Your experience with whole-house generators

In My Humble Opinion
1

With a heavy winter and lots of snow being predicted for the North Shore of Boston this winter, we are considering having a whole-house backup generator installed. Our house is small, only 1,500 square feet, but we have some big draws: electric stove/oven, electric dryer, and the biggest item, a 4,000-watt snow melt system for the driveway, which is steeply inclined up to the street level.

We we upgrade to 200-amp service when we put in a mini-split heat pump system two years ago, but we use the mini-split units primarily for cooling in the summer, and spot heating in spring and summer. So that system probably wouldn’t come into play in a winter power outage. We have a gas-fired boiler for hot water and house heating via radiators.

We also have solar panels on the roof and all the interior and exterior sub-panels and breaker boxes that go with that. I’m a bit concerned about where we’ll be able to place the transfer switch.

It looks like a system in the 20,000-24,000-watt range should work fine, with an installed cost in the neighborhood of $10,000. We can afford this, and are not considering bare-bones, portable, gasoline-powered generators, even though they would be much less expensive. The inconvenience of hauling it out of the garage and connecting it during a big snow storm, to say nothing of refueling and maintaining it, make it a non-starter. Please don’t bother to suggest it.

So I’m interested in your experiences selecting, installing, and living with whole-house systems, and any tips, lessons, pitfalls, or recommendations you can tell me about.

Thanks.

2

I live in Northwest Montana where we have five solid months of winter. In my first home here I put in a propane-powered Generac that ran roughly half the house, including important things like lights, internet, and TV. I had a gas fireplace that kept everything warm enough for us inside.

Since we lived out of town, and there were miles of overhead power lines between us and the transfer station, when I built the house I wanted to make sure if there was a big storm we wouldn’t be without power for days.

The generator required regular maintenance that I performed every spring, and never failed to work when needed. In the 11 years we lived there, there were five times the generator kicked in, and only a few of those times did it run for more than a few hours before power was restored, however, I remember one outage that lasted 11 hours!

A few years ago we moved to a house closer to town, in a neighborhood with underground utilities, that didn’t have a generator. I don’t miss it and haven’t regretted not having one over the last four years.

3

I live in a neighborhood with a lot of tall, mature trees. We experience power outages very regularly, and because the neighborhood is pretty small, we’re usually last in the list for the utility trucks to come restore power. Most everyone I know has either a portable generator, or a whole-house generator.

I am not aware of any whole house generators in my neighborhood that are not Generac brand. (For the record, I just have a portable generator - a whole-house isn’t in our current budget). The 3 houses behind and to the side of me all have Generacs - they seem incredibly reliable - they all cycle on at the exact same time for their maintenance loop (every first Friday, maybe?), they all switch on for our outages, and their owners are all thrilled with them.

4

Select a brand that you can get reliably serviced by a local company. My parents had one and they had difficulty getting someone to fix it, which caused all sorts of problems. No point spending $10k on an emergency device that doesn’t work in an emergency.

You may want to spend some of your money on going to a gas fired dryer and oven, that would at least lighten the load on the generator, maybe let you downsize without impacting your overall utility.

If you’re using propane, you may need a larger tank, you should check how long the generator can run on a full tank, given the loads you expect to handle.

5

A friend has one for his whole house. He was telling me about how much he loves it, but complained that it is supposed to be seamless, and it is not. His wife jumped in to tell me that if he blink you miss the switchover.

Personally, I can’t see the necessity. Our power outages are always 2-8 hours, and almost always in the winter. I start a fire in the fireplace (the only time it is used) and we treat it as an adventure.

6

I just heard about a power company who is installing batteries in customer’s homes to deal with power outages (gift link):

I think it’s an interesting idea. The power company can tell the batteries when to charge up, so they can charge during times of low system usage. Then if the system has high load or has outages, the batteries can fill in. For someone considering a whole-house generator, perhaps a battery+solar system might be a viable alternative. I’m not sure if the needs of the OP could be met with batteries, but they might work out for other situations.

