# generac standby



## lblax (Jan 12, 2016)

I'm thinking of getting a generac standby I have a small home with just the typical stuff my furnace water heater and stove are all gas my 2 big power consumers will be the well pump 1/2 horse power and a 3 ton ac unit . I had one electrician come in and check my power needs and he said that a 8000 watt would be sufficient and that if I wanted to run the ac I would have to shut off the well pump so that it wouldn't cycle during the ac( this isn't a prob. I don't mind shutting some things off to save on initial cost and most of our power outages are in the winter) I had another electrician tell me that even if I got the 11000 watt it might not possibly start the ac unit. the problem is once I go past the 11000 watt series it is getting out of our price range I would like to hear from some guys out there that have standby generators what they are running off them and size you know just some real life experiance


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## exmar (Jun 29, 2015)

( this isn't a prob. I don't mind shutting some things off to save on initial cost and most of our power outages are in the winter)

Didn't you answer your own question? Worst case scenario, summer outage, you sweat. If it's a concern for health issues, you might consider getting a window unit, they're relatively cheap. Certainly cheaper than going above an 11KW unit.


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## KRE (Nov 29, 2011)

Cheap price point units are costly on the back side.


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## Dan N. (Jul 23, 2015)

Here’s my story.
In 2012 after I got tired losing power for several hours here and there, I went to Home depot to buy a generator, just a portable one to plug in the fridge and the TV or something. The guy at home depot was great. Everyone’s situation is different. The price for a generator big enough to run what I wanted was about a $1000. More critical than price than was the fact that someone had to be home to hook it up to run the sump pump in the event of an outage in a storm. In Lighting, wind, rain, I’m not going out in that to hook up the generator, if I’m at work, I don’t want my wife out there either. From a cost standpoint, the backup type was not that much more expensive than I would have thought. 
I’m all electric with 200 amp service. My furnace alone is 14 KW, on emergency heat because when it’s below 35 degrees the heat pump is not efficient. No natural gas available in my area. I opted to go with the 14KW with the 14 circuit transfer switch on propane. Installed in 2012 about a week after install a wind storm brought down high voltage power poles for about 3 days. This was in June. I had a window air conditioner that was hooked to the generator, and that is the only thing that kept us from melting!
That got me thinking about the winter and not having my furnace on the generator, so I bought one of the electric fire places that was about 1,500 watts and would keep us warm till the main power was back on. About a month later, in the evening hours my wife had just started dinner and the power went off, and the stove was not hooked to the generator so we lost the stove. We waited about 20 minutes then decided to go to McDonalds’ about 1 mile away and there were cars everywhere, the drive thru was out on the main road about quarter mile. “Traffic nightmare” I then decided that we need to get a set of the burners that are the electric counter top type so we could use cook top burners or a griddle to make food. 
I sat on the idea for a year about getting a bigger generator and did a lot of research on bigger generators and the ups and downs, etc. I then found out the company that installed my 14 didn’t have much of an idea on their parts and products. My research had me talking to Generac Dealers and Installers that made the process much more understandable and reasonable. So we decided to go ahead and have the 22KW installed with the PMM’s. That would run the entire house with the proper overload protections. At this time the 22 was and still is the biggest air cooled unit Generac makes. After you go to then next up size it is liquid cooled and you add another $5000 right off the top on the units cost. The 22kw installed was $7500 and the 14Kw installed $5500. A couple thousand dollars is not much at all to go from managed to whole house. The mistake was not having a Generac Dealer in the first case. I saw the big backup generator at home depot and so I thought I’d buy it from them and hire an electrician to install. When the electric came that I ended up choosing to do the job, said they could also buy the generator from their suppler, so that is what we did. They would not cover warranty work if I bought it from Home Depot.
I went to Generac’s website and looked up the dealers; selected 4 then went to the BBB and looked up their record there, went to the attorney generals website looking for any records, then went to the city code/permitting office and looked up the records for permits to install generators for those companies to see their success rate in pass or fail. In doing that I believe I got the absolute best installers in my area for the job. Their bedside manners could use some fine tuning but they were spot on for knowing what they were doing.
If I could help anyone, I would suggest getting the facts, a few estimates and decide based off their record of the company you’re working with. It may not be as expensive as your thinking to get the bigger generator installed. In the long run, it could be more cost effective to go with the bigger one. Just do your due diligence on selecting a company that knows their business.


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## Enigma-2 (Mar 18, 2016)

We have a Briggs & Stratton "Storm Responder", 5500 watt run, 8250 watt surge.

Have gas furnace, water heater and range (spark igniter). 240 volt, 3/4 hp in-well water pump, over the range microwave, coffee pot, computers, etc. 

During an outage (power was out yesterday - squirrel ), I wheel the gen set out of the garage onto the back covered patio, hook the 25 ft. power cord to the 30 amp exterior receptacle, start the generator, go down to the basement, turn off the main braker, and flip on the 30 amp braker controlling the gen feed (uses a Square D interlock to prevent both from being on at the same time). The only circuit I turn off is the air conditioner. 

I can make coffee, run the microwave, televisions, computers, furnace, gas range, lights and water pump without problems. (Although I do hear the generator go to surge when the water pump kicks on).

The mechanical interlock is the cheapest and simplist way to switch power. Cost less than $10, plus the 30 braker, 10 ga NM cable and the outside recept. Plus you can decide which circuits you want on.

I also use a Reliance Power Back to tell me when line power comes back on.


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