I’ve shut my generator down once during a power outage. It had been running for 4 days. Oil level was good, so I fired it back up again for another 3. It was winter and cooling was not an issue. Once the power came back on, I changed the oil $ filter. I keep several service kits on hand, extra oil filters and Mobil 1 5w30. I adjust the valves as needed and keep extra valve cover gaskets too.Air cooled units do not need commissioning, only liquid cooled industrial units. Homeowner can do his own valves. Owner can install, start and service their own air cooled units.
But if there done wrong and engine damage occurs, theres no warranty.
I have lots of customers that never shut their units down during long outages. Ive never had one fail on the units i work on due to this though.
sure can. a whole house switch has been around for many years. they also have versions that are approved for use in Canada. (CSA Approved). for whole house use, you generally need a service rated switch, and it gets installed between the meter and the house panel.
Standby Generator Transfer Switches | Generac
Generac transfer switches make it possible to switch between utility and generator power.www.generac.com
Generac or Koehler whole house generator?
ponytug
Super Member
How long have you had your MEP-803?
Yes, I agree, not for everyone.
All the best,
Peter
t1kilo
Silver Member
About 3 or 4 years. It’s got right at 1000 hours on it. I have another one that I picked up about 2 years ago for a nephew that has less than 15 hours on it. I can go out and flip the switch on either one and they fire right up. Amazing pieces of equipment.
check
Elite Member
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- 4,164
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- 2009 Kubota BX25
Our Kohler does the whole house. (The transfer switch feeds the entire panel.)
check
Elite Member
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2008
- Messages
- 4,164
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- 2009 Kubota BX25
Really? Just look up “Kohler automatic transfer switch” and you will see what I have up in cottage country, in Ontario. Works great!
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Northern Tool Catalog arrived in the mail yesterday, and the first dozen pages in the catalog are generators. There is a section of Generac generators that seem to be a lot lower in cost then what Torvy said he was quoted for where I live in Tyler.
24kw with 200 amp transfer switch is on sale right now for $5,847.30
I have Natural Gas to my Mom's house, but I haven't ran it to my house yet. I'm adding on a 3 car garage and I want the meter set at the end of my garage. Hopefully I'll get that all done over the winter, but it's proven harder to get to then I thought possible with all my other "must do" projects.
The Natural Gas meter is for a 1 inch line. Does anybody know how big of a generator I can run off of a 1 inch Natural Gas line? Is that a lot of Natural Gas, or will I be limited in what size generator I can run? We will also have a Natural Gas range for cooking, but there isn't any plan to have Natural Gas for laundry or the water heater. The HVAC is currently electric for heat, and we never use it since we heat with wood and electric heat is stupid expensive. When we replace the HVAC system, it might become Natural Gas for heat, but I'm not sure on that.
24kw with 200 amp transfer switch is on sale right now for $5,847.30
I have Natural Gas to my Mom's house, but I haven't ran it to my house yet. I'm adding on a 3 car garage and I want the meter set at the end of my garage. Hopefully I'll get that all done over the winter, but it's proven harder to get to then I thought possible with all my other "must do" projects.
The Natural Gas meter is for a 1 inch line. Does anybody know how big of a generator I can run off of a 1 inch Natural Gas line? Is that a lot of Natural Gas, or will I be limited in what size generator I can run? We will also have a Natural Gas range for cooking, but there isn't any plan to have Natural Gas for laundry or the water heater. The HVAC is currently electric for heat, and we never use it since we heat with wood and electric heat is stupid expensive. When we replace the HVAC system, it might become Natural Gas for heat, but I'm not sure on that.
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grsthegreat
Super Star Member
Im not a gas guy, so cant help you there. You need to talk with the gas company or a heating contractor. Generators suck a-lot of gas. It depends on weather the regulator is before or after the run of pipe.
Here, the gas company can boost the pre-regulated pressures up to 2# to allow alot more gas to run in smaller pipes, than add a regulator at every necessary device.
Here, the gas company can boost the pre-regulated pressures up to 2# to allow alot more gas to run in smaller pipes, than add a regulator at every necessary device.
