Whole Home Generators

[mom2rb]

Anyone care to share how much a full house one like Generac actually cost to have installed? Thanks!

The Generac was $12,250, we locked in the price when we ordered it last September, it has gone up about $1000 since then. We also had to have our electrical box upgraded and moved from the closet to the outside. It is a whole house generator for 3200sq ft with 2 air conditioners and a pool.

 

[barkley]

The Generac was $12,250, we locked in the price when we ordered it last September, it has gone up about $1000 since then. We also had to have our electrical box upgraded and moved from the closet to the outside. It is a whole house generator for 3200sq ft with 2 air conditioners and a pool.

dang, they've gone up in cost since we got ours several years back. granted, we did not choose to have EVERYTHING on the whole house b/c it would have taken us up to a unit that was way beyond our needs so we decided which stuff we could go without (hot tub was one-if it's a summer outage and psycho hot i don't mind it getting cold, if it's dead of winter freezing the uber insulated lid we have on it would keep it in the 80's for days to weeks). we also saved by buying the unit through costco and then hiring a local authorized generac installer. we already had a cement pad next to the garage so that was a savings, beyond that it was the secondary electrical panel to be put in and we opted to upgrade the existing propane piping from the existing tank to the area of the house the generator would be adjacent to (b/c at the time we knew we were going to also upgrade our oven so did'nt want an overload of competition trying to pull from the same piping). i think for us all in was around 10K.

 

[Marionnette]

We have a large portable generator that we have used more times than I can count and was money well spent. We are also on a well, so it allows us to have water when power is out. Would love a full house one but never followed up on it since something else always take priority. Anyone care to share how much a full house one like Generac actually cost to have installed? Thanks!

We got a Kohler. It's also for the whole house where everything runs on electricity except for the oil burner furnace (no natural gas here). 3500 sq. ft. The cost to install with above-ground propane tanks and surge protector was just north of $13K and that was just this past week.

 

[amcnj]

I have thought about one here and there. We had one longer outage about ten years ago which lasted 3-4 days. I think all others have been a few hours at most, and don’t occur frequently. Hence why I never did purchase one

On the positive side, the long one did make us clean out the freezer!

 

[barkley]

We got a Kohler. It's also for the whole house where everything runs on electricity except for the oil burner furnace (no natural gas here). 3500 sq. ft. The cost to install with above-ground propane tanks and surge protector was just north of $13K and that was just this past week.

curious-what size propane tank did you go with? we had an existing 500 gallon but i got on a wait list with my provider and after a couple of years finally scored a 1K gallon.

 

[tvguy]

The Generac was $12,250, we locked in the price when we ordered it last September, it has gone up about $1000 since then. We also had to have our electrical box upgraded and moved from the closet to the outside. It is a whole house generator for 3200sq ft with 2 air conditioners and a pool.

Ouch. Wonder how much power the one Generac advertises at $1,995 puts out.

 

[YachtClubWoman]

Our total system installed in 2014 was around $11,000. Maintenance plan is $450 a year with 2 tune ups/inspections.

 

[mamamary]

We don’t have a generator. We rarely lose power ever. This past week was the exception. We lost power for close to ten hours. So I guess you never know. Some people lost power for days so we were lucky.

 

[_19disnA]

Wonder how much power the one Generac advertises at $1,995 puts out.

What I found several years ago when looking into this was the price of the actual unit isn't that bad...............HOWEVER, the INSTALLED cost + all of the other things you need to do like upgrading electrical, natural gas feeds, etc. drive the TOTAL price up to what the prior posters have mentioned. We decided to go with a mid-size portable generator instead as far more cost effective for the occasional power loss due to storms.

As I commented earlier, where you live, how often power goes out, how reliable your electric service is are factors to consider before spending $12,000-$15,000 for something you may never use.

 

[tvguy]

What I found several years ago when looking into this was the price of the actual unit isn't that bad...............HOWEVER, the INSTALLED cost + all of the other things you need to do like upgrading electrical, natural gas feeds, etc. drive the TOTAL price up to what the prior posters have mentioned. We decided to go with a mid-size portable generator instead as far more cost effective for the occasional power loss due to storms.

As I commented earlier, where you live, how often power goes out, how reliable your electric service is are factors to consider before spending $12,000-$15,000 for something you may never use.

My FIL went with a 4,000 Watt Honda gasoline generator which I think cost him less than $500, and a few hundred extra to have it hooked up to run is refrigerator, freezer and TV in a power outage. It worked fine for the shortages that happened in his lifetime, but a year after he passed Hurricane Rita hit. His widow was without power for 7 weeks. She ran the generator for a week on the gasoline she had on hand, but after than, it was no good. And no gasoline available. No natural gas where he lives, so that kind of generator was out, and given the damage Rita did to the house (roof damaged, outbuildings flattened, not sure a stand alone propane who have survived the hurricane either. In the end she had to junk the refrigerator and freezer and their contents as they were toast.

