So, we're looking at moving this summer & our current top contender has a built in backup generator.
Knowing nothing about these, what all is needed as far as maintenance, etc?

Going to look at the house again this weekend, so I'll try to get some details on the specific model.

Maintenance is no more complicated than any small engine. Oil & filter changes. Battery replacement as necessary.

One of the key differences is ease of access for said tasks. I very much like the Kohler 15kW unit we have for that as well as overall reliability. The thing is built like a tank.

-Rob

As stated, maintenance is pretty straight forward.

Things about the installation to check on:

1. Is it autostart and autotransfer?

2. What circuits are on the generator, or is the whole house on the generator?

3. If it's whole house, is the generator capable of running the AC and/or heat at full load?

4. If not, how is load-shedding handled?

5. What is the fuel type and source?

a. Gas - Not good
b. Diesel - Better
c. Natural Gas/Propane - best, especially if you're hooked to a gas main.

6. Does it have a built-in battery maintainer/charger?

7. Is it set up to do a scheduled auto-test? Mine starts and runs weekly, including actually tripping the transfer switch and picking up the load.

8. Are there maintenance records?

Plan to pay $300-650 per year for maintenance contract or try to find service manual. Maintenance is similar to oil change, air filter, and plug change on car/tractor. Air cooled are super easy, liquid cooled, you may want to go with pro. Repairs are often expensive, some units last 15+ with no failures, some have multiple failures and last under 10 years. This is across all brands. Onan and kohler have best reputation but less authorized dealers/techs, Generac has more servicers, a good warranty, but more failures.

A Generac came with the house we bought 11 years ago and has been very useful when needed. It runs on propane and that part of it has been flawless. As Burton said, maintenance is key for the engine which is fairly easy to do. But mine has had multiple issues with electronic boards going bad which are very expensive to have the techs come out to troubleshoot and replace. I personally would not recommend a Generac, not just for the personal experience with the unit but mainly the lock on the market Generac repair shops seem to have which apparently drives up the cost of repair. Or at least that is my perception. When it's finally time to replace this one I will look closely at a Kohler.

Unfortunately the realtor on the listing used some of the photo space for concept photos of the pool that was never put in. All the listing says is:

quote:

FEATURING A STANDBY 17 kw GENERATOR

Will get some photos Saturday.
Assumption would say it's tied into the gas line for the house, but don't know for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Unfortunately the realtor on the listing used some of the photo space for concept photos of the pool that was never put in. All the listing says is:

quote:

FEATURING A STANDBY 17 kw GENERATOR

Will get some photos Saturday.
Assumption would say it's tied into the gas line for the house, but don't know for sure.

That should be an air-cooled unit. Probably a Generac as kohler I believe sells 16kw. If it's out of warranty then do the maintenance yourself. Can get the kit on Amazon for $21 and 1.5 quart of oil for $6. Most companies charge $300 to do it. They require valve adjustments which unless they give you service records you should have done. You can do it yourself with metric wrench and Allen key set. You'll also need shims to measure the gap which will be on the counter at any autozone.

Other important maintenance issue is keep vents clear of snow and leaves.

I'd pay someone to do the maintenance and valve adjustment, watch them and do the subsequent ones by yourself. That way they can advise you on age/condition. When you look at the house it's likely fed from an ATS that powers entire house. If this is the case, turn off ATS and make sure genny starts and transfers power. If it's a subset of circuits, then you turn off breaker serving those circuits (sub panel). You will want to listen for smooth sounding engine no surging or fluctuations in RPMs.

I have a 15kw unit, with xfer switch and it has been perfect! I do have it serviced, $350, but I spread the visits out to once per year and it works fine.

If you are going to get one, check out the db rating, I was 'told' the next model up was significantly quieter, and that was years after I had it installed.

I am looking at standby generators for my church. Found a Generac, 20kw, natural gas, used, locally for a good price. Then I went on line and searched reviews for this brand. It appears service and support leaves something to be desired.

Doing your own maintenance on a proven machine (successful hours on the machine) should be OK. In my case, I am looking at other brands.

When I was shopping for a generator, I had the same background information and resulting distrust of Generac products.

I wound up with a Kohler. It's been flawless. Maintenance consists of changing the oil and filter and checking the air filter every Summer. Easy-peasy.

How old is generator?
17 kw typically is whole house.
Auto transfer switch-should be on 17 kw
Generator motor is like a contained lawn mower-fuel, oil and spark plug. Oil-synthetic, so once a year oil change.
Battery- best is auto charge and weekly cycle to run generator. I replace my battery every 4-5 years cause I'm tired of replacing battery in thunderstorm.
There should be a RUN switch in the generator-see if it starts. Usually setting is auto. Transfer switch is close to generator-runs to Breaker box.

Our clients have a variety of setups, the ones I have been involved in have been Kohler NG.

Without knowing exactly what you have, it's hard to say what the maintenance is, but it's not too bad really, of the iterations I've seen.

The luxurious way is the automatic transfer down to vital circuits, but the manual options aren't too bad. I've been to a few homes with full backup of the whole panel, and frankly, that's not necessary.

Perfect timing with this thread. The house we just bought has a relatively new Generac 22kw propane which supposed to run 75% of the house... Previous owner contracted a third party to maintain the unit.

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:
Our clients have a variety of setups, the ones I have been involved in have been Kohler NG.

Without knowing exactly what you have, it's hard to say what the maintenance is, but it's not too bad really, of the iterations I've seen.

