Opinions on standby generators

Thinking about buying a Kohler 14kw standby generator. Most appliances are NG and don't have a well pump. The 3 ton AC draws the most current. If anything ever happened to me, my wife could never handle my Troy Bilt 7550 watt portable generator and wouldn't know how to wire it. Hal

Hello El Toro,
I have looked at one as well. Most experts on this board like Kohler .
Northen tool has them. I would go for the natural gas unit, it does weekly self check and start up on its own.
The one i looked at is 10k or so on natural gas for $3000.00 and free shipping, that looks like it would do your house. It has a special start up system and will handle 3 to 5 ton A/C unit.
Guido.

Thanks for the info. Hal

I have a 20KW unit and the 3 ton snorts it pretty good when it starts up. I did install a softstart controller on the compressor and that helped.

Another thing, it will be derated for NG versus propane. Make sure and check that out.

Kohler seems to have a good rep, there are less than good opinions of Generac, will stay out of that chevy vs ford thing.

You may also be interested in solar back up, you get the benefit of solar panels generating electricity, offsetting your power bill, and un interrupted back up, more of an investment, but its clean, no real maintenance 'cept balancing the batteries as needed, its been on here since March 21st 2012, I like it, my only concern would be battery life, and that depends on how many cycles of discharge, per say, below a certain voltage, if I understand it correctly, for a smaller or mid size home, 3 solar panels, 48V (8) battery bank, inverter w/electrical panel and charger controller, would work nicely, depending on the loads required, sun etc, alleged to last a week or so, not sure how fast the solar panels can fully recharge batteries if they get discharged, kind of a balancing act and managing necessary electrical loads, and you can hard wire another AC source to bulk or trickle charge, its interesting equipment that I don't know a heck of a lot about, 'cept that it works and works well.

Thanks, I knew it would be derated to 12kw on NG. Free shipping too. That would be another $400.00. Hal

We used Kohler generators at work. There were some 5kw gasoline and 10kw used to power our instrumentation and AC units on our field dynanmometers. The 10kw was a diesel unit. When the Army switched all their vehicles to diesel we purchased diesel units. These units turned 1800 rpms and we never had any problems with the 5kw air cool gas units overheating even though they were near two large gas Ford engines. Hal

Good to see somebody that plans ahead and not interested in a cob job.
A 3 ton AC unit will have approx 4HP on the compressor plus approx 1/3 HP on the condenser fan and 1/2HP on the HVAC air mover.
As previously stated a 14KW unit on NG is "light".
iirc Onan also builds a quality unit.
The new Generac"s "look" better than they used to. The belt driven generator and vertical shaft engine has been replaced with a direct drive horizontal.
As with any gen set. If rated at 14KW , that is more of a 5 minute peak rating. Continuous should not be more than approx 75-80% of rated on the light duty consumer gen sets.

If it was me I would buy the Kohler with LP gas hookup, and then get a large propane tank so that I can run it for a long time. And in case Natural gas gets interrupted for a long period.

$3800 for generator, $1000 for tank, + transfer switch, $500 propane, then you are good to go.

El Toro. If you can afford it. Get one a little bigger than you need. Better to have more power than you need. Go with Kohler or Onan. Stay away from Generac.
Cheap to buy.
Need a bank loan to get parts from them.
Factory support is very poor. If you get any at all.
Hard to find anyone that will work on them.
Hard to get a good service manual from them. Most are bad photo copies.
They will not talk to you if you have a problem. But will send you to a dealer. That probably knows less than you do.

I have been a generator tech for forty years. So I know a little about the field. Kohler would be my choice. Good support and people you can talk to. That know what they are talking about.

I kinda don't like it when they start and run once a week. Seems too often to me ? You shuold be able to adjust it to what you want. Afterall I thought most wear and tear to an engines was to be at start up.

I'm in the town limits and probably wouldn't be allowed having a gas storage tank in my back yard. Hal
PS: I used LP for about 10 years. I doubt if it's very cheap now.

we have a onan on trailer 55000 kw lp power with 300 gallon tank located in ky has 480 actual hours with switch and all manuals---460 ford ind engine

Welp. This isn't going to be popular with the bean counters... but for the penny squeezers, this worked out well.
Last halloween we had no jiuce for a week... hey some people is was a month so I ain't complaining.. especially when caught off guard, stick to basics right? For the house, just wanted the furnace burner and a light bulb for the duration. So left over- and rarely used since Y2K, was a wallyworld 1000 watt inverter. Plugs into a cigarette lighter right? OK, furnace boiler going, a light bulb on a standing lamp, we'll live. Then other fingers in the pie. With the furace and light off, it ran the fridge. Then a hot plate and light bulb.... like Lisa on Green Acres, doing what modern living needs, but not all at once. So, Got another one, few hundred watts, see what we can do with it at the takeaway... OK, ain't gunna power up the 3 phase freezers... but an 'open ' light, the phone, credit card machine, a 3 lamp pole light from the 50's aimed just right to see what yer cooking.... power? a 4 door and a caravan both with 3.3 mitsubishi's. Fuel consumption? 3 quarts a day each on average. Not idling all day and night, just keeping the civilized world turning.
Total for greatest catastrophe in years.... -$250.
Boring, but true..... OH, btw, cause of debit cards and no ATM's working...and alot of electric ranges... about the only cooked food it town!!!!! Profit, new customers, goodwill, and using frozen meat quicker than the needle climbed... priceless