My Whole House Generator . . .

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I grew up rather poor, and my parents used to research things to death before making any major purchases. So I tend to do the same even though I’m much better of financially than my parents ever were. 

During Hurricane Micheal folks in my area lost power for 2-3 weeks, in Florida, in August, at 90 plus temperatures at 100% humidity; so I decided it was time for a whole house backup generator solution. That will be the FY 2022 expenditure.

I am not claiming to be an expert of anything were about to discuss. I’m just your average DIY’er and learning as I go. So I’ll try to unpack some of (my) lesions learned as we move forward.

So I am not brand loyal in this segment (half truth). From what I researched all the major players in the whole house generator market are about equal in most respects. Now I’m talking in the air cooled 3,600 RPM segment. The Diesel 1,800 RPM is a whole different conversation; so I’m staying in my lane so to speak.

I reached out Generac, Kohler, Briggs & Stratton, and Cummins for an in home assessment. More on that later . . .

One thing that became very clear very quickly. EVERYONE and their mother sells Generac!

But while researching home backup generators, I realized that although everyone sells them, not everyone does sales, installation, and service. And if your in a pinch, people have reported that if you don’t go with a company that does all three, you might find yourself in a pickle during a huge incident/ crunchtime when people are fighting for resources, or in this case, repair. Question being, “Did you buy it here?” If the answer is no, their customers will get first priority. If that makes sense.

Another take away I realized, Generac holds about a 75% market share in the air cooled home backup generator market. So it is very easy to find reviews (Good and bad) on Generac because they sell a ton of them! Not so easy with the other manufacturers, so I feel they can be a bit more of a gamble untill more reviews start rolling in. (Good and bad)

Now onto the whole house assessment, as this is where things got interesting . . .

Reached out to all the brands, Generac, Kohler, Briggs, and Cummins. And I only got responses from two of them; Generac and Cummins.

To be fair, Briggs reached out too, but I was completely unaware they were trying to contact me. As all their calls and emails kept being intercepted by my spam system. Why this happen to them solely is a mystery. But because I technically never heard from them, I ruled them out early. I also rulled out Kohler because they did not have any infrastructure in my area. Nobody seemed to do sales, service, and maintenance with Kohler. Which was unfortanate but everyones locale will be different.

Back to Generac vs. Cummins. . .

Like I stated previously, EVERYONE sells Generac. So Generac must have forwarded my info to more than one dealer, cause I was contacted by two. So I agreed to home assessments from both, figured it couldn’t hurt.

This is where things got interesting. Same Generac 22kW unit, installed, by these two dealers came in $2,000 apart. One Generac dealer quoted $12,500 and one wanted $14,500.

One contractor said I would have to secure all permits ($14,500) and the cheaper of the two said his ($12,500) included him obtaining all building permits. Both units would have the basic Generac 5 year warranty.

Apples to Apples, for the same equipment, installed at the same house. I found that very interesting, because I wouldn't have thought the quotes would change that drastically. Contractor greed? Probabaly so. . .

(For reference. These are Oct. 2022 prices, as with inflation and supply chain issues, prices are all over the place right now. To each manufacturers credit, both Generac and Cummins had units in stock and ready to go)

Then Cummins showed up, and I was quoted $11,200 for the 20kW generator installed, but with a few choice upgrades, like a Cat-5 cable/ remote monitoring, and an extended 5 year warranty (which would pump it out to a 10 year warranty) it would be $12,200. And they would obtain all the building permits.

Other factors I considered . . .

Ongoing Maintenance Costs:

Generac required a biannual maintenance to keep the warranty valid, at a cost of $275 every 6 months.

Cummins required one annual maintenance, at a cost of $400.

Another factor, generator exercising and fuel consumption:

Generac requires the generator to run for a few minutes every month in order to exercise the unit. At full load it consumes almost 5 gallons of fuel per hour.

Cummins exercise mode is "crank only", so it doesn’t need to run and burn fuel every month to exercise. And at full load it only consumes 3.1 gallons of fuel per hour (Cost savings).

So these were some of the factors I had to take into consideration. So I decided to go with the Cummins 20kW whole house standby unit. Another thing I forgot to mention. A few days before the Genset quote, my neighbor happen to drive past the house in his service truck. Normally he drives his POV home, but that day he drove past my house in his service truck covered in Cummins Home Generator Decals. Turns out, he is the local dealer. So I figured maybe I could not only get the good neighbor discount, but if I had an issue, I’d be top of his list in terms of service and repair. 

Next piece of the puzzle, propane cause I have no natural gas available in my area.

Most generators are fueled by a 250 gallon propane tank. But since propane tanks can only be filled to 80% capacity, I wanted to jump up to the next couple of sizes. So instead of a 320 gallon tank, I opted for the 500 gallon tank, keeping in mind at 80% capacity, I should be able to power the whole house for 12-14 days (best estimate).

Then it came to the propane tank; own vs. lease, above ground or below.

To purchase the propane tank, I was quoted $3,600.
To lease the propane tank, it was $140 per year.

One thing I learned was by leasing the tank, they are on the hook for the tank, the piping, and everything underground. So if there is an issue, its there issue and not the home owners. Whereas, if I buy the tank, its the opposite and if anything happens, I’m on the hook for the repairs.

So I decided to lease the tank. And just one purely financial cost vs. benefit, I decided to keep it above ground to reduce costs. I’ll build a privacy fence later.

So long winded, but that was my journey. What I learned, and what guided my decision(s). I know at the jump I stated I was not brand loyal (half truth), well here is the other half.

I have owned several Kohers, Onan, and Briggs & Stratton products and they have always done me right. I had zero history (experience) with Generac built engines. But I can tell you that the longest and hardest working two engines I have owned were an Onan and a Briggs.

Another thing that bothered me about Generac. I have two neighbors tht have Generac, and they swear by them. But when they exercise every month, they sound like rattle traps. They are so loud, and to be honest, they just don’t sound healthy. Don’t know if its the engines or the enclosure, but they sound terrible IMHO. 

Cummins bought out Onan several years back, so Cummins air cooled gensets all have Onan’s motors, which in my opinion are bulletproof just like Cummin’s themselves. Its a great combination IMHO, and since Kohler and Briggs were out of the running, this is what I was faced with considering.

Don’t claim to be an expert in anything, but I hope this helps anyone who might be in the same shoes navigating the whole house air cooled generator market in 2022 and we move into 2023.

Another thing I didn’t mention was the composite (plastic) or cement generator pad at $300 to $500 bucks. We opted to do a daddy-daughter project and make our own genpad for $90 bucks reinforced with #5 rebar.

Total cost of this project was just shy of $15,000 between the Genset, the propane tank, propane tank filled up, and everything installed. 

Just got it inspected and signed off by the county inspector! 

Thanks for following along.

Edited by IRQVET - 20 Jan. 2023 at 9:14pm