7

Meaning that because of the underground lines you don’t have outages as much or at all? Or because you can get along with brief outages without too much difficulty.

Our family has owned this house for 63 years, but my wife and I have only been here, taking care of her 87-year-old mother, who has dementia, for two-and-a-half years. So we don’t have much first-hand experience on how often or how long winter outages can occur here.

My brother-in-law is concerned that in an emergency involving his mother, having the generator would be a good thing, and since she can afford to pay for it, we’d be happy to have it, too.

I am looking mostly at Generacs. There is a local Generac dealer, but I intend to see what the difference in price would be between dealer-installed, and buying one at Home Depot and having our regular electrician install it. Purchase price seems to be the same from both. Presumably the dealer will service it even if they don’t install it. Warranty terms might be different, I suppose.

Any thoughts/advice on that question?

8

That’s an interesting point, and one I’ll have to look into. Thanks!

9

Me either. But hey, to each their own.

I installed a 120/240 V, 30 A receptacle inside our house, and it’s near an outside door. When the electric goes out, I simply turn off the main breaker and then connect my 4000 W Honda generator to the receptacle using a cable I made. Works like a charm, though I do have to perform some “load shedding”; I only power things I consider essential (well pump, refrigerator, furnace if winter, etc.). It’s not exactly a “legal” setup, obviously, so I don’t recommend others to do this. :slight_smile:

10

The old suicide cable, eh?

Definitely not “legal”.

11

Correct. “Don’t try this at home, kids.” :smile:

12

I’ve spoken to people who’ve had whole-house generators who were very happy with them, but often they only power part of the house. That snow melt system, for example, might complicate your emergency power equation.

The usual method is to determine which items are most critical to you (water pump, heat, etc.) and only power those. Maybe that snow-melt system is something you consider critical, maybe not. Making those decisions will affect price and installation.

13

This was my approach except I put an interlock in the electrical panel on a 50 amp breaker to make it all legal. I got an 11K watt dual fuel generator and installed it in a small metal shed behind the house and a 25foot extension cord. It still won’t power everything in the house mainly because I have two mini-splits for A/C and heat. If I have to use the generator I won’t have both units on at the same time. I will turn off as much as possible to save fuel. It’s not as seamless as an automatic whole system but cost a small fraction of the price.

14

Well, then, where in the heck are we supposed to try it?

mmm

15

Meaning we rarely have outages now because there are no power line/tree issues to deal with in my neighborhood. We did have one six-hour outage last year when someone skidded off the road and struck a power pole a few miles from my home, but besides that it really hasn’t been an issue so far.

We had ours installed when we built the house, so our contractor purchased it and the electrician, who we were already working with, installed it. Having to retrofit an existing house may present some challenges, but any qualified electrician should be able to handle it. I’m guessing that Home Depot hires a local electrician to do the install just as you would, and then adds on a few percent to the price to cover their costs, such as delivery etc.

Your local Generac dealer should be happy to service it, for a price, but you need to verify that with them. You absolutely want to make sure the standard warranty still applies no matter where you buy it and that the local dealer will honor it. I can’t think of a reason why they wouldn’t honor it regardless of where you purchased it or who installed it.

16

My experience is simply reports from people I’ve known who installed one:

  • The generator is typically located close enough to the house that the noise it makes soon becomes annoying.
  • Failing to run the generator at least every six months or so is an invitation for it to fail when needed.
  • Storing enough fuel to last through a longish outage may prove challenging.
  • The per-hour net of capital, maintenance and operational costs is substantial.
17

I’m not sure how you came up with such a large system (20,000W). I have a Onan 6500w, natural gas fueled portable. I installed a gas outlet in the garage where I hook up the genny as needed. I’m not recommending a portable just questioning the need for so much power. My big load is the 15,000 btu A/C and it runs that and all the needed lights just fine.

18

Your friends seem not to have the kind of permanent, whole-house generator I’m considering.

  • It is permanently mounted in a sound-insulated case that is rated for 66 dB at three meters.
  • It automatically self-tests briefly once a week.
  • It is permanently connected to natural gas.

