Back Up Home Generator Question

With the frequent outages we've been experiencing, the wife and I are researching generator options. It's a hot blooded topic for me as our electricity provider is the only game in town so they don't mind killing us on rates while they do a piss poor job of maintaining their lines and equipment. That being said, I'm sick of pulling out our little portable and 4-5 extension cords everytime the power goes out.

Generac has skyrocketed in price so that's not an option but I did have a nice chat with the salesman (fellow vet & metal music lover). The option most appealing to us is the semi-portable generator that can crank out 10-13k watts with a minor flip of a switch at the electrical box.

We are looking at the Duromax line up and our electrician even recommended them to us. We would probably do the XP13000HXT as it is also natural gas friendly. We don't currently have NG but that'll be rectified soon (specifically for the generator). I plan to primarily run it on gasoline but in an extreme case, when gas is in short supply, it'll be nice to fall back on another ready fuel supply.

Has anyone had first hand experience with them? TIA

 

I don't have any experience with this particular brand. If you want to read reviews on them, Home Depot and Tractor Supply both sell this brand. I have a Coleman and a Cat. We just had a panel upgrade and transfer switch installed in May.

 

I have been mulling the same questions, in for the answers!

 

Yeah I've read quite a few reviews. Pretty sure we are in but I had to throw it out to the Tundra crowd for a final verdict.

 

Those are selling like hot cakes on a cold evening!! supposed to be a nice setup. A couple a bit older than us with health issues just went this route, because they need to keep meds cold.

 

Well we'd do more than that with it as I'm looking to actually power a lot of our home with it. The electrician seems to think the 15000W will easily handle powering our central air and major appliances.

 

There is a chart that shows the average wattage and starting wattage for AC and appliances. It would give you a good idea on what you can run.

 

Something that may be very helpful also is to do online complaint forms with your public utilities commission. If the problem is tree trimming in right of ways, the complaints registered with them go straight back to the power company. Trust me, you will get calls back from the power company. They DO NOT like bad press from the utilities commission. as often as they go to them for rate increases, they like things to be calm. Keep track of the outages and the duration of each, and use that in your complaint. Has worked for me several times here in Ohio, when they failed to keep the right of ways clear. They had to go back in and clear it more to do the correct clearances. Just my two cents worth!!

 

In for the answers too
@Tundra234 How's that Kat work? I've seen someone down the road have one. It peaks over the wall and has me interested in 1. It's probably expensive. Does it keep your whoke house operating?

 

Wife filed a complaint with the PUC after the last outage. The provider did respond specifically to their email.

 

The Generac salesman gave me a read on our load so I've a good idea.

 

The dual fuel units are junk. All of them. Hard to start and unreliable for a potentially life-saving piece of equipment. They might be able to run both, but not very well.

 

It works fine. It's a solid generator. Mine is 6500 running watts and 8125 starting watts.

 

This is what I have with a transfer switch. Push button start. I fire it up 10 minutes every 2 weeks without any issues. Have used it to power a lot of the house. Just to confirm what we can run. Haven’t *needed* yet (of course).

 

Generac are not meant to run for long periods of time. I went with Kohler.

If you look at most businesses like Home Depot and Lowes they use Kohler generators.

Got a 5 year warranty and service plan.
Financing available through Lowes. If that’s an option.

 

Air or liquid cooled? Liquid was gonna start at under $14k for us.

 

air cooled

 

How many Kw?

 

Since it’s fed with NG it’s rated at 18,000 kw if I go with propane it would be 20,000 kw

 

We ran a 4KW portable on two "suicide cords" for twenty years and who knows how many hurricanes. It easily powered all the lights, ceiling fans, fridge, freezer, TV, computers ... anything 120 volt. But it was an unsafe arrangement, and couldn't power the well pump let alone the AC.

Finally after the last storm we decided to grow up just a little. It was a bad one, with no power for six days and no gasoline available for at least four or five.

While we could technically afford a whole-home genset, the problem was the FUEL. Anything that can power central air is gonna GUZZLE fuel, even when it's just idling. We don't have natgas, so it was either keep about two dozen gasoline cans in the shed or bring in a LARGE propane tank, if we wanted to be prepared for a week without power. Neither sounded like a good option.

We gave up on central air.