I happened to be working in Western Maine a few years back while they were in the middle of a weeks long power outage. The elderly widow next to where I was working had a whole house but had run out of propane and they wouldn't deliver because the power line was down across her driveway. It wasn't live yet I can understand their concerns.
I felt bad for her but there was nothing I could do.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Natural Gas seems like the best fuel because it shouldn't run out. I understand that something can happen to the pipeline, but there are more chances that you won't be able to get gas, diesel or propane then the Natural Gas Line not supplying it.
MY current generator is a 10,000 watt starting 8,000 watt running Champion generator that also used propane, but the rating decreases to 9,000 watt starting and 7,200 watt running rating. I have several propane bottle for it because it can be challenging getting gasoline here when we have a Hurricane/Tropical Storm, or even worse, an ice storm that closes the roads. When the power is out, most of the gas stations shut down because they do not have generators. The last outage, I had four 5 gallon gas cans filled up and I used 3 of them. A couple years ago, we lost power for a week because of an ice storm, and I used up all my gasoline and didn't have any propane, so I had to drive around to find an open gas station. I think I found gasoline somewhere around my 20th gas station.
For me, if I'm going to spend the money on a whole house system, I want it to run off of Natural Gas.
MY current generator is a 10,000 watt starting 8,000 watt running Champion generator that also used propane, but the rating decreases to 9,000 watt starting and 7,200 watt running rating. I have several propane bottle for it because it can be challenging getting gasoline here when we have a Hurricane/Tropical Storm, or even worse, an ice storm that closes the roads. When the power is out, most of the gas stations shut down because they do not have generators. The last outage, I had four 5 gallon gas cans filled up and I used 3 of them. A couple years ago, we lost power for a week because of an ice storm, and I used up all my gasoline and didn't have any propane, so I had to drive around to find an open gas station. I think I found gasoline somewhere around my 20th gas station.
For me, if I'm going to spend the money on a whole house system, I want it to run off of Natural Gas.
ning
Elite Member
Simplistically - you need to add up the gas usage from everything in the house that may be on at the same time downstream from where you're tapping in the generator, and see how much is left over for the generator at that spot. How much is available depends on gas type and the pipe size and length; the downstream BTUs can be added together to see how much they take. It's not a tough calculation but double-check online the procedure.
A couple years ago I installed a (propane) gas tankless water heater and had to do similar calculations to make sure the new 199k BTU unit replacing an 80k BTU tank unit was going to get enough gas.
A brief search indicates that 1" pipe of natural gas can provide roughly 275k BTU.. but again this depends a lot on pipe length.
| Guardian Series (Air-cooled) | 10/9 kW | 13/13 kW (Discontinued) | 14/14 kW | 16/16 kW (Discontinued) | 18/17 kW | 20/18 kW | 22/19.5 kW | 24/21 kW | 26/22.5 kW |
| Fuel Consumption @ 1/2 Load NG cu. ft/hr | 101 | 154 | 195 | 182 | 169 | 204 | 228 | 203 | 203 | 188 |
| Fuel Consumption @ Full Load NG cu. ft/hr | 127 | 225 | 256 | 245 | 247 | 301 | 327 | 306 | 306 | 333 |
| Fuel Consumption @ 1/2 Load LPG cu. ft/hr (gal/hr) | 36 (0.97) | 56 (1.54) | 65 (1.81) | 62 (1.70) | 62 (1.70) | 86 (2.37) | 92 (2.53) | 92 (2.53) | 75 |
| Fuel Consumption @ Full Load LPG cu. ft/hr (gal/hr) | 54 (1.48) | 90 (2.45) | 112 (3.07) | 109 (2.99) | 110 (3.02) | 129.6 (3.56) | 142.1 (3.90) | 142 (3.90) | 132 |
DarkBlack
Elite Member
One of those numbers can’t be right.
grsthegreat
Super Star Member
Nat gas will derate the output of the generator. The values are stated in the spec sheets. For instance, a 24kw generac provides 100 amps on propane but only 87.5 amps on nat gas. It also requires large enough pipe to supply 306,000 btu of energy.
ning
Elite Member
You'd be amazed at how much fuel they suck just maintaining basic voltage & frequency requirements even if there's only a USB charger plugged in (well, really they don't even care if there's any draw at all, the genset has to be running, just in case).
