Hawghauler
Cruisin' Guzzisti
While nothing to do with Italian Motorcycles, every Guzzi enthusiast is generally OCD about all things mechanical and electrical so here goes. I am OCD about efficient and redundant utilities at my home. I have a 10K solar grid, but I sell 100% of produced power to the electric company and by my juice back. Power storage is too inefficient and costly. I also have solar pool heater and household hot water. My well has an outstanding filtration system and a ROPU so my spigot spew as pure H2O as I can get. Florida weather competes with weak electrical power distribution and the grid loses the contest all the time. Time to add a standby generator system that will power the whole house, but don’t want to break the bank. What I know I want- LP fueled, air cooled (much cheaper than liquid cooled), 20-22KW and as I have two breaker boxes I’ll probably need a 400 amp switching unit. 500 gallon buried propane tank. I have noticed that Kohler and Generac are both sold and serviced locally and both have reasonable reputations. I know lower rpm liquid cooled engines are far superior, but the air cooled engine with good maintenance should last the rest of my life. My average draw would probably be between 5-10Kkw, but you need the extra oomph for motor start up draw and surges. The difference between a 14Kw and 20Kw in price is peanuts so pinching pennies there is probably not wise. Thoughts? Do any of you have experience and opinions on either brands?