Home Generator

[Dave70968]

FWIW, any power fed back into the grid must be in phase with the grid.

Otherwise, the grid will destroy your power source, because its power is massive compared to whatever you may have.

It's similar to directly connecting two motors at different RPMs, where one has 1000 hp and the other has one.

Something's gotta give.

True, if the grid is connected. Break the line, and you're on a private grid, one that someone may be trying to reconnect.

 

[MacFromOK]

True, if the grid is connected. Break the line, and you're on a private grid, one that someone may be trying to reconnect.

Yep... that's why I said "fed back into the grid."

 

[Hoov]

Back on topic. I wanted a whole house generator myself, but I am not going to live in this house forever and generac sucks. I bought a 10K portable generator and had a transfer switch installed by an electrician. Dual fuel; gas and propane. The only reason it won't run the whole is because I screwed up and didn't buy a switch with enough circuits on it. I can run heat and have everything else that is hooked up and still run my neighbors fridge. A little bit thirsty, but not bad. I spent about $1,000 total.

 

[Fredkrueger100]

Back on topic. I wanted a whole house generator myself, but I am not going to live in this house forever and generac sucks. I bought a 10K portable generator and had a transfer switch installed by an electrician. Dual fuel; gas and propane. The only reason it won't run the whole is because I screwed up and didn't buy a switch with enough circuits on it. I can run heat and have everything else that is hooked up and still run my neighbors fridge. A little bit thirsty, but not bad. I spent about $1,000 total.

Why do you say generac sucks? It’s the only generator I ever seen installed at homes. From small to mansions. Also, how much did it run you to get the transfer switch installed? Also, the generac I listed is the only one I have found that has that much powerful a decent price. The Honda generator I saw was a commercial one that was about 10K and it was almost $4 thousand! This generac is $3100 at Lowe’s.

 

[Okie4570]

Back on topic. I wanted a whole house generator myself, but I am not going to live in this house forever and generac sucks. I bought a 10K portable generator and had a transfer switch installed by an electrician. Dual fuel; gas and propane. The only reason it won't run the whole is because I screwed up and didn't buy a switch with enough circuits on it. I can run heat and have everything else that is hooked up and still run my neighbors fridge. A little bit thirsty, but not bad. I spent about $1,000 total.

Yeah curious also on your "sucks" review of Generac. After the Thanksgiving and Christmas ice storms from 2016, NW OK is absolutely full of them, hundreds now. I've not heard a negative complaint from anyone I know who ones one now, which is around 30 homes. If my PTO generator ever gives up, I'll buy one.

 

[FreeSpiritBalloon]

Talk of feeding back into the grid made me think of home wind generators that were popular 20 years ago. I never got one but heard of the electric company buying back any extra you produced. Seems like it could get complicated dealing with those if you have something like that still working and feeding back into the grid during an outage they are trying to repair.
Maybe the device that keeps it in phase with the grid shuts down if it detects the grid outage.
Now I wonder if wind generators are more affordable and durable these days and if I want one again.


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[Shadowrider]

Back on topic. I wanted a whole house generator myself, but I am not going to live in this house forever and generac sucks. I bought a 10K portable generator and had a transfer switch installed by an electrician. Dual fuel; gas and propane. The only reason it won't run the whole is because I screwed up and didn't buy a switch with enough circuits on it. I can run heat and have everything else that is hooked up and still run my neighbors fridge. A little bit thirsty, but not bad. I spent about $1,000 total.

My mom's Generac has so far been (knocks on wood) perfect for about 3 to 4 years. Even the starting battery is still going.

I know at the time Koehler gensets were decent but their smart switches sucked to the point on not working about 50% of the time from what I could tell back then. Maybe they're better now.

 

[BReeves]

I did it on the cheap, generator is a 5500 watt portable gas. Meter and breaker box with separate breakers for the house, office and shop buildings is on a pole out in the yard. I just added another 2 pole breaker for the generator. Generator will handle the furnace frig TV and lights which is all we need in an emergency. It will run about 10 hours on a full tank and I can refill it from the 36 gal tank in my pick up. It isn't big enough to handle the shop and office along with the house, flip the breakers to those buildings plus the main when the generator is running. Cost less than $500.00 and does what we need.

 

[SlugSlinger]

I bought a new Kohler 20KW whole house generator a few years ago and had it professionally installed and wired. It uses a 200 amp automatic transfer switch. In 2016 a tornado did some damage to our house. At that time, I believe there was a lightning strike on a pine tree within 50 yards of my house. The lightning strike didn't seem to have damaged any electronics in my house, however either coincidentally or in fact, the control board on my generator and within the ATS blew shorted out and the generator would not function. The 5 year warranty covered the repairs but here's my rub. The repairs consisted of replacing both control boards and these were special order items and only available through a dealer. I like to fix stuff myself and not having that option has turned me against these Kohler generators. I am held captive to a dealer that I may or may not trust.

That being said, my next house will have a manual transfer switch installed and I will have an old manual start generator to power the house. Something that can be repaired by going down to Oreilly's and buying a relay or something commercially available without being gouged through a Kohler only dealer.

 

[HFS]

Get a licensed electrician to set this up. Lots of ways to set up a generator to feed a home. We have a portable generator that is 10,000 watts peak but 7800 watts full load. It runs our TV's, electric heater, two freezers, two refrigerators, electric stove and lighting easily.
The secret to adding a portable to a home that has lost power is to turn off every breaker, and turn each breaker back on one at a time and give it a couple of minutes before turning on the next because if I just turned on the main, and all the high load compressors came on at the same time, it would overload the generator causing it to trip the breaker.
Learn what wattage each appliance has for running,(its on nameplates on each appliance) and size the generator accordingly. Always go bigger if one can afford it. [AMEN and AMEN.]
If you have a smaller generator, you can cycle the appliances like freezers. If the lid stays closed, they will maintain below freezing temps for a couple of days. Plug one in for 24 hours, and then unplug and plug another in for 24 hours. Repeat until main power is restored.
It's pretty amazing how small of a generator one can get by with if they know their appliances wattages.
If your needing to run a central heat unit that is a heat pump or an older electric element model, the generator will have to be sized to accept the starting current as well as the running current with extra to cover appliances and lighting.
Myself, I've got a 100 amp line running from my shop to the house. I have put the proper receptacles in place that the generator is running in the shop 100' away, and I'm back feeding the house through the main breaker in the shop. We don't get the noise nor the possibility of carbon monoxide getting into the house from the generators exhaust if one is ran too close to the house.
Always turn off the main breaker in the house that is fed from the utility company as you don't want to back feed the commercial power line.

There is lots of good advice in this post.