Our area had a "snowpocalypse" a couple years back where a surprisingly little bit of snow managed to break a ton of drought-weakened trees and knock out power to many homes for weeks, and people were yelling because their generators cleaned out their propane tanks in under a week, leaving them not only without power but without heat as well. They would've been much better off with a automatic switch to a set of important circuits (well, furnace, kitchen perhaps).
The idea of an automatic full-house backup generator - without a battery system - is amazingly wasteful.
I suppose if there was an inverter type generator that could manage at an idle it might be ok, but even then you need to be ready to dump a bunch of power in when a motor starts.
At least if you've got a generator backing up a whole-house battery backup, it will never be run with low loads.
Our area had a "snowpocalypse" a couple years back where a surprisingly little bit of snow managed to break a ton of drought-weakened trees and knock out power to many homes for weeks, and people were yelling because their generators cleaned out their propane tanks in under a week, leaving them not only without power but without heat as well. They would've been much better off with a automatic switch to a set of important circuits (well, furnace, kitchen perhaps).
The idea of an automatic full-house backup generator - without a battery system - is amazingly wasteful.
I suppose if there was an inverter type generator that could manage at an idle it might be ok, but even then you need to be ready to dump a bunch of power in when a motor starts.
At least if you've got a generator backing up a whole-house battery backup, it will never be run with low loads.
cdaigle430
Veteran Member
I have a whole house 16kw NG gen from Generac. 7 years its still protecting my home and loved ones. Dont buy it under the false pretenses its cheap on fuel or I dont need to spend money to maintain it or its a set it and forget it machine.
The whole house auto transfer switch is a miracle for us.
You must maintain it at least once a month, check oil, check for rodent or insect infestation or anything abnormal.
I am now looking at these solar battery packs that start out at 1-1.5kw each and you can stack two or more to increase the kw rating for whole house power. Can be charge by way of solar or grid power.
The whole house auto transfer switch is a miracle for us.
You must maintain it at least once a month, check oil, check for rodent or insect infestation or anything abnormal.
I am now looking at these solar battery packs that start out at 1-1.5kw each and you can stack two or more to increase the kw rating for whole house power. Can be charge by way of solar or grid power.
grsthegreat
Super Star Member
They didnt need to leave them run 24/7. Seriously, they need to run a few hours a day to maintain refer, freezer, well, etc in extreme emergency situations
ning
Elite Member
I know that, and you know that.
But, they're sold and set up to be a replacement for a grid connection - which they're great for for a couple hours.
I made do just fine for years with no backup at all (luckily no full-day outages), then graduated to a very small generator that I got for a "storm of the century" (narrator voice: it rained half an inch.) but came in handy during a fire evac, I came home and fired it up for a few hours a day and everything was fine.
Most of these whole-house systems though just turn on automatically and suck gas (of whichever sort) until they run dry or the grid comes back on, even if the people are partying in Ibiza half the world away.
ericm979
Super Member
We have a year old fridge that has a temperature display. When we have outages I turn the generator off at night and for a few hours during the day. The fridge's high and low temps slowly climbed over the days we were out. And that was during winter. I think the fridge has very little reserve capacity to cool itself down from an elevated temp. We saw that when we put it in and filled it with the stuff from the old fridge that had been in coolers. It took days to get down to running temp.
bdhsfz6
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- Northeastern Pennsylvania
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- Kubota MX5800 HST & L6060 HSTC Formerly L6060 HST B7100 HST, L2550, L3010 HST, L3430 HST
Probably the best choice if natural gas is available. It isn't foolproof though.
My brother in law lives near Wilmington NC and installed a whole house natural gas system when he built his place in 1995. When hurricane Floyd hit the area in 1996, there were so many homes destroyed and gas meters ripped out, they had to shut off the gas supply.
Ironically, his neighbor, who had recommended the natural gas system, was able to power his house with a gasoline generator throughout the entire 3 week outage.
Go figure.
DarkBlack
Elite Member
Not sure if you’re responding to my post…. If you are, The two numbers I circled, where at least one of them must be wrong, are both labeled NG
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