wxsniss Posted Thursday at 11:12 PM Share Posted Thursday at 11:12 PM As this is the 3rd time this week / 5th time this year we’ve lost power in our neighborhood (powered by Eversource, outages all courtesy of low hanging wires and questionable pole infrastructure), I’m looking into a backup home generator Ideally connected to gas line and automatically turning on when power is out Any recommendations? I hear Kuhlman Electric ads for Generac all the time and seems good I figured this forum would have tons of experience with severe / blizzards TIA! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleetussnow Posted Thursday at 11:14 PM Share Posted Thursday at 11:14 PM Generac are the way to go. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baroclinic Zone Posted Thursday at 11:19 PM Share Posted Thursday at 11:19 PM Are you looking to provide backup power for your entire home or just dedicated circuits that keep the critical stuff running? ATS’s can get pricy if your looking for a whole house backup. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxsniss Posted Thursday at 11:23 PM Author Share Posted Thursday at 11:23 PM 1 minute ago, Baroclinic Zone said: Are you looking to provide backup power for your entire home or just dedicated circuits that keep the critical stuff running? ATS’s can get pricy if you’re looking for a whole house backup. Was thinking whole house ATS for simplicity Kids in multiple rooms, refrigerators, hot water, internet… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baroclinic Zone Posted Thursday at 11:48 PM Share Posted Thursday at 11:48 PM 14 minutes ago, wxsniss said: Was thinking whole house ATS for simplicity Kids in multiple rooms, refrigerators, hot water, internet… You’ll need to install the ATS between your meter and power panel to do this. generac is the defacto king of generators. Kohler also is pretty big in the generator business, so they’re an option. i would reach out to some local electricians and see what they say. @butterfish55 installs generators. i sent him a text 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterfish55 Posted Thursday at 11:56 PM Share Posted Thursday at 11:56 PM I work for AC Power Solutions in SE MA. We install and service whole house Generac generators. I have also installed many Kohler generators as well. I don't have a preference for brand. But I would definitely recommend just doing the whole house and not dedicated circuits. It might be a little more expensive but it's way more convenient 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
512high Posted yesterday at 12:25 AM Share Posted yesterday at 12:25 AM 21 minutes ago, butterfish55 said: I work for AC Power Solutions in SE MA. We install and service whole house Generac generators. I have also installed many Kohler generators as well. I don't have a preference for brand. But I would definitely recommend just doing the whole house and not dedicated circuits. It might be a little more expensive but it's way more convenient I have a Kohler 22KW whole house generator (2013) no issues, has about 310 hrs. on it. I do annual service on it, have replaced the battery every 3-4 years. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewbeer Posted yesterday at 01:03 AM Share Posted yesterday at 01:03 AM I'm thankful i live somewhere the power rarely goes out, and when it does it's rarely for more than an hour the one exception was October 2011; 98 1/2 hours of no power with 3 kids under 8, fun times 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxsniss Posted 19 hours ago Author Share Posted 19 hours ago Thanks for the quick advice guys I'll probably go with a Generac. I'm a little worried about footprint and available space closest to where our gas/electric intake and meters, but I'll get the consultation and see. It's easy to lose motivation and keep kicking the can, but I guess worth at least seeing if logistically possible and getting a quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewbeer Posted 18 hours ago Share Posted 18 hours ago What about whole house battery back-up? @butterfish55 battery only installs a thing yet ? seems like if outages are short, battery tech might be far enough along to consider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterfish55 Posted 16 hours ago Share Posted 16 hours ago 2 hours ago, Brewbeer said: What about whole house battery back-up? @butterfish55 battery only installs a thing yet ? seems like if outages are short, battery tech might be far enough along to consider. I've installed a few battery (only) back-ups. Believe it or not, Briggs and Stratton was the brand I installed. They make battery back up modules for some reason. Anyway, I don't think they are great for a stand alone system. They are super expensive and obviously will run out if there is a long outage (more than a day or 2). But, if your power company charges a higher rate during peak times (3-10 pm), you can program the transfer switch to allow you to use battery power during those times and then charge them with grid power overnight when it's cheaper. So there's that... If money was no option, the perfect system would be a combo of solar and battery. The panels power your house and charge the batteries during the day and you run off battery power for the evenings/overnight. Wouldn't use much grid power during spring/summer/fall. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianW Posted 57 minutes ago Share Posted 57 minutes ago 17 hours ago, Brewbeer said: What about whole house battery back-up? @butterfish55 battery only installs a thing yet ? seems like if outages are short, battery tech might be far enough along to consider. Eversource has a pretty crazy battery program available in CT and MA. They essentially pay you like 6x retail electricity rates when you discharge your battery to the grid during high demand. This is because New England still relies on tons of peak oil fired power plants. When those run electricity from them can be like 30x normal wholesale rates. These plants are crazy expensive because they idle 95% of the year and run off essentially diesel fuel. These oil plants are also used a lot in the winter when there are natural gas pipeline constraints in New England. ISO New England had an article a few years ago how New England burned something crazy like over $500 million in oil in 1 week during a prolonged cold snap. Here is some numbers from a powerwall in CT last year I saw online. The Eversource program is run through Tesla for payments. I think the math is these payments will pay for the battery in 5 years and they have a 10 year warranty. In 2025 there were 41 events during which my powerwall and solar setup sent energy back to the grid. • I received a check from Tesla for $1889.42 in February for these events. • On average, I sent 25.11kWh/event to the grid during each of these events. • I sent 1029kWh in total to the grid during these events. • For an average price of $1.84/kWh and average of $46.08/event. A kwh is currently around .30 in New England. Eversource bought the power from the battery at around 6x or $1.84 kwh during high demand. https://www.eversource.com/residential/save-money-energy/clean-energy-options/energy-storage-solutions 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now