Looking to buy a home generator for emergency electricity.

My electrician says 6500 to 8000 watts will do it.

Any recommendations?

 

All depends on what you want to run. You also need to decide if you want a portable set or a permanent install. The advantage of a permanent is automatic operation and not fooling with cords.
I just went through a 7 day outage. I have a automatic permanent set made by Kohler, 12000 watt. It is propane powered. With propane or nat gas you do not have to be concerned about fuel going bad. I only wired it to power my well, frig, freezer, furnace and lights. No AC or hot water heater, but was getting ready to see if it would handle my central air just before power was restored. Just keep in mind that if you draw too much and get an extended voltage drop you can ruin your appliances.
That being said, 5 or 6 K will work and be better then nothing, but you may use 5 gallons of gas per day. Like our cars, it is all in the amount of money you want to spend. Also keep in mind that a permanent set will increase your home value.

 

Just depends on how inconvenienced you want to be when you lose power.

I think mine is only 4000 or so but all I use when we loose power is the refridgerator, tv and a couple lamps. Most hair dryers say how many watts they are right on them which is usually 1500 to 1800 watts for example.

If you plan on going on business as usual when your power is out, you'll need a lot more than 5 or 6k.

It's basic math really. Just add up the wattage of each appliance you plan to use when you run the generator and that will tell you what size to get. You may have to do some ohms law figuring to get to the watts. You know what voltage you have. Most appliances will say how many amps they use on a tag somewhere on the appliance.
Here's a chart that shows how to figure wattage. You're looking at voltage times current to calculate the watts. Most areas in the US have 120volts. Around here, we can have up to 130volts for some reason. Anyway, If your fridge says it draws 12 amps on it, multiply 120(volts) times 12(amps) and you come up with 1440 watts. Do this for each item you plan on using and buy a generator that will provide a little more wattage than the total you come up with.
Caution: I don't know your knowledge level and anyone could potentially read this so I feel I should make these cautions.....

Read the instructions for the generator and heed the warnings regarding NOT running the generator in or near any living spaces. Like any gas engine, gas driven generators put out carbon monoxide. Do NOT run it in an attached garage or even near an open window.
Also, instead of using extension cords for each appliance, some people "back feed" their homes through their breaker box by attaching the generator to electrical cables and attaching those cables to a breaker in the main breaker box. This may even be illegal in some areas of the US. The main point here is that IF you do connect the generator to your breaker box, you need to turn your main breaker in the box to the OFF position. This is to protect any power company workers and anyone else that may come into contact with downed power lines near your home. If you leave the main breaker ON, you are putting voltage on the power lines connected to your house which are connected to the power lines on your street. This could endanger others. Leaving the breaker ON may also lead to your generator being damaged when the power does come back on to your house from the power company lines.

 

Home Depot sells 'whole house' generateors, made by Generac, that are pretty reasonably priced considering what they do. We bought one of the 15KW models a few years ago, runs off of Natural Gas or Propane. Came with an automatic 'transfer switch' and can run virtually your entire home. It will run your AC with ease. Now no more worries about power outages.

 

Your location and time the power usually fails would be helpful. The number of AC or heating units would be helpful as well.
Consider all of the VITAL appliances needed during an outage, as well as your budget, and the odds of losing power.
A typical AC or electric furnace would require about 4000W, a water heater about 3500. Fridge would need 700 each. Add about 1000 for lighting and maybe 200 for one TV.
So 10,000 would be an ideal minimum, 12000 would be good. More is of course better, but then there is size and price.
This is for emergency use, so when power fails, conservation should be highly considered.
I would go for propane or natural gas for much less maintanence and hassle.

 

Kohler or Onan are the Cadillac’s. As recent as 10 years ago I would have told you to run from a Generac (we called them generjunk). But it looks like they've come up to ISO standard finally.
You want N.gas or LP. Get a good enclosure. Get the best transfer switch you can afford.
Break it in with a full electrical load then give it an oil change same as a car.
Exercise it monthly under at least 50% load. Get some space heaters to give it some dead load a pseudo load bank. Run it at full load for 30 min annually or as per the op manual.
Do the usual maintenance on a regular schedule: battery, oil, filters etc...
Do whatever it takes to keep the rodents out of it. They love to chew wires $$$.
Have a pro install it with a proper pad with proper stub ups for all the mechanicals etc.
Size it according to your max anticipated loads and in rush peaks. Any knowledgeable salesman will guide you with sizing the x-fer switch and gen set. Whole house generators to “play as normal” you can easily go 15 even 20K depending on your load. Generally a home standby is designed to run minimal loads just keep you in survival mode until utility comes back on. That’s usually between 5 & 10KW
Personally I'd go with a 4 pole vs a 2 pole generator. A 4 pole will spin at 1800 whereas a 2 pole will spin at 3600 rpm. You get longer life and a quieter gen-set running at 1800.