I haven’t spoken to a pro yet about sizing the system. I believe that the biggest ones simply connect to the main breaker panel and will power anything in the house, whereas some smaller systems are set up only to power certain critical circuits.

I’m not sure about the snow melt system. First, we only installed it last spring, so it’s never been used in a real snowfall. So we have no experience with how well or how quickly it clears the driveway. Second, it’s obviously the biggest power draw in the house. Do we include it or not?

It’s possible to imagine a medical emergency in which getting a car out of the driveway right now would be essential, but what are the odds of that happening during a major snowfall, and still being able to get to the hospital when an ambulance couldn’t?

If we can power every circuit in the house and the system is sized large enough to operate most necessities, we could trade off using the dryer or oven vs. melting snow.

I wonder if the electric company (or some other source) has a history of outages in our neighborhood that could be a guide for predicting how often and how long are the outages we can expect to experience.

19

I have a 1400 ft^2 house that is all electric: baseboard electric heat, electric water heater and dryer and stove, well with electric pump. We’ve lost power for as long as 11 days straight.

I bought a portable 10,000 W Generac gasoline generator, and a 50’ extension cord for it that is a little difficult for me to lift. I had a professional electrician install an outdoor box with a male receptacle to mate with the female plug on the cord (though it took some arguing to get it done that way as the crew he assigned to do it the first time insisted there was no such thing as male receptacles or female plugs).

I had them connect this inlet to my main breaker panel with a 50 A breaker, and there’s a mechanical interlock so the main 200 A breaker and the generator’s 50 A breaker cannot both be switched on simultaneously. Thus I cannot zap linemen out of their buckets and the whole deal is legal. I think this is a better setup than what folks usually recommend, choosing several critical circuits and rewiring them through a dedicated subpanel. My reasoning is that a summer outage and a winter outage have very different needs, and maybe unforeseen needs will come up too. With my setup, I can run absolutely anything as long as my total wattage is enough.

I have 5 cans for gasoline, 5 gallon size, Eagle brand. I have a shaker siphon. For my car I have a hitch and a platform that goes into it, and can carry 3 cans outside my car so I don’t spill fuel inside the car. I also have a diesel tractor and similar cans for it, so there’s a reason I have this setup beyond just for the generator.

I’ve run this system for outages and learned a few things:
It’s OK and keeps the house liveable, but it is a pain in the ass.
I don’t use it for the first hour or so of power loss because it’s not worth it and the power usually comes back on in a few minutes or maybe an hour.
It runs about 12 hours on a tank of gas (10 g).
It’s not all that noticeable to live with. We don’t hear it much in the house. In the summer I turn off all the baseboard electric heating and the hot water heater and the dryer. Water and refrigeration and window air conditioners all run and all our receptacles are powered. I haven’t tripped any breakers yet. No experience with winter, though I have a strategy in mind.
Keeping all the cans full and cycling gasoline through them to keep it fresh is ridiculously difficult – it has to be practically a hobby or something – I wound up letting it get several years old but it still seems to work OK. When I fill them I leave as little air as possible in the top of the can, and I add “Sta-Bil”. If I had a diesel generator it would be easier, as I have a diesel fuel caddy, diesel stores better, and I run through maybe 30 gallons a year in the tractor. I run the generator long enough to get hot every few months when I think of it, if I haven’t actually used it.

I spent $3000 on the generator and the electrician installed panel system. It would ABSOLUTELY be much nicer and simpler to have an automatic system, preferably propane, automatic periodic starts, and some kind of a maintenance contract. Maybe more wattage, too.

20

Are you sure about this cost? A couple of months ago I did some research into getting a whole-house natural gas generator, and got a quote for having a Generac installed for $24,000. My house is larger than yours but think the wattage I was looking at was similar. The guy said it would have been higher but in my case they would have been able to place the generator very close to the main electric panel, reducing cabling costs. This was still way out of my price range for the once or twice a year that we lose power for a few hours.