We have some hunting land with a 1,600 sf cabin and 2,400 sf shop. The house has one air conditioner and cooking appliances, and the shop has a big [censored] fan and a 5-ton mini split cooling it. The structures are about 150' apart.

I want a backup generator for the property but I'm not sure if I need one generator for both or if I need one for each structure.

I'm thinking about an air cooled 20kw +/- generator. Any advice on installation layout or brands to consider or avoid would be greatly appreciated.

Also looking for a larger liquid cooled generator for our family house if anyone has any info on that.

Thanks again, Mike.

We have a 20 kw air cooled Generac that runs on propane, and it’s been in place for 10 or maybe 12 years. It needed work after about 10 years, but is fine now. I was thinking about getting a new and bigger one, but don’t think I need to spend the money. Ours is set up to run the main house, guest house and barn workshop/apartment. We never had any problems with it meeting demand until the Big Freeze, and we found out that it couldn’t run everything and still run the resistance heat for the heat pump. Your resistance heat demands (heat strips for the heat pump, electric hot water heaters, electric oven and cooktop, and such as that) will determine your KW needs. Obviously you need to determine max demand, or have the electricity set up to just what demand you’d consider necessary.

If you go with a Generac, get it from an outfit that is an actual warranty dealer. If not, you may have problems getting warranty work done by somebody that isn’t an official warranty dealer. We ran into that problem.

Maintenance, like regular tune-ups, are easy to do. Get the kit from Amazon, which has air and oil filter, oil and spark plugs. I was told to use regular oil for the first oil change and then switch to synthetic. Supposedly that helps the rings seat. Maybe so and maybe not, but no oil gets consumed between changes.

You can get more KW supply from a water cooled unit, and I did consider going with that, but there’s more expense and maintenance involved with a diesel unit.

That’s all I can think of.

Thanks 603, I appreciate the help.

Generac.

603, how many gallons an hour does your Generac go through?

Natural Gas Cummins

I did a lot of research before buying a Generac at Home Depot and installing it myself. I came to the conclusion most of the "only buy from a generac authorized installer or you will not have a warranty " was hype being generated by the Generac authorized installers, to justify a 30% - 50% and adding $5K to the install bill.

It is like a car, and the courts have upheld the owners right to service themselves. Keep your recipes. Document everything do, and make sure you follower their recommended schedule.

If you are uptight about reliability, buy an extra control board for it.

Now, if it was for an area I expected to be without power often and for extended periods (Lets say 120+ hours a year, every year....then I would guy a water cooled.

Cummins used to the THE BRAND, but do some Googling of your own. It sees to me that they have cheaped out in recent years

looks like you are near Breckenridge, J&N Feed in Graham carries whole house generators and usually have a couple in stock.

Nak, when we had need of warranty work, I called a Generac dealer that would not service the generator. Said Generac would not fully reimburse him. I called a few more and got the same answer. Finally called Generac for a list of dealers that would do warranty work. Finally got it done under warranty. Some time after that I needed work, though can’t remember what, and got the same old rejection. Finally I told the dealer that Imwould pay him directly and forget this being warranty work. He came and did the service.

If this sounds like I had a lot of work done on the Generac, that isn’t the case. It has been very reliable for over a decade.

Couple questions first:
What fuel are you planning? (nat gas available, propane?, diesel?)
Current heating (nat gas, propane, or all-electric/heatpump ?)

TXHOGSLAYER, I forgot to answer your question. And the answer is that I don’t remember. You can get the info off the internet. The fuel demand varies with the power demand, as you’d expect.

Are the structures on one meter or separate? If separate meters, you could still use one generator, however you would need 2 transfer switches.

Thank you.

got a generac 26kw being delivered tomorrow.

home depot, military discount. and tax exempt.

Guardian 26,000-Watt (LP)/22,500-Watt (NG) Air-Cooled Whole House Generator with Wi-Fi and 200 Amp Transfer Switch
Store SKU #1007773579
Internet #320593390
1 x $6,997.00 $6,997.00

Estimated delivery on Aug. 3
Your Total
Subtotal $6,997.00
Discount -$359.00
Sales Tax $0
Total $6,638.00

electrician does all install but gas, 6481.00 quote for generac and 2 transfer switches.

gas line is 4216.10 all inclusive.

second switch box was around 700.00

we are about 35 miles from paris or bonham, south side of the red river so it costs more to get any contract work done.