The luxurious way is the automatic transfer down to vital circuits, but the manual options aren't too bad. I've been to a few homes with full backup of the whole panel, and frankly, that's not necessary.

Having installed hundreds of them, I'd disagree with whole house coverage not being a good idea. The incremental cost is not that high to cover whole house. Also A/C is important to me at least. When sizing generators I'd ask customer what the can't live without, what they'd like, and what would be a bonus to have. Then size/price for everything and minimum items. If A/C is a must then you can cover the rest of the house usually without changing sizes. I've also had customers that want gas furnace, refrigerator, and one room with lights only. If that's the case a pre-wired ATS and sub panel combo is the way to go, or even a manual transfer switch and portable unit.

If I was doing my own house, I'd size to A/C unit, HWH, and oven. This would put me at about 15kw which would power the entire house. Another consideration is some people do whole house because they don't have physical space to put in generator panel when main panel is and they can put the ATS outside.

In my house just basics ~ $7,000
Entire house about $10,000.

If I was going to drop that kind of money, I want it all and I want to be able to host Thanksgiving while doing laundry with every light on in the house.

Autostart/Autotransfer is the bomb.

I have a 14KW and had to pick and choose just a bit. Pretty much everything except the electric dryer and the electric oven.

There are some idiosyncrasies thanks to the moron that wired the place (not me...) there are a few lights/outlets that weren't convenient to put on the generator so I have to run an extension cord to the TV and satellite box but that's a minor inconvenience.

I even have the garage AND the outbuildings (heated water for the chickens, block heater for the tractor)on it.

Pure heaven compared to the 4KW Briggs and Stratton it replaced!

I have a 40kw diesel unit that powers two whole houses plus the barn and shop. It is autostart. AC is important during hurricane season. Fuel choice for short periods is not so important but. We were without power for more than 3 weeks after Hurricane Ivan and never again. Diesel is economical to run and I have been told propane is far more costly over long periods. We park a 100 gallon nurse trailer next to the generator during hurricane season. My gasoline portable generators require a lot of annual maintenance. My diesel standby generator has a John Deere engine so parts and maintenance up here in farm country will never be a problem. It automatically exercises itself every week for a half hour. Maintenance cost is negligible on the diesel engine. One other consideration is surge protection. Lightning will wreak havoc on everything including your generator and transfer switch.

No big deal

1 it should be programmed to run once a week. make sure it runs if not you have a problem that needs to be fixed.

2 about every 3 months check oil, coolant level, belts, hoses and spray wasp nest and check for rodents.

3 once a year change oil and oil filter same as a car/truck just easier as you don't have to crawl under it. Sooner if you have a long run time of 200hours straight or more.

4 every 3 to 4 years change battery, air filter and coolant

5 once a year turn power off and allow generator power the house for at least 2 hours with every thing turned on that's powered by generator. Helps keep windings dried out and makes sure it will power the house without overheating or other issues

I asked this in a previous thread on this subject but no one seemed to have the answer so let me try it again with this crowd.

Does anyone know if any of the homeowner units being discussed here - regardless of capacity - have phase comparator circuitry that allow the homeowner to start the unit, match phases with commercial power, assume the load in parallel with commercial power, and then cut commercial power loose and run on generator until the threat has passed. And then do the opposite when returning to commercial power. This allows the owner to go on and off of generator with no break in power to the home. We had a several-megawatt diesel unit at the Naval Radio Transmitter Facility at Annapolis with the above capability. The feature was critical when electrical storms were coming in yet a 1 megawatt VLF and dozens of 10 Kw and 40 Kw HF transmitters simply had to stay on the air. That same generator also had to carry all base housing and utility buildings.

It was/is/can be a very useful feature but I've never seen it even briefly mentioned in any of the units' literature I've studied.

quote:

Originally posted by FRANKT:
I asked this in a previous thread on this subject but no one seemed to have the answer so let me try it again with this crowd.

Does anyone know if any of the homeowner units being discussed here - regardless of capacity - have phase comparator circuitry that allow the homeowner to start the unit, match phases with commercial power, assume the load in parallel with commercial power, and then cut commercial power loose and run on generator until the threat has passed. And then do the opposite when returning to commercial power. This allows the owner to go on and off of generator with no break in power to the home. We had a several-megawatt diesel unit at the Naval Radio Transmitter Facility at Annapolis with the above capability. The feature was critical when electrical storms were coming in yet a 1 megawatt VLF and dozens of 10 Kw and 40 Kw HF transmitters simply had to stay on the air. That same generator also had to carry all base housing and utility buildings.

It was/is/can be a very useful feature but I've never seen it even briefly mentioned in any of the units' literature I've studied.

No

Code requires optional standby equipment to be Brake-Before-Make.

What you are talking about is Make-Before-Brake.

I got a lot of advice and help from Skins here when we built our house, and we would up with a 32kw Generac to run the whole house. It is a big beat, and likely overkill. But like he says, incremental steps down would not have saved much money. One thing I was not aware of, and might be location specific, but in order to get permitted here, the generator had to be sized as though all connected loads were operating at once. That means that when running on generator, I could turn on literally everything in my house, including three a/c units. Obviously it's overkill because who is going to do that, but the alternative was to take some of those loads off the generator.

It's only run once out of necessity in the past six months, for a total of about two minutes (the cool down cycle was longer than the outrage), but it worked great.