Whole house generator

[Oklahomabassin]

OK. Like a fair amount of you, We live out in the sticks. Between Drumright and Bristow. 2650SqFt house with 30x40 shop 20 yards from main house. Home is 400amp service. Home is all electric and between the house and shop we have 6 A/C units with heat. Also have a big wood stove (not connected with vent pipe yet). We decided we needed a standby generator after speaking with our neighbor who said they've gone more than two weeks without power about 15 years ago and many more 2-3 day strectchs during the winter. Neighbor also mentioned when the power goes out our strectch of Hwy 16 is not a priority and is typically last to get it restored. Our biggest concerns with power loss are winter storms but did lose power a month ago for 3-4 hours during the really hot time.

I put in a request for quote to Generac. Got two companies to give me quotes. First was a company out of OKC (don't remeber their name) Sales guy came out and was great. Provided a bunch of knowledge and gave full quote. I was impressed. However, the quote came back at $18K. The next week Generator Super Center sent their sales guy out and was just as good and helpful. Explained the full process and how their systems work, etc. He gave me a quote for $24K. Both companies said due to the size of our home and being all electric and what we wanted connected we really should be spec'd about a 60Kw water cooled unit.

The big water cooled generator wasn't going to happen so we were quoted their latest and biggest air-cooled 24Kw. Due to the smaller size generator we wanted we had the upstairs AC/heater locked out and several of the other large appliances are load managed.

Right or wrong, we heard that Generator Super Center/Faith Electric was a great company to do business with and seemed to have great reviews so when they price matched the other company we knew nothing about we we went with them. As mentioned, our price was $18K. Our house was not a typical install due to the amount of load management modules we needed and the additional 155' of digging they did to put in the electrical lines from the main electrical panels on the house to where the generator sits. We also have a 7 year warranty and have full generator monitoring 24/7 by Generac. We a 1000 gallon propane tank to feed the generator. This should give us just over three weeks of power if run continuosly and we are a bit mindful of how we live during a prolonged outage.

No, the price wasn't cheap at all, but peace of mind the generator gives us and knowing the value-add to our property makes it very worth it to us. For those thinking about getting a whole home unit, I'd highly recommend it.

So Generator Super Center/Faith Electric dropped their price $6K to price match like it was no big deal? No change in work/material?

 

[Snattlerake]

Ours was around 10K but we had a panel change and some circuits added along with the genny.

 

[Cat City Slim]

We did a lot of research before installing our home generator system, we decided to go with Briggs and Stratton. One reason was that Briggs offered the largest air cooled unit available, 27k I think. Also, the Briggs warranty is better. Cost was slightly higher than Generac.

 

[Lucky]

Does a person need to go with a larger unit than what is needed? So the unit isn’t over loaded?

 

[Cat City Slim]

Does a person need to go with a larger unit than what is needed? So the unit isn’t over loaded?

It’s best to size the unit to meet your power needs. We went with an oversized unit because my wife runs a dog rescue, and it’s critical that our ac systems continue to work.

 

[KOPBET]

Does a person need to go with a larger unit than what is needed? So the unit isn’t over loaded?

Generator recommended will probably be rated 20% more than current max load expectancy.

 

[Mr.Glock]

What about one that has a welder attached to it as well? That’s something to consider.

 

[Parks 788]

So Generator Super Center/Faith Electric dropped their price $6K to price match like it was no big deal? No change in work/material?

I had the other companies quote on my phone and the Generator Super Centers sale guy in my house. He gave me his quote, looked it over and told him it looks like similar scope of work and materials, etc. I told him he was about $6K higher than the other price I got from his competitor. He didn't believe me. Had some back and forth for a bit. He asked to see the other quote as he was sure it was not line itemed out and would be able to justify his higher price. I sent him the quote to his email. He opened it up and was sorta shocked that is was a mirror image to what he quoted me but much less. He punched away on his Ipad and came back right there on the spot and matched the quote.

My guess as to their much higher price is that they advertise a metric crap ton on the radio and other media so they bid thier quotes up quote a bit. It was a two day install, they were great to deal with and so far the customer service has been fantastic.

 

[Lucky]

What about one that has a welder attached to it as well? That’s something to consider.

I have a generator that I can plug in my shop and back feed through the house, just shut power off coming to the house. It works but is a bit of pain in the butt. I usually fire it up for few hours at time, then let it rest. Living in town it hard tell when power comes back if I’m running off of my generator.

 

[Mr.Glock]

I have a generator that I can plug in my shop and back feed through the house, just shut power off coming to the house. It works but is a bit of pain in the butt. I usually fire it up for few hours at time, then let it rest. Living in town it hard tell when power comes back if I’m running off of my generator.

This.

Takes me less than 5 minutes to have power if it goes off. At less than $2k for whole house. And I can use it other places on the farm. I have one that runs on Diesel and one that is hooked to propane.

I guess when I get to old to walk to the barn, I might have to go fancy!