bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

I use a 10kw Lincoln welder as a backup power source as well as a 2kw Honda generator. The 10kw for full house power and the 2kw unit for just fridges/freezers/electronics.

bwa

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I have had a whole house Generac for several years now and love it. I highly recommend it! I don't think you can go wrong with a Generac unit.

tabascoman Loc: Crosby Texas

I had a Generac put in a year ago & I Love It. What I would say is get a little more than what you need. I could have gotten a 20 KW and it would be good if I didn't go in the shop & turn on the AC, so I got 24 KW & I can do whatever I want to at any given time. You can go to a third party like a hardware store & that will be about $ 3000.00 or $ 4000.00 more time it all said & done. You can go to the Generac Store & that will be about $ 2000.00 more time it all said & done. The Generac Store has a third party to do the installing & it just so happens that's what my friend does for them. You will need to decide where you want it to be, that's the easy part. Now it starts getting into your pocket. You & your Electrician are good with the spot you picked ( close to the Breaker Box as possible ). The Electrician Contractor will pour a concrete slab for it to sit on & be tied down to. The Natural Gas Meter & Regulator will have to be replaced ( may require a permit, you need to know who is going to pay for that ) and a gas line will need to be put underground to the generator ( I had them go under the big roots of my tree, not just cut them ). The Electrician Contractor will need to route the electoral line to the Switch Panel Box & then hook the Switch Panel Box up to your Breaker Box. The Electrician Contractor will make sure the Natural Gas Regulator is set right & ready to run, you can pick how much time you want to sit in the dark when the power goes off like 20,40,45 seconds or 1, 5, minutes or more before the generator comes on. You will be asked, when would it be a time to have the generator to come on for 5 minutes & run to keep the battery, ( I picked 12:00 noon on Saturday when it comes on I know it's noon ) you can also have an app in your phone as well. P.S. Don't use a card to pay for it, if you pay cash you probably save about $ 200.00 I hope this helps you & others as well.

Tman Loc: Texas

Got a Generac 24k about two years ago. Was a little costly but I think it was worth it. If you do pursue this I would recommend a maintenance package; don't just let the unit sit there without checking oil level, battery condition etc on occasion. This should include monitoring device that sends you text/email if unit is or has been running and reason. It also lets you know if it detects problems (battery/oil etc).

tabascoman Loc: Crosby Texas

Yes you are so right. I just forgot to say anything about that. What all I did say was long enough. I got a little bigger than I needed so my next door neighbors can run a line over to run a fan & there Icebox. I Love mine just pace of mine.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

neillaubenthal

Down here in SW FL…when we moved out of the RV into a house we kept the Honda 2000 watt genny portable fro pm the RV. When Ian came through we were out of power for 4 days…but the Honda for 2 hours twice a day kept the freezer frozen and the fridge cold and recharged our phones with plenty of power to spare…in the 4 days we used about 3 gallons of gas. We have friends that have whole house generators but they paid $25K+ for them and the Honda was about $800. The whole house ones require either a natural gas hookup (almost non existent in FL) or a really big propane tank…we found the cost/benefit of the Nonda to make it ideal.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

bwa

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

My whole house Generac cost about $8000. I have a 2500 sq ft house. The only thing I can't do with it is run the oven and the dryer at the same time. No big deal.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Those small, quiet Hondas are great portable generators - they are available in 2000 and 3300 watt models. Both of my sons have them.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I have my Generac for about 10 years. It runs every week for about 10 minutes . The reason it runs every week is so the points (not on the motor but the points on the generator stays clean and working). I had a portable generator (on wheels) that I checked out all the time to be sure it started and had fresh gas, but never thought to see if the voltage was working. I later found that the generator points gad gotten fouled up and the motor ran but the generator did not. That is when I went to a Generac.
The setting up PROPERLY is costly to do it right.

Lucasdv123

Read the lawsuit generac in involved in.just saying.we have ng for most everything except for the dryer.when we had that freeze in Texas I turned on my 12 year old 3500 watts gasoline champion Generator. The inside of our house was 58 degrees and going down.i finally was able to connect the blower and thermostat to our generator and as soon as I heard the pilot light come on I knew we had kicked it in the but since my heater is ng.in 30 minutes we had our home at 74 degrees.We ran it for 4 days.We have bought a new champion hybrid inverter 3500 continues watts.it can run 2 ac window units for around 1200 watts of usage.The fridge about 1500 watts and a few lights in case of a hurricane.if I was to get a whole house generator it would have to be a champion.Westinghouse,Kohler,and Cummings are great too ,but are rather high on the price.you need to read extensively on all the top whole house generators and read as many reviews as you can possibly read.if you are going to invest $6000 - $8000 on a whole house generator do your homework. You won't regret it.make sure you get one with a transfer switch that comes with it .it will be cheaper buy them together.good luck.

Lucasdv123

One other thing when considering any generator. Make sure the noise level is below 70 dbs.you don't want a noisy generator .you won't be able to sleep and you neighbors won't like your noise.its bad enough that they have to listen to the noise but they also don't have electricity.i usually grab a heavy extension cord and throw it over the fence to the older neighbor so they can at least have some coffee or I will offer my now 14 year old champion generator. It still runs great.if you don't use your gasoline powered portable generator make sure you shut off the gas supply valve under the tank and let it come to a complete stop.ethenal and aluminum ( the carborator) don't play well with each other.if you don't do that the gasoline will cog up your carborator.make sure you don't let it run out of gas then shut it off cause if you tilt the generator it has a little fuel in the tank and will fill the carborator thus ruining it.if you do run out of fuel refill it and start it up then shut the gas valve off till it stops running. Good luck.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

We have a 20Kw Generac that powers everything in the house. We bought it as our electric grid became a lot less reliable after Hurricane Sandy.

Highly recommend Generac, although the maintenance is costly it's worth it.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Can you tell us more about the maintenance please? What is done and the cost?