[zx10guy]

I have a 20kW Generac generator running on natural gas. The generator itself will run on both natural gas or propane. Just have to configure the generator. The literature is a bit misleading as it's actually 20kW when run on propane and 18kW when on natural gas.

If I recall correctly, it cost me about $16k to have it installed. A few hundred was due to all the natural gas appliances I have in my home. After running the calculations, the contractor determined I needed to have an upgraded gas meter installed to deal with the worst case flow scenario. I have 3 fireplaces, water heater, HVAC, and range running on natural gas. In addition to the new meter, I had to have a separate line pulled from the meter through my house to the generator on the other side of the house.

In my area, there isn't a 10 foot requirement for spacing. There is a requirement as to how far away the generator needed to be from a window. I'll take a pic of my generator set up when I get a chance. It's raining outside right now.

When the proposal was worked up, I was thinking about going with a 10kW generator and only powering half of the house to include the critical stuff such as power the refrigerator and the HVAC. But after sitting down trying to figure out what would be powered up, I decided to pay the extra few grand to just run the entire house. I seem to recall a 10kW system would have been around $11 to $12k. Cost wise other than the labor and generator was the transfer switch.

After everything was installed, the electrician did a load test where the A/C was turned on along with my dryer. The generator kept up and passed with flying colors. Because I wanted these two things to run during a power outage, two load centers needed to be installed.

I've had the system installed about a few years ago. So far no issues at all. I've done an oil change myself on it. It's supposed to have a valve check but I haven't gotten around to do it. I did get an error message which freaked me out. Turned out the 12V lead acid battery was shot. Replaced that and all is good. The generator is programmed to start up once a week for 15 minutes. I chose Wednesdays at noon. You can also add in a additional status module which sends information to a panel wirelessly inside your home and I think a system which connects via cellular to get status remotely.

What prompted me to get the generator installed was when Sandy blew by along with another weather disturbance which knocked out power for days that year. And wouldn't you know it, it's only fired up twice. One time for a few minutes to power up the house and the other was for 45 minutes. But I'm not sorry I have it now. Just lots of peace of mind. When a bad storm rolls through now, I just say bring it on.

Let me know if you have any questions.