 

Hey Drolds, you sound like a gen tech. We called generac, junkeracs. I got a Kohler from Lowes with a TS. I kew they would be around with parts in 20 years. for 5 years the longest outage was 3 hours, then the last one was 7 days. Ran great, shutdown to rest and check oil about 2 hrs each day. Changed oil once. Cost 3600 5 years ago, installed myself as I worked on industrial sets for over 12 years.
For portables, Onan and Honda would have been my choice, but Generac has come a long way.

 

I got a 12kw "Cadillac" Kohler w/ the digital controls, as well. I can't add anything to what the obviously informed folks said above. I did a little research beforehand and saw enough to keep me away from Generac.

Often, the folks with the biggest advertising budget have the smallest R&D budget.
I don't think you could possibly go wrong w/ a Kohler if you want to go with a permanent installation.

In the winter, I have it set to come on automatically; but I don't have enough capacity to start up our dual central A/C units, so I switch it to manual whenever there's a chance the A/C could start up.

As long as I'm here, it's a minor inconvenience, but it was worth it in terms of propane consumption if I ever have an extended outage.

We have a small room A/C that we can run during an outage.

The main reason we got the backup -- besides keeping food good and being able to see and cook (!) -- is that we have a well.... so no power = no water. We learned that the hard way during an extended outage during our "famous" snow down here in December of '08.

I had it professionally installed as part of our new garage; I feel it was worth every penny.

Good luck!

 

After the 52 inch snow storm we had here in the northeast two years ago , and us without power for 8 days - House was down to 38 degrees! I went out and bought a portable Powermate 7K generator and a manual transfer switch setup from home depot. I installed the transfer switch myself (very easy if you have any home wiring skills - if you can change a breaker you can wire in this transfer switch). We have had two outages since then of over one day in which we used the new setup and it was great. Burned 6 gallons every 8 hours or so.

I wanted a portable generator so I could take it with me camping, or to work sites - I would have loved a whole house auto transfer setup, but when I priced it a few years ago it would have cost over $8000, and I did this whole portable deal with transfer switch for under $1000. ( I got the generator on a %50 off sale - got lucky) I can run my heater or A/C with tv's, lights, frig etc - the only thing I did not wire in to the transfer switch was my garage and laundry rooms. My heat/AC unit is brand new though and only draws 1800 at startup of either heat or A/C and runs at 7-800 once running. Most older units will be much higher and may not run with a smaller portable generator.

Manual Transfer switch:
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...&storeId=10051

Generator:
http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Ou...&storeId=10051

 

Coming from the smaller side, it's good to have something, ANYTHING, for just-in-case. I have really frequent power outages here, ranging from a few hours to 4-5 days. I have the tiniest little portable gas one, and while it's far from perfect or convenient, it does the trick of running the refrigerator and a couple lights. Definitely better than nothing. I have a small parallel circuit running from outside to connect the generator, and a couple outlets downstairs and in the kitchen, to hook up extension cords inside. Again, not ideal compared with a 10KW+ auto-switching system, but at least I don't lose all the food and can still function. And apparently, it IS worth mentioning about not running them inside...a couple weeks ago, there were six ambulances in my neighborhood to carry a family away who ran their generator in the basement. Thankfully no hearses.

 

Yep, Gen tech from 85 to 05. Seen most all of them. Worked for most all of them as well.

 

I'm experienced in this field yay! and imo I would do a perm. install if you can afford it. it's not difficult to do and can usually be done in a day, and for sure add some resell value to your home. =) and as far as wattage,8000 is plenty for minor things like everyone else mentioned.


on a side note you can always be a little more green and go solar backup at about $3 a watt, propane fridge =)

 

There a lot of generators in the used market place that are quality commercial units. I have two myself pulled from job sites where they upgraded to larger units. Both are natural gas units built in the 80's with very low hours. Plan on using them when I build by shop. Neither of them have weather proof housings but that's easy to remedy. Just a thought. I am in the electrical contracting business and come across these used units a couple of time a year

 

Very good point citcapp many 15-20-30K Onan’s, Kohler’s etc with minimal well maintained hours are available & ready for home stand-by duty at a fraction of new. The only warning here is the electronics
(Controller) can become obsolete and hard to find once a gen is 30+ years old. Relay logic although simple the parts are becoming hard to find (nos only) and expensive. Even though a new x-fer switch will solve some of that (highly recommended) and the prime mover (engine) will have parts availability the gen controller may not. Just do your homework and ask us who are familiar.

 

Timely subject for me, since I have a 3600 rpm 8KW Winco generator that runs on propane. I am looking a a 16KW 1800 rpm diesel generator to replace the propane one. Personally, I prefer the diesel to propane because I have diesel for my tractor.
If anyone lives near Rexford Idaho, please send me a PM with your telephone number. I need a favor, and am willing to pay you for it.
Thanks Junk..