“Anyone have experience with whole-home generators?”
yes, i’ve just researched this extensively in the past months and finally made a purchase a couple of months ago.
Based on many comments on many websites and experiences with friends who are actually owners, I’ve decided that the home consumer GENERACs are Chinese junk, and the Kohlers are not much better. Perhaps excepting the Wincos, almost none of the rest are even worth considering.
If you read the complete fine-print of their “warranties” neither is worth the paper they’re written on, particularly the GENERACs. Both have so many disclaimers you can forget about ever actually getting any warranty service.
The GENERACs use some kind of proprietary Chinese engine and the needlessly complex controller board costs a thousand bucks to replace, and apparently it fails often.
I have a friend with a GENERAC and it’s failed nearly every time they used it.
I also researched fuels and decided natural gas (NG) is the only way to go if you have it, and if not, then liquid propane (LP) is the second best way to go. Do note that the nominal kilowatt (KW) rating is specified at sea level with gasoline as the fuel, and that both altitude and NG/LP fuels derate the output. NG derates more than LP. I live at a mile high, so my unit is derated by 20% right off the bat, plus the additional derating for the natural gas.
I finally decided to buy one of these:
https://www.centralmainediesel.com/order/Honda-16kw-Propane-Generator.asp?page=H04599
This unit basically consists of a big-arse Mecc Alte gen-head bolted onto a Honda GSX 690 stationary engine setup from the Honda factory for LP/NG, so no carb conversion is necessary for gaseous fuels. The GSX 690 is perhaps the best small stationary engine made today, and the Mecc Alte gen-head is one of the finest made today.
It can be setup outside as a permanent installation on a pad with a hut with an automatic transfer switch (ATS), but i decided to go a simpler route and forego the ATS in lieu of a manually-actuated interlock on my main circuit panel, and to keep my unit inside of my heated garage on a rolling cart I made, and if/when needed, roll it out the garage door and quick-connect it to both the NG and the breaker panel.
We have snows as much as 3’ deep here upon occasion and occasionally temps as low as 23 below zero Fahrenheit with occasional highs of 15 below zero for a couple weeks at a time, so I didn’t want an outdoor unit that could get covered with snow and wouldn’t start because the oil was nearly frozen.
I’ll post some pics in a bit if anyone is interested.
Concur completely with your GENERAC comments. We purchased a brand new 7000XG and it failed at the 45 hour point. Dealing with warranty repair was beyond painful, but finally received the unit back with a new motor after two months; we had to pay the labor cost. I now have a back-up generator for the GENERAC, as I no longer trust it will function when we have another 7-10 day outage.
I thought both Generac and Kohler were made in Wisconsin... hmmm.