I bought a 6250W Champion brand "inverter generator" as a compromise, and ran a (semi) legit power feed through the main breaker box. The most crucial thing we have gained is, now we can power the well pump. (Turns out, running water kicks ASS.) I put a little window-shaker AC unit in the spare bedroom, so in a pinch there is always a nice cold room to sleep in, at the very least.

Dollar for dollar invested, it's a pretty sweet spot. But me being me, I'll want a little 2KW Honda as a backup. LOL

 

Honestly, if it was just me I'd be fine with all that but when there are kids involved, and my wife, well, I need to make sure they're comfortable. I don't need the whole house powered and manually controlling load is doable which is why spending $13-17k seems like massive overkill.

 

I may have lucked out. When I built, I had it wired for it and bought the transfer switch. A year later I bought our generac 22kw standby on a labor day sale and it was around $6k and run it on propane. No NG available, and we have propane running our water heater, stove, and fire place.
Our power at the time wasn't very reliable. It has worked great for us! I don't have to worry if I'm home to help start it, get up in middle of night, go outside in a storm to crank up, etc.
I have ours run every other Saturday morning for 15 minutes. I've run it (not intentionally) for 36 hours after hurricane Laura and we evacuated. Lucky my neighbor has the same kind, so his key fits mine (typical universal key) and he went and shut it down for me. I just recently changed the battery.
Very happy with the purchase personally.

 

If you want to have seamless living then I’d just pony up for a whole home and be done with it. Power goes out; automatically kicks on.

If you’re going portable to save dough then I’d strongly suggest considering what you really need to power and what you don’t. Do you really need that A/C? Generators get pretty damn heavy when you enter the 9000w and up size. And that’s with the wheel kit and everything. As others have mentioned you’re going to be guzzling fuel.

Little tip, skip the transfer switch and go interlock. They’re easier to install and gives you the option of running every circuit in the house, not just the ones you pre-selected when wiring in the transfer switch. Made that mistake at my parents old house and won’t repeat it. Only thing is you need to watch how much load you’re running and make sure it’s balanced. Same goes with a transfer switch too.

If you have natural gas at your house it usually makes things much easier. Dryer, furnace, stove, hot water, all can be operated with little or no electricity at that point. Parents had all gas appliances and a 9500w at their old home. Was way overkill. Think the most they ever pulled was 3400w and that was with pretty much everything on. I just made a startup procedure, laminated it, and zip tied it to the generator. Dad never had a problem following it and getting the power switched over.

During a natural disaster it pays to have natural gas, propane, or solar. But hydro takes the cake.. water and electricity wrapped in one

 

Yes. I have a 13000w Duromax. I wired an inlet box to my electrical box with a 50 amp double pole breaker and an interlock switch. It powers all my lights, external freezer, refrigerator and one a/c unit with no problem at all. I’ve had to run it several days in a row with no issues at all. Mine was only dual fuel but I converted it to natural gas.

 

I love that structure you built there. I'm saving your pic. That's precisely what I need.

 

for what it's worth:

both are running on Nat Gas.

I run a 18kw Briggs & Stratton at the house.

22kw Generac at the lake.

both do the job.

the B&S has the Vulcan twin...better engine.

the Generac has better genset...smoother voltage.

the generac has had more "technical" problems.

the B&S is like the Tundra....no bells and Whistles...it just keeps on running.

if you are gonna run nice equipment on these gensets, get a good UPC as a buffer.

 

Is there a kit you used for the conversion? Awesome shelter you rigged up - does it trip the CO monitor?

 

I was perusing Lowe's app the other night and noticed a few B&S, Champion, and Kohler choices. Makes me wonder why ppl go through Generac dealers at all if they can buy the generator for so much less through these mass retail stores unless it's the one stop shop appeal via Generac dealers (not having to piece the electrician side of it together).

 

I know you said Generac is too expensive, but that's what we use at all of our cellular sites as power backup. They are deadass reliable so long as you keep up maintenance and it has fuel. Propane is what we run ours on and if I ever get a home generator I'm going that route. Ours run a 20 minute exercise cycle every week to make sure it all works and out of the hundreds we have deployed we have very few failures. When we do get a failure 99% of the time it is because maintenance was slacked on so it needs an oil change, battery swap, or the propane ran out. Once in a blue moon a control unit will die, but it's so infrequent that I don't think I'd worry about it.