 

[barkley]

if considering getting on-for a few hundred dollars more you can get a monitor so that your cell phone (as well as your local service provider if you opt to) can get readings from the test runs the unit does (ours runs for 5 minutes once per week). this way if there's an issue you can find out BEFORE it needs to be a multi hour/multi day run.

 

[jaiminee krikit]

DH debated for years about getting one. After our town was hit by a tornado 9 years ago and it knocked out our power for a week, the following summer we got one. We're out in the country and on a well, so we couldn't even flush our toilets or take showers without electricity.
A year after we got the generator, our house took a direct hit by a tornado. We were down in the crawl space as the tornado approached, and we never lost power or wifi. The experience was terrifying, but had we been sitting in the pitch black it would've been even worse.
Ours doesn't get used often, but I'm so glad we have it!

 

[GreatLakes]

if considering getting on-for a few hundred dollars more you can get a monitor so that your cell phone (as well as your local service provider if you opt to) can get readings from the test runs the unit does (ours runs for 5 minutes once per week). this way if there's an issue you can find out BEFORE it needs to be a multi hour/multi day run.

I second this. I don't have one at home but have one at a DR site at work. We excercise it weekly for 30 minutes, do a simulated load test twice a year, have preventative maintenance twice a year, and have remote monitoring. I get a text message and email every time it runs, if there are any faults, and I can log into a portal to take a look at the real-time stats for both the generator and the transfer switch.

If you are going to do it do it right.

 

[HeatherC]

One other benefit of a generator (whole house or large portable one) is that it also allows you to run heat in the Winter. Here in Massachusetts we have lost power many many times during a blizzard, ice storms, etc. and having a generator (portable one) has allowed us to run both our oil heat as well as our pelllet stove. It also runs our well for water. This is important so that the pipes don’t freeze and create havoc and expensive repair costs. We paid about $800 for ours and it was one of the best investments ever.

 

[Sleepy425]

I don’t lose power a lot, but being in Florida, there is always the potential for a hurricane to knock out the power. I have thought about getting one, but am not sure where I would put it so the HOA wouldn’t complain. It should go on the west side of the house, but that is visible from the street and they don’t want anything but A/C visible from the street. Has anyone here considered solar as opposed to a fuel generator? I have thought about solar, as the south side of the house is the back and out of sight, as well as not having to deal with monitoring fuel levels for a generator.

As someone else pointed out, if you want solar to be beneficial during a power outage you need to buy a battery, and they are $$$. We have solar and inquired about the batteries, but the cost was way too much to make it worth it. We bought a generator and had an electrician hook it up instead.
We hardly ever lose power, but the $1500 total we spent getting a generator (used, from my father in law who ran a store that sold and serviced them, so we know it was taken care of because he was the original owner of this one) and paying the electrician is worth it for my peace of mind.

 

[Darcy03231]

We have one and I would never live in a house without one anymore. We live in the Northeast and have used it at least once every winter. We put it in when we moved in to our current home. Neighbors were laughing at us saying that we never lose power for more than a few hours. A freak storm at Thanksgiving caused a 5 day power outage. We had heat, lights, running water, etc. while neighbors were scrambling to try to even buy a portable generator. I think it's worth every penny we spent.

We did open our home up for people to get hot meals, showers, etc.

 

[stsomewhere]

We got a large portable gas powered generator in the fall. We had a plug installed into our electrical panel to run the entire house. So far we have not had to use it.

 

[Disney Ron]

So funny we just lost power for an hour. The Generic kicked on and we had AC, TV, Internet and everything else. The power just came back on. I love this generator.

 

[jo-jo]

We just had one installed. They finished up yesterday. Our house uses electric for the most part (oil heat but forced air runs on electric). We have a gasoline-powered portable generator which we used to keep the fridge, freezer and some lights running but starting it up (sometimes in a storm), running cables through the house and dealing with the exhaust and noise was a headache. This past winter, we went several hours without power...no heat, no hot food, no hot water, not even the ability to make a hot beverage. That pushed us to invest in a generator. We're seniors and knowing that we won't have to deal with all of the gymnastics of setting up the portable generator is worth the cost.

We have a smallish generator that will run the fridge, freezer, sump pump. But we also have some sterno and hand warmers on hand at all times. During winter for a short outage, we can still heat up some soup, water for tea, etc.

 

[QueenIsabella]

We have one. DH was convinced after Hurricane Florence, when he was locked in at work, and I was home with 3 kids with just a gas generator. We lost power for 4 days. Since we're in hurricane territory, it's likely to happen again. The gas generator really only covered the fridge and back freezer.

On the advice of the installer (Generac), we opted for a slightly smaller size, and it doesn't cover our clothes dryer. I figure, I can live without that, for weeks if necessary.