At this point whatever it costs me I think it's gonna be worth it.

We're in for an extreme winter and I can't have my pipes freeze and no heat.

Out of curiosity now what am I looking at now? I know they start at 1800 and go to about 5,000 not including install.

Like I said whatever needs to be done I have to do because the last 3 days have been stressful enough.

[wdb]

Budget $15K.

[TomHudson]

If you're going to run gas, get a gas fireplace. I have 2 in my house. Power was off for 3 days during our use storm 2 years ago, house never went below 70.

Use a small camping stove for cooking - butane cookers are easy to use and cheap.

I gave a generator, just in case, that can be back fed to panel for lights etc, if required.

A small 1500 watt inverter can run off your car to keep the fridge cool in a pinch - there's akways gas in the tank!

Usually built in automated systems take into account flooding and sump pumps.

Gas can easily be stored for 6 months, which I then rotate into the van so I only really buy my gas supply once...

[tony20009]

Originally Posted by NY10

I am in NY and with the storm approaching I have decided in the future I want to not have to worry.

I contacted Generac and they're gonna be coming to my house on the 20th to assess how to put in a generator for my house.

I'm not gonna get one of those portable ones, I'm getting the home one that runs off the gas line in my street and that can power my whole house.

Just wondering if anyone else has and what they really think of them. Worth the heavy price tag?

Absolutely!!!

My advice: be sure to have the unit installed some distance away from the main house building. I don't know where "they" put the things when "they" measured the noise, but make no mistake, if it's right next to the house, you'll hear it just like you would one of the portable ones, and some of them sound like you have a cross between a lawn mower and garbage disposal right outside your door.

I had the installer run a line to the edge of my property (I abut a small "woods") not only so neither I nor the neighbors had to hear all that racket when it's running, but also so that I didn't have that damn thing in plain sight when I'm entertaining in the back yard. (Moving the HVAC units and standby power generator to the back edge of the yard was among the first renovations we did ages ago. I couldn't be happier that we did.)

Perhaps my family's "weird," but back I when I grew up, extended power outages were times to have an impromptu cookout, invite folks over, and make the best of a bad situation with our neighbors and friends. I continued the "tradition" when I could. Having to listen to that damned contraption up close to the patio and backyard kitchen would absolutely dissuade me from doing so.

All the best.

P.S.
I don't have any empirical proof of this, but I think moving the noise to the far side of the yard dissuades deer from destroying the plants near it. I'm just guessing, but I suspect the noise being out there makes it hard for them to hear "danger," and they learn to stay the hell away, at least from that part of the yard. They'll sometimes venture closer to the house, of course, but they'd rather not, instead eating the neighbor's "unprotected" garden plants that are distant both from the house and the noise, and not quite as much of mine.

P.P.S
I'm sure you already considered this, but just in case....if you have any inkling of installing induction cooktops, include planning for those damn things when choosing a capacity. Even if not, allow for a good deal of "breathing room" in selecting the power capacity of the unit you choose.

[ciaranob]

Thanks for this Makes a lot of sense and indeed that does not seem exorbitant - my situation is simpler and I'd likely save a grand or two as lines are in place with really only the furnace and water heater - we have a gas fireplace but are considering dropping it in an ongoing major renovation (opportune time to consider, hence the question)

Cheers, C.

Originally Posted by zx10guy

.......... I think I ended up paying around $11k for the entire generator install.