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Whole house generator, air cooled vs water

heavytlc

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I am building a house at the front of my property. It is my future retirement home but it’s first use will be a place to look after my 81 year old father. The house is 2000sq feet, 3br 2.5bath
32x50 attached garage. I am wanting to install a propane back up generator during construction. Power is all underground on my property but everything is on overhead power lines off the property. Power goes out just often enough that I want back up power.
I am looking at 22kw. Probably generac. Air cooled is $4200, water cooled is $9000. In the 13 years since I built my shop here power goes out on average 6x a year, usually for 2-6 hours. Average 20 hours a year. Having a woman and child at home tending to a senior I want to make it as easy as possible for them. From what I can find air cooled will be fine. Having never had a stand by whole house generator, I have no first hand knowledge.
 
I bought a ex Military generator 10KW single and three phase that has worked great for the past few years for my home and shop paid 1500.00 for it from an online auction website.

This one has a 4 cyl diesel engine, water cooled.

Drove about 500 miles to pick it up, have been satisfied with its performance.

If you like PM for info on source.
 
Every new house and about 30 percent of older houses around here have Genrac air cooled. A couple of my neighbors must be over 30 years old. Use Synthetic oil and it will outlive you. Love mine but hate my 5 year old Genrac load sensing transfer switch. Looking into replacing it soon.
 

I could power my own sub station with that:smokin:. I am just trying to make life as easy as possible for woman and chid while they are tending to a senior that wants Netflix on the television while sitting on the toilet, with cold ac blowing and a c-pap machine on. Not that all of that happens at the same time. Having been the one that provided for my mother and grandfather prior to their death and now my father I have learned that most old people are afraid of death. Losing power is the end of the world for my father. I have never lived with him, was raised by my mother. We do not share the same outlook on life or death.
 
Hundreds of local homes have air cooled. No complaints. Screw a water pump, fan, rad., etc. for $4k.
 
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I’d go with air cooled for the amount you expect to use it. If you have days or weeks of outages water cooled would justify the added cost and maintenance. A monthly exercise schedule with a full transfer would be ideal if the transfer switch will do a synchronized transfer back to normal power.
 
Generac dealer here. Go with the air cooled. There is no need for water cooled for a residential installation. You’ll like the 22kw, it’s a great machine for the price.
 
The air Cooled unit is a 3600 rpm unit the big price jump to the liquid cooled unit also likely shifts it to an 1800 rpm unit.

I have a cummins 4B powered Kohler that I use, manual transfer only which is fine since most of my power outages are associated with hurricanes or other storm events. The neighbors have commented on the noise difference in between mine and the rest of the 'hood. Mine is quiet you smell the diesel exhaust more than hear the noise. I hear the neighbors installed units and portable ones unless I'm standing within 30' of mine. The point of my rambling is to be choosy about where you put the genset when installed as it will be noisy.
 
Wow, that seems like a lot to me. When I did my genny I calculated the load for the essentials (fridge, water pump,etc) then added the stuff I wanted to be able to run during the outage. I run a 4kw for my needs,
 
Every new house and about 30 percent of older houses around here have Genrac air cooled. A couple of my neighbors must be over 30 years old. Use Synthetic oil and it will outlive you. Love mine but hate my 5 year old Genrac load sensing transfer switch. Looking into replacing it soon.

Dontgive any details at all why you don't like the switch...

Have a tractor? Consider a PTO unit.

Yes, that sounds simple and reasonable for a woman, child and 81 year old man to operate, especially for very short outtages. Good job.
 
Wow, that seems like a lot to me. When I did my genny I calculated the load for the essentials (fridge, water pump,etc) then added the stuff I wanted to be able to run during the outage. I run a 4kw for my needs,

Most people we do assessments for are not looking at just the bare essentials. They want to be able to run everything. 16kw and 22kw are our most commonly sold units because of that.
 
Wow, that seems like a lot to me. When I did my genny I calculated the load for the essentials (fridge, water pump,etc) then added the stuff I wanted to be able to run during the outage. I run a 4kw for my needs,

Startup?
 
Dontgive any details at all why you don't like the switch...

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When I bought I got the 16k genrac and their load sensing transfer switch. The price was about the same as the 22k genrac with standard switch but my old panel was maxed out and I needed more breakers and the load sensing panel made my old panel a sub panel. What the load sensing panel does is run the entire house and then cut unnecessary circuits when the gen is maxing out. For my needs that is a better system. A couple of weeks ago the load sensing panel flipped out and started tripping in and out of overload mode with the gen not running. I got an electrician out who did a temp fix but said that Genrac dropped the panel and is not selling parts so I need to get a new panel wired in. I have yet to talk to genrac about that.
 
You guys with typical units like a Generac run them on natural gas? No ng here so the few having stationary units use propane..Many smalls farms in the area and they use tractor pto units. We have a tiny 1500 watt generator for the fridge...oil lamps and candles, wood stove does the heating and cooking...
 
22kw generac on nat gas. if I had to do propane i'd get a 1000 gallon tank buried in the yard for it. I'd do propane over diesel for ease of long term storage.
 
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25 KVA Detroit 2-71 from a refer box car, AKA the the deuce can be had for cheap on the web. Matkins power I think, runs at 1200 rpm and my whole house at .75 gallon per hour.

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Whats the KW rating on that Green Mamba ?
 
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25 KVA Detroit 2-71 from a refer box car, AKA the the deuce can be had for cheap on the web. Matkins power I think, runs at 1200 rpm and my whole house at .75 gallon per hour.

I remember a harbor freight ad years ago where they were selling those for $1500 a piece, should have bought a few back then. I see Matkins selling them for $7500+ now.
 
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