Transfer switch.
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You should have asked this question before you bought the generator.
Look at the main circuit breaker on your power panel. That should tell you the max current it takes to run your house as is. Your generator could work for a 100 Amp feed.
Fear not though, you can run selected loads and switch out various items as you switch others on if your generator can't handle the full continuous load.
You need an electrician to wire the generator into your home’s distribution panel. A transfer switch will be required. A plumber is needed to connect your generator to an energy source for the generator. I have a Generac generator that powers my entire home when line power fails. It is fueled by natural gas. It produces little noise when running. Call some licensed businesses to receive quotes for the needed work.
What zip code are you at ?
If you have 12kw that should be about 50 amps anyway. There will be a breaker on the generator that will show you how many amps it makes. Generators generally do NOT run your whole house unless you paid thousands for it.
You must know what you want to power in an emergency and know how big the breaker is in the breaker box. I run a few lights, computers,freezer, and refer, and a gas furnace on 5kw. If you are all electric, that's about what you can run also because a water heater, electric furnace, cook top, dryer, ect will Not run even with all the other stuff cut off. A 12KW probably won't even run a cook top by itself. All the breakers in your breaker box that are double 30's or double 50's are NOT going to work on a generator. Another thing,.....Gasoline will break you at $4 a gallon for anytime at all. I run about 6-8 gallons for 10-12 hrs on a 5KW.
Having said all that, If you don't understand what you are doing get an electrician. They will keep adding more expenses as you go along telling you it's for safety or convenience until the cost is more than your generator, but if you don't understand how things work, you will either die or release a lot of smoke. Another thing to keep in mind is you could kill the light company's worker if you run the generator without disconnecting from the service. Most beginners use what is called a suicide cord to hook up to the house. All the people here will hyperventilate but if you know what you are doing and follow the right hookup sequence, they are working all across America today with no problem, they probably have laws against it in most major cities, but hey, in the country,...whatever.
If you have to ask FR for advice, I would go for an electrician and bend over for the price,
If it were me... (I live off grid)
Also get a 100 gallon (or 50 whatever you can afford) and ONLY run it on propane. Don’t use gasoline. No shelf life, no worry about liquid fuel, and propane can be used for back up heat and run many of your appliances, including a refrigerator. Or if you can, convert everything to propane (clothes dryer, oven, stove, central heat.) You will want a transfer switch so you won’t have to worry about going outside to plug it in. And with an electric starter your electrician can probably tell you if it can be used to automatically start when power goes out.
12500 will run just about everything you need but not all at once. The biggest draw will come from central heat or AC. For an example a small portable electric heater will take 1500 of those watts. Not sure what your central heater takes but that is easy enough to look up by just a quick look at the circuit breaker. Probably 8-10kwatts. A modern refrigerator barely uses any power. Here’s a link for some wattages
https://prosconsshopping.com/average-wattage-for-household-appliances
You might want to check with your insurance agent. Some policies prohibit connection to your own power supply because a lot of people burn their houses down in the process.
If you are going to run it off nat gas, you have to have knowledgeable plumbers set that up. Good luck.
I’m in the process of looking into this as well.
I’ve installed plenty of whole house generators. 12500w start up/ 8500 run is plenty for an emergency. Just don’t toast bread while drying your hair. An automatic transfer switch runs around 400$. The switch will determine which circuits run on the generator. Expect one day labor with a 2 man crew. I’m not sure where you live but around here that’s 1000$.
Good luck 👍
I’ve been wondering how to improve our well pump so it can run off our generator in our RV or install a windmill to it.
First, if you are in California (CARB compliant) you will have to move to use it. They’ve outlawed pretty much all gas generators.
I looked up your generator, it’s open frame which means it’s gonna be LOUD.
I suggest you return it and get a closed frame inverter generator or a battery inverter setup to power your house at night.
In any case I suggest you watch Gavin’s Garage on YouTube he shows how to use generators to run your house.
you bought it without first researching what appliances could run on it.
First thing to do is build/buy a well ventilated generator shed away from the house to avoid CO poisoning. Not safe to run a generator outside in rain or snow, the very time you might need it.
Next, buy a bunch of gas cans as a 12.5k gen. will use a lot of fuel per hour as well as oil. Think about where you will safely store the 50+ gallons of gas you may need, away from the generator. Gas doesn’t age well so buy the gas just before it is needed.
Read the manual carefully, noting fuel/oil usage rates & oil change intervals.
What you're describing is not simply routing an electrical extension cord through the garage to run the refrigerator, a space heater and a lamp.
1. Contact a qualified and local contractor to give you a bid. Use this bid to assist in preparing a request for quotation that you can provide to several qualified contractors. If you have never done this before, pay an engineer some $$$ to prepare this document for you. If a person cheaps out on this upfront expenditure then it puts an owner at high risk of paying lots more for lots less.
2. Primary trades needed will be electrical and piping. Piping because you described fuel lines to a propane tank and natural gas system.
3. Building permits are likely required. Make sure this is addressed. Make the contractor responsible for the permits.
4. Be specific as to what you supply and what contractor supplies. I recommend that you supply nothing but the generator. It's not uncommon for a contractor to no-bid if they cannot supply certain components. Otherwise, when materials in the quantity needed and with the proper specifications are not immediately in their hand when needed, it increases contractor's costs.
5. I'll circle back to building permits. No qualified, reputable contractor will skip this - their professional licenses are on the line. If the residential insurance company finds out that that a non-permitted installation of this type was made, the homeowners insurance will probably be canceled. Warranties will likely be voided.
6. When the house is sold at some point, a building inspection would likely discover that it's a non-conforming installation. That would nix the sale unless the seller at his expense brings the installation into conformance. Personally as a buyer in that situation, I'd likely just use this situation to reclaim my earnest $$$ deposit and walk away. If I found out after purchase that a nonconforming installation was done, pretty good chance I'd do the lawsuit thing against the previous owner and the installer.
Summary….. I'm not trying to scare you off from a backup generator installation but to give you a sense of the issues to not accidentally get into by not doing it in a proper and formal way. Some bucks to a qualified engineer up front will pay dividends at the end by setting up a formal bid process and likely advising on which bid to choose.
You mentioned that your generator is a Westinghouse I think? Consider calling Westinghouse and ask for a list of contractors in your area that are company certified to install their products. This would give the highest comfort level in quality and assure warranty maintenance.
I have a 15KW dual fuel portable that I used for 9 days after Ian this fall. Here are a couple of things I have learned in the three years I have owned it and during the power outage.
1. AC + hot water heater + Dryer + fridge and freezer, popped the circuit breaker
2. AC + hot water heater + lights + fridge and freezer, no problem
3. Even with professional installation, the fridge ran 10 degrees warmer than normal with the generator
4. Propane is not as powerful as gasoline. It is cleaner and easier to store but more expensive and harder to find during an emergency. Buy some gas cans and a battery powered pump to make refills safer and easier. The major benefit of propane is it doesn’t go bad in storage.
5. Learn to change the oil on your generator. It requires frequent changes.
6. When the power comes back on, add a bit of injector cleaner (I use Seafoam) to the remaining gas and run the generator dry. It will leave the tank dry and leave whatever is in the float bowl stabilized. You could drain the float bowl. I haven’t and it has not been a problem yet.
7. Let the electrician bring the hardware for your hookup. He probably gets a better deal at the supply house. You may need a building permit to do the installation.
8. The cable to connect the generator is really heavy, expensive and inconvenient to store.
9. Put the battery on a tender when not in use.
Portable generators aren’t very handy, but they are way better than sitting in the dark.
Maybe you should have done your research before purchasing it...