Whole Home Generator Size

[TexasBob]

I'm about to pull the trigger on one at Home Depot- 24kw or 26kw. Price difference is only $500 but am I getting much more? Motor is the same, will be run off natural gas. By my math its an extra 6is amps. Not much, but anyone have a fact based opinion if its worthwhile?

[Txhunter3000]

It depends on what you need to run the house. The bigger they are the more fuel they use.

[TxMedic]

Not sure how big your house is or what you are wanting to run with the generator…we ended up with a 22kw Generac. House is ~2700sqft. It runs the HVAC, refrigerators/freezers and some lights with a burn rate of about 1-1.5 gallons per hour. We looked at a 26kw and what you gain in amps, you lose in fuel consumption.

[TX_Kevin]

Ours is a 22kW Generac and our house is a 4210 square foot two story. I can't see an instance when we have been underpowered. And it has gotten quite a bit of use.

[HOOKNBULLET2]

Better to have it and not need it. $500 over the life of the unit is not a lot of money.

[TxMedic]

Better to have it and not need it. $500 over the life of the unit is not a lot of money.

But the burn rate is much higher than the added amps would lead you to believe…depending on needs and size of your fuel tank, I personally feel like it’s a waste.

[bboswell]

Is your stove, oven, water heater gas or electric?

We have a 20kw on a 3300sf home, it runs both AC's and any appliance in the house easily but we have gas stove, oven and water heaters.

[TheWidowMaker]

I'd keep an eye out for Tractor Supply or Nothern Tool sales. They'll do 10% off on Generac somewhat often it seemed like. I think my 26kW Generac was $1000 off when I bought it and it was shipped to my house. Our home is all electric and I'm running it off a propane tank. Only thing it struggles with is when the heat strips kicked on. I added a soft start to our outside unit and turned a breaker off so only 2 of the 4 heat strips come on and it has no problem carrying this load. Also, the advertised kW are for propane. Natural gas will yield less kW due to less BTU's.

[TexasBob]

Thanks all. Home depot has basically $1k off the 24 and 26kw units right now. I'll go 24kw. Home is gas range and water heater. I'm also fine not running everything, but A/C and fridges are a must along with pool pumps as needed. Gas heat so that wont be an issue (ran off my predator 3500 during the crazy freeze a few years ago)

[S-3 Ranch]

Thanks all. Home depot has basically $1k off the 24 and 26kw units right now. I'll go 24kw. Home is gas range and water heater. I'm also fine not running everything, but A/C and fridges are a must along with pool pumps as needed. Gas heat so that wont be an issue (ran off my predator 3500 during the crazy freeze a few years ago)

Speaking of the crazy freeze, I hope you are on city gas , because our burn rate was pretty much incompatible with delivery, the fuel supplier was unable to deliver, and when they did it was never a full 80% fill up ( more like 20%)
so the combination of gas heating and generator will use up a 500gallon tank in days

[TxBowHntr]

I went with the 24KW, but that was the biggest air cooled option at the time. If I had to do it again, I would have gotten the 26KW. As some have said before, better to have it... Since you are on natural gas line, fuel consumption isn't an issue, and the difference will not be too great. Our house is 3200sq.ft., 2 story, 2 ac units, couple of fridges and freezers.

[RMW]

I’ve got a Cummins 40kw with a 1000 gallon tank buried underground. I’d get a little bigger than you need, less strain on the unit.

[SaltwaterSlick]

I’ve got a Cummins 40kw with a 1000 gallon tank buried underground. I’d get a little bigger than you need, less strain on the unit.

OH Lawdy, Lawdy!! I like that!!
I've started the process of getting a unit spec'd, purchased and installed... In my marine engineering days, we had Onan MG Sets, and I used to know how to work on them, but that was a long time ago... I'm a Cummins fan boy as well as Onan... I had it all figger'd out back at the last big Feb. freeze, but since we'd never lost power here since we bought the place back in 2015, didn't really think I'd need it. We did fine in the Winter storms, and never lost power during all the recent hurricanes (Harvey and Ismelda)... Well this past week, we were down for a bit over 24 hours...
So I kicked my project back into high gear/top priority... I had decided on a Cummins/Onan 24KW liquid cooled unit (want to avoid the air cooled 3600 rpm units), but reading on their web site, they've discontinued that unit!
Hard to find a liquid cooled unit in the 22-25KW range... We have 3 big freezers, 2 refrigerators, 3 A/C units, a pool, as well as the 3 water heaters, range/oven and such... We're all electric... If I ran everything, I'd need a 30+KW unit, but can get by with a 22-25 if I take out non-essentials...
We'd be on propane too... Have good service out here from multiple suppliers. They continued their service all during the big Feb. Deepfreeze. Only thing that would stop them practically is flooding.

[glen]

I just built a house and we bought a 17kw Generac. It will run everything we need when we need it. I wouldn’t just say bigger is always better when it comes to generators. The consumption rate is a consideration

[tps7742]

We have a 22kv (C3 fuel) and our house is a little shy of 3100 sq ft. And have had it going on 6.6 years and no issues so far.