Our place out at the pond lost electricity for more than a day after severe storms went through. Given that we're out in the sticks, we can expect to be last to get restored power in the future, so we're looking for a good stand by generator using natural gas or liquid propane.

Anybody have any experience with these? What would you recommend? We have all electric, including 2 ton heat pump, for home under 2,000 sq feet. Thanks!

Contact Generac they do whole home generators

My suggestions....I have a portable gas generator. I have my home ( I live in the country, well water, septic, propane, city elec) wired with a box outside that I can disable "city" power and enable the portable generator. It is wired to the important items, furnace, water pump, sump pump, refrigerator , hot water tank, and some lights and some outlets. ( if I have no elec then I have no well pump thus no flushing toilets) Whole home systems are nice but expensive at least for me. You can also but generators the are tri fuel to . I think you can still find them. They will run on gas or propane or natural gas. So mine being portable ( on wheels) I can use it at other places on my property or take it with me.

Unless you're really good at electric, you want a professional installation.

We installed a 21kw Generac (producing 19.5kw on natural gas) whole farm generator 3-4 years ago. GET SEVERAL QUOTES FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES! The quotes we got for the generator and installation varied by greater than a factor of 2:1. The lowest quote was from a guy who only does generator and solar system installation, and was also the first one who had the same idea of how to hook the gas that the gas company did (our distribution point is 250 feet away from the gas service at the house, making things a little complicated). He did a great job and, for $150 a year, will come out and do annual service and software updates.

My Gererac Generator has been a plus to say the least. But I had a problem in the beginning because I bought it through an electic supply company. My electrician added it when building the lake home. And shortly after building the house my electrician died. The electric supply co had no generac service rep. the closest rep was 90 miles away. And finding one closer was also a little harder because I did not buy it from a place that had a service rep. As time has gone by now some 11 years, I now have a service rep some 25 miles away and has always been available when I needed him. My whole point here is buy one from a company that has a generac service teck or at least can get you access to one. I have learned how to do many of the things that need to be done on occasion because no rep available in the beginning.

I also like misfits have a plug outside that I plug in ( after disabling city power) my welding machine . It will run refrig, all lights microwave 2 upright freezers and a small ac. Our house is spray foamed so it doesn’t change temps very fast. Bobcat welding machine puts out 11,000 watts. Just have to very careful to not kill anyone by plugging in to city power!

We have a Generac 20 KW standby and really love it. Ours is propane fired. We are a bit rural and at the end of the line - meaning one of the last to be repaired when the power goes out. Like others above, we also are on well water, septic, and propane for gas so when the power goes out, it is very impactful. We already had a 500 gal propane tank but added a 1000 gal tank to give us some decent run time in the event of a hurricane or other long term outage. We were without power for 12 days following a hurricane years ago.

Thanks so much to all who replied. Very helpful!

We have a 36KW Generac on propane with a dedicated 500 gallon tank. The larger Generacs are water cooled Mitsubishi 4 cylinder engines just like their small cars and trucks. They are pretty bullet proof. We were out of power 48 hours recently after the storms went through. Two of my neighbors are now getting generators.

Thanks, Ross! We have a four ton AC at our place so could use a fairly powerful setup. Gonna look into it pronto!

By the way, I have American Pondweed, a good plant, in my pond. If you'd like, I could give you the info where I got it or even bring some. Maybe when your eelgrass is established next year you could reciprocate, I'd love to have it.

If you don't mind me asking, about how long could you run your place with the 500 gallon propane tank?

I think I can get 10 days out of a 80% 500 gallon tank. We have a pretty big house, 2 AC units, 2 fridges, freezer, ice maker, electric ovens, etc. We do have all LED lighting. The generator just idles most of the time.

I hope I get some eelgrass going. I see no sign of the first batch I planted so I'm doing 50 more plugs with fencing this time. Did your PK shrimp do well?

Ross, I honestly don't know how the PK shrimp have done. Haven't seen them, but they are hard to spot even if you are looking, which I have not. Maybe I'll try to stock some gambusia minnows to help feed CNBG, apparently gams do much better under pressure than FHM. If I see any PK shrimp during electro survey, I'll let you know.

Thanks for info re tank. Not sure when this project will get done, we are backed up on several out at the pond already.