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[Jackyl]

When we built four years ago, we also put in a commericial generator that runs the whole house.  My husband wasn't having anything less.  It's only had to kick on once in the four years.  It's a Briggs and Stratton.  No issues so far.

[Lilysmom1]

@LonestarBabs We will be considering cost as well.  DH has an eye on a pretty expensive Honda generator that is not who,e home.  We will investigate costs for both.  Fortunately, we know a General agent locally.  LM

[Lilysmom1]

@Allegheny , thank you for the feedback.  We are on a well also.  

Good to hear of another brand.  I am in Canada and I am sure there will be supply issues here as well. LM

[Lilysmom1]

@Jackyl , thank you.  I know the Briggs and Stratton name but didn't know they did whole home generators.

You were smart to do it during house construction.  LM

[FastDogWalker2]

We live in a hurricane prone region and have been without power for a week in the past. We purchased a Generac whole house generator and are pleased.  We have had it come on several times since we purchased it and are very thankful for the use of our AC and all appliances.  Money very well spent.

[Mominohio]

We have a gasoline powered Generac that is big enough to run our whole house. It is in the barn and we are wired to shut off the main, start it, and it will feed into the whole system, all the power we need. 

The drawbacks of this type is that we have to go out to the barn to start it (electric start) and we have to be here to fire it up. 

If we could, I'd prefer a stand by whole house generator that ran on natural gas, but out where we are in the 'sticks' there are no gas lines available. There are those that run on propane, but that would involve having a large propane tank installed and the price of keeping it filled would add up as we would only be using the propane for outages, which never are very long, and the fees for not buying a minimum amount of propane per year would add up too.

There are so many various choices for generators, I highly recommend that if at all possible, everyone that can should have some type. 

[jannabelle1]

We seriously looked into a generac, but the requirements for the outside placement of the unit wouldn't work for us. We're in a town house, and to put it the required distance away from our home would have put it on common ground....and that would not be approved. Also, for the number of times (very few) that we've lost electricity for more than a few hours, we just couldn't justify the initial expense of over $12,000.

[JustJazzmom]

@Lilysmom1  We got a whole house Generac generator which runs on natural gas. We purchased it from Lowe's which is a big box hardware store in the US. They gave us the name of the company that installs them. This company has a master electrician & a plumber. They needed to come to your home to see where to place this as it cannot be near any windows & far enough away from the house because of CO poisoning. 

They are expensive -- figure about $14,000 that year in regards to cost & installation after Sandy hit us. 

The company did obtain the proper permits for the generator from our Town. The plumber of this company had to change the gas meter & increase the pipe diameter as natural gas flows more rapidly to run a generator vs. gas items in your home -- range, dryer hot water heater. 

The master electrician creates a mirror circuit breaker panel which has a shut off switch in case you need it & that is on the wall next to your circuit breaker panel. It's recommended that your circuit breaker panel be increased to 200 amps vs. say 100 amps. That also needs to be inspected that it's properly installed. We had increased our box size when we had installed central air so that was not needed. 

Installation takes about a day. You might be without electricity for part of the installation time. 

Maintenance: every week on one day the generator is programmed to test run for 15 minutes then stop. Every year we have the company that installed it change yearly the oil & filter. Every 5 years, the battery should be changed as that kick starts the generator -- like an ignition does for a car. 

We were told that if the generator runs for 4 days straight, the oil does need changing. In case of a power outage, it takes 20 seconds for the generator to kick in & if central air is on, that is the last thing to resume with the generator on., about an additional 20 - 30 seconds more. It's a safety issue so everything that is a powergrabber doesn't go on all at once.

One important thing, the generator's vents shouldn't be blocked by landscape or snow. It doesn't run as well if your vents are blocked. The generator sits on a cement block which is over our soil. 

I did have to move some landscape -- figure 10' worth of space. 

In case of a power outage, motion sensor lights may need resetting. 

Best money we every spent.

[Lilysmom1]

@JustJazzmom  Thank you for the detailed response including the comment about flow rate to the generator being higher than to domestic appliances, etc.

the comment about 10' requirement is also interesting.

We will continue our investigation and I think the next step will be to discuss with a company rep.  LM

[Lilysmom1]

@jannabelle1 @Thanks for your comments.  The space requirement and the cost will affect our decision as well.  We are not in what is considered to be a hurricane prone area (east Coast of Canada) but that is changing every year.  I now start to think of September as hurricane month!  LM