I have a gen a friend and I hooked up and put a small electrical panel in for it. He is a retired electrician. Just throw a switch and it powers our essentials. I do have designated outlets in the house and basement that we have to run cords from to run the TV and refrigerator and freezers in basement. It runs our well pump, sand mound pump and most of the household receptacles.

It is always ready to roll but is an older pull start generator. I have it serviced regularly as needed to keep it tuned and ready. I may opt for a battery start unit for the house. I do have a spare battery start generator in our facility if needed. It is portable with wheels, it's pretty big and heavy to roll on soft ground or snow. Rarely have had to use it.

If I recall correctly, I believe Bud Guidry had 2 generacs and both failed him during the hurricane. He no doubt may have had extenuating circumstances but nontheless they failed to operate when needed.

My buddy just had a generac put in and another friend had a Briggs and Stratton I do believe and they like them. I’m also toying with the idea as I get older

After years of using a portable we got a standby to run the whole house. Maybe over kill but if I'm not home, the wife doesn't have to do anything when we need it. It's a Generac and when it kicks in, the wife says " Best dang money we ever spent"

Russ

Can the Generac (or similar) be made to run on alcohol or methane?

From my experience as an electrician generac are probably the best home generators. Many options on unit and transfer switches with different capabilities. Tech support will not really work with you unless you have a tech id number so there is that. But after the installation you really shouldn’t have much trouble. The problem I have seen a couple times is the way they actually run their transfer switches things have failed but the guts are easily replaced without having to take the can off the building. I believe generac is out of Wisconsin also. I have never heard anyone regret doing it and not say it wasn’t worth the money

yes Jefferson area for Generac was where they started HQ is in Waukesha, distribution out of Janesville with a few plants on the east side of the state

I don't have a whole house generator, but I know lots of folks that do. Around here they are Generac, mostly, we have 2 or 3 dealers in the area.

Honestly, I live in town and my power service is very dependable. I can only remember 1 time in the last 20 years that my power has been out for more than 5 or 6 hours. So, I really can't justify spending that much money.

If I lived out of town, I'd feel 100% differently. During the ice storms a year ago, I know folks that didn't have electric for over a week.

If your power service is kind of iffy, it would be a good investment.

We lost our power at least three times a year, until we put in our generac. It's been over a year and we have lost power just once. For about an hour.

Those around here that have them have Generacs.Never heard one complaint.

Let me ask, what kind of price are we looking at, someplace around $5,000 ? Installed and ready to go.

Best friend bought a portable generator, maybe 10 years ago? When he first brought that thing home, he showed me how to fire it up, get it going to run the fans for the furnace. He has both propane and wood. Forced air.

He was working out of town at the time. A few years ago they were calling for a bad ice storm, I asked him if he'd fired up the generator lately. He said it was running like a charm the last time he used it. Long story short, it took him half a day to get it going.

Small generators need to be fired up, and pull a load every so often. And when you need it, it's going to be cold, nasty and dark, sure as anything.

I have a Kohler 14kw, It runs everything, pump, AC etc and 2 burners on the stove.
The best part is when the power goes out I count ..... 9 seconds and everything is running.
I have had it 8 years now, natural gas. Cost $8000 installed, wire costs a lot, it is 65
feet away from the house. If everything is quiet I just barely hear a hum.

I'm planning on getting one as well. I asked my local propane man about them. He said he has a Generac and can't complain at all; it has served its purpose well. But, he did say, that if he had to do it again, he would go with a Kohler because parts were very hard to get here for Generacs around here and that more people know about Kohlers and how to work/fix them. Not sure if that is the case up where you live Zim, but thought I'd mention it.

Ya, I have heard both good and bad. I suppose it is like the old Ford-Chevy thing.
My son has a Kohler at his house out in Maine that he is happy with but it is almost new.
They have terrible electric service out there so it gets use. I need to talk with my electrician
and get his input as far as parts, maintenance, etc.
We have pretty reliable service here but the way things are going I am not putting a lot
of faith in the future. Thanks to all you guys for your experiences, I appreciate it.

Zim

I'm sitting here reading this thread, thinking I have lived in this house for 10 years and never had a power outage, when, seriously, the power goes out.

Within seconds, it was back on and my computer was booting back up. But while it was booting up I had some time to think about it. That was weird.

Around these parts, more Generacs due to dealers. Cummins are worth a look.... very quiet with great cold weather kits which are a necessity in my mind.

Zim [/quote]
Around these parts, more Generacs due to dealers. Cummins are worth a look.... very quiet with great cold weather kits which are a necessity in my mind. [/quote]

What does a cold weather kit include? I’ve never heard of that for small engines, interesting.

Mine is a Onan which is a Cummins motor. Ran on LP. Not sure of the other brands but cold weather kit is a trickle charger on the battery and a heat pad under the battery. Mine is a 20kw and has a 100A breaker. At half load of 50A that will run a lot of stuff. Including my ground source heat pump.

My Generac has an optional heating pad for the battery. Even though Zim is in Wisconsin's banana belt I would still recommend it.

Thanks Corky, was 16 below zero down in the banana belt this morning.

Zim

I'm sitting here thinking 24KW for a residential home? You people sure use a lot of electrical power. I have worked at multiple fishing lodges over the last thirty years and most get by with around 10KW. I'm sure when I worked at the utility we had as many as 5 houses hooked up to a 25KW transformer 30 years ago.

This thread may explain the mystery of why the latest FNG showed up with a 20 KW generator. We all have been scratching our heads on that one.