by Anura Guruge
on June 1, 2023
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I November of last year I, FINALLY, decided that we HAD TO GET a whole-house, backup generator. Though I own THREE (3) portable generators, & have done so for over a decade, I no longer was willing to deal/cope with all of the prolonged power outages we get, in this neck of the woods, in the winter. I am getting too old for this. I wanted a fully-automated, WHOLE HOUSE (with 20% to spare) ‘Generac‘ system that could run non-stop for at least 4 days.
We could get by with a 20kW generator but at full-load, IF it ever came to that, the generator would be running close to full-load. Given my 50-year background in ‘electronics’ I know that that while ‘OK’ is not acceptable. Best to have a generator that is never cranking at full-load. In the scheme of things the price differential between a 20kW & 24kW is not that ‘significant’. {It is all relative. SMILE.}
We only use propane for cooking. So we have 2 small tanks. Those two tanks, at best, would run a 24kW Generac for 18 hours. I wanted a 500 gallon tank.
WOW. It has taken me from November to TODAY, 7 months, to get that to happen. It has been absolutely amazing & astounding.
For a start nobody was willing to install a new tank during the winter — until all the snow was gone. Then there was a BACKLOG because of all the people waiting for new tanks.
Finally. Even then it was a comedy of errors. They were supposed to deliver it between 8am to 1pm. They were here at 6:30am! Then they JACKKNIFED their crane — i.e., accidentally bend it backward on itself. I couldn’t believe it. They had to go back & use ANOTHER crane to disentangle the mess they had got themselves into. They were back 2 hours later.
Finally, we have a 500 gallon tank with 50 gallons of propane in it. The tank is NOT hooked up.
Now I am waiting on the Generac. The company I am getting it from is going to do the trenching and the propane hookups. Well, that is another day, another story. But, at least ONE STEP forward.
