A friend building near Bryan got an $8,000 quote for a whole house Generac system. I wired ours for our portable gen. with mechanical interlock, dedicated breaker, etc. and it will run what is "needed" in an emergency. We have propane heat and the gen. will run the fan motors. Cost was approximately $200 plus the gen., which I already had.
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Last week I had a 24kw Generac whole house generator installed. It has the automatic transfer switch and the generator starts automatically when the power goes out. Its runs on propane and is hooked up to my 500gallon propane tank.
It was a really nice feeling when the power went out at 2am last night and the generator fired up about 5 seconds later and transferred power to the house without having to get out of bed with negative temps outside.
I live outside of town and we are usually the last ones to get power. Last year we were out of power for 4 days in freezing temps and I didn't want to deal with that again.
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Originally posted by JTCowpoke View PostLast week I had a 24kw Generac whole house generator installed. It has the automatic transfer switch and the generator starts automatically when the power goes out. Its runs on propane and is hooked up to my 500gallon propane tank.
It was a really nice feeling when the power went out at 2am last night and the generator fired up about 5 seconds later and transferred power to the house without having to get out of bed with negative temps outside.
I live outside of town and we are usually the last ones to get power. Last year we were out of power for 4 days in freezing temps and I didn't want to deal with that again.
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Originally posted by Mudslinger View PostI already have a 250 gallon propane tank that supplies the stove and and tankless hot water heater and the company that fills the tank is less than 5 miles away!
The suggestions have been awesome. I just need to decide which way to go. Definitely do not need a full house version as it is just the wife, the dog and I. House is big but we use less than 30% of it on a daily basis and during the day, lights are not need most of the time due to our plethora of windows.
Rocket, I will be calling for sure!
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Originally posted by Arrowsmith View PostYou can put together a functional system for less than 2K.
10,000 - 12,000 watt Duel Fuel or straight gas generator $1000 to $1200
Exterior generator plug $75.00
Panel interlock switch $100.00
Surge Protector (highly recommend) $75.00
Electrician to tie plug into panel and install surge protector and interlock switch $300 to $500. You can do this yourself but I would let an electrician do it.
You can run everything you need to run off this set up and not spend 10 grand. Plus it is fairly simple install that does not take a lot of retrofitting.
Look Here:
Watch this short video. This will help explain.
This is the system we have. Our Generator is a Champion Duel Fuel 10,000/8000 watt (10,000 start up/8000running watts). The interlock switch device is specific to your panel. For example Square D, GE, Eaton, etc. and per model number of your specific panel. You turn all your breakers off and then power up either what you need or what your generator will run.
Interlock switch kits:
Also I highly recommend that you install a surge protector that is designed for generator back up use. It will protect your electronics and motherboard in your furnace, AC, etc. I have heard of people emergency wiring their furnace for generator hook up and it burns out the controls. Most all appliances now have electronics (motherboards that dirty power will fry).
https://zerosurge.com/generator-ups/
This is why I stick around here.
Man oh man this is ingenious!!!!!!
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I have a whole house Generac guardian 22KW
With 1000 gallon propane tank for our retirement home in Brown Co.
During the first two snows we lost community power for about 4 days total
We never knew when the power was lost because it came on automatically
And when it came back on.
Great peace of mind this time while preparing for a 10 day weather systemLast edited by Big pig; 02-15-2021, 01:33 PM.
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I have a neighbor with a high dollar whole home Generac system that called me last night freaking out because the generator would start up and cut off after about 10 seconds. They thought the error light was a Low Oil condition and didn’t have any extra oil on hand. I suggested that I highly doubted that a low oil condition would shut it off before even getting warm. Come to find out the error code meant “overload”. They had to shut down some non essential breakers and were back up and running.
Interesting....since you would think a whole home backup generator would be rated for their “whole home”. 🤔
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