Whole house backup generator

[00tec]

My power company is absolute garbage. I have multi-hour power outages at least once a month, along with several "bumps" that take us down for short periods. Probably once a week. (I come home to reset clocks and such). I need a backup solution to run my house when this occurs.
Priority goes to maintaining climate in the house. I need to keep the house below 80 and above 65 or so. I am on AC and propane furnace. Well pump and pressure pump need to run, or I get no water, and I have a stand up deep freezer. 1620sq ft house, 3 bed, 2 bath, unfinished basement.

Need an automatic transfer switch for when I'm not home.
Looking at Generac, Briggs, Kohler, whatever. Any particular one to get? I'm thinking 12k+ watts. I have propane on site, but would actually prefer gas/diesel (but I know those get spendy).

[ray1970]

If I get time I’ll snap a picture of one I just saw in our warehouse the other day. It must be pretty swanky. It’s powered by a Cummins diesel.

[Mtneer]

It was cheaper for us to get a 20 kW than a 12 kW because the latter would have required a lot more labor for a special panel of critical circuits. With the 20, they just wired straight into the main board. Very happy with the propane Kohler. It's nice getting emails whenever it starts up and shuts down. I bought from electricgeneratorsdirect.com and found local electrician and a plumber for the propane hookup; no regrets.

[Grant H.]

In the price range that I think you are looking at, I would go with Generac.

Gas/diesel, as you mentioned, are spendy and a lot more maintenance intensive. For what you want, especially with propane on site, I would go propane.

I would just work with Generac and let them know what you want/need. The last set of generators I did for a customer ended up being from Cummins with their ATS, but Generac was very helpful in the quoting process. (They were slightly bigger than you're looking for - 80KW gensets).

[blm28]

I had a 22KW Generac installed when our house was built. Runs off propane and is enough to run the well, Air conditioner and anything else we need. Also had the automatic transfer switch installed. We have needed it a couple of times and works great.

[thedave1164]

Propane would get real expensive for any real length run time, gasoline powered will be quite a bit cheaper than diesel.

that is all I got

[TFOGGER]

I'm gonna vote 20Kw minimum. Add up your loads, multiply by 1.5 (round up). Keep in mind that 150 amp service @ 120V equals 18Kw...

[ray1970]

Hmm. Was going to snap a shot of that brand new generator in the warehouse but seems someone moved it. It was likely a backup for purchase power at one of our meter sites and probably got moved to the location for installation.

[Mazin]

They saw you drooling over it the first time and muttering "Cummins" over and over and figured they had better move it

[Justin]

Oh.

WhoLe house.