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After yet another recent power outage (Tulsa, OK), we decided to investigate whole house back-up generators (Generac Guardian) ...or... a whole house backup battery system (Generac PwrCell, or equivalent) with solar tie-in.
Pricing out the parts and understanding the labor involved, I had a certain price expectation for the Generator. But the GC's in our area want a sizeable profit for managing the entire Generator project, and have discouraged me from pursuing the Battery system. Maybe they know better, or maybe they have other motivations-- I don't know.
If I do the generator, I'm now convinced that I can save a notable sum by buying a Generator from a big box store, and hiring my own electrician & gas plumber, but the generator is loud, takes a larger footprint than I'd like and requires periodic maintenance.. albeit simple maintenance.... so I'm trying to justify the PwrCell battery setup-- if I can find better real world reviews & price data.
I've been HOA approved for a small rooftop solar array. It would be part of an overall remodel so the panel support & electrical tie-in could be elegantly "designed in". Our home is basically "half-way" run by electricity, with two A/C units, pool equipment, an electric oven, refrigerator, dishwasher & microwave oven being the power hogs. A battery system would have to cover that and the other common items. The rest of the items are powered by Natural gas.
Anyone have experiences with Generac whole house PwrCell or the Tesla PowerWall, or the Generac natural gas generators for that matter? I can envision an initial battery charge-up from the electrical grid and, eventually, a few hours of powering the home via battery each day with the solar array maintaining a near-capacity charge... but I have no idea if that's a realistic way that it would play out. Any data-- performance, price, failures, maintenance, etc would be helpful.
If you have nat-gas available then a powered generator is the way to go.
Yes, the air-cooled ones are 'noisy' - but a liquid-cooled 'quiet' one costs double or more.
Your correct, a 'turn-key' install will cost you triple the cost of the materials.
If you gc it yourself (especially in the 'off season') you can save a ton$.
Forget roof-top solar unless you like a leaky roof.
You may want to get 'soft starters' for you AC condenser units - they make it much easier to startup when on generator (will keep generator from bogging down or requiring you to 'oversize' generator just for the AC units).
We replaced the gas powered drag out of the garage monster with a natural gas whole house and then some Generac. Purchased from, installed by and maintained by electric company.
With two home offices and business as usual the only indication that everything switches to generator are kitchen island lights - they flicker briefly.
I have a whole house natural gas Honeywell generator (Generac with a Honeywell brain). It runs everything in the house except the heat cycle for the heat pump, but I have hot water heat that I prefer anyway. It's really not that noisy and has a small footprint. I had my electrician take care of everything for the purchase and installation, and the gas company upgraded my incoming line for free. it was a real boon when the power was out for almost a week during the winter a year ago.
Unless you have a house off-grid, skip the solar and batteries. Find out the amps required for your HVAC, how many KWH per day max, and add that into any equations. For small stuff, batteries and solar work well. Another thought I have is that I would sooner store a half dozen propane tanks in my house than a large battery of any type, and no way would I put solar panels up on my roof. In a field, or as a lanai, yeah, but not on the roof. I'm now reading of insurance companies refusing to insure some houses with rooftop solar - or charging a premium.
If you have nat-gas available then a powered generator is the way to go.
Yes, the air-cooled ones are 'noisy' - but a liquid-cooled 'quiet' one costs double or more.
Your correct, a 'turn-key' install will cost you triple the cost of the materials.
If you gc it yourself (especially in the 'off season') you can save a ton$.
Forget roof-top solar unless you like a leaky roof.
You may want to get 'soft starters' for you AC condenser units - they make it much easier to startup when on generator (will keep generator from bogging down or requiring you to 'oversize' generator just for the AC units).
My roof top solar doesn't leak water. I know about a dozen folks with solar no one has had any leaking issues even with snow pack on the roof. Unless you have (or are) a complete idiot installing the panels they shouldn't leak any more than any other roof top protrusion.
Unless you have a house off-grid, skip the solar and batteries. Find out the amps required for your HVAC, how many KWH per day max, and add that into any equations. For small stuff, batteries and solar work well. Another thought I have is that I would sooner store a half dozen propane tanks in my house than a large battery of any type, and no way would I put solar panels up on my roof. In a field, or as a lanai, yeah, but not on the roof. I'm now reading of insurance companies refusing to insure some houses with rooftop solar - or charging a premium.
We have State Farm and we didn't have any problem or change in our rate. Actually my agent said they like them because they can protect the roof in the even of hail. Hail claims are like #1 out here. But solar panels are really tough and can withstand serious impacts. These panels are really tough.
Now I did have any issue installing a metal roof but that's a different animal altogether...
whole house natural gas generator here. Generac installed and maintained by a local guy. He's the closest one to fix it should something happen (5 miles vs 50 miles) so let him install it it. No complaints. No regrets.
Thanks, everyone for the input so far-- Yes, I'm still having difficulty determining real cost & performance experiences by real users for the PwrCell or PowerWall. Maybe it's a less common setup than I thought. I would hope that the rooftop solar array could be designed-in to the new construction remodel we had in mind, but, agreed-- any penetration on the roof is a potential access point for a leak. And I had wondered about hail damage-- Thanks for that input too.... And I never thought about insurance impacts-- I'll call my carrier this week and bounce a solar array & NG generator scenarios off of them to see if there's anything I should be aware of.
I have another generator "guy" coming tomorrow and I may have to get "Solar Companies" involved to get any sort of starting point cost & performance data. Solar companies, though never seem to last long-- always starting up and then going under.
I have so many irons in the fire right now-- it's hard to dedicate enough time on the nuances of the generators & batteries. I wish this emergency power need hadn't popped up when it did, so I thank you all for the input.. It means a lot.
Why, because no matter what type inverter you get, modified-sine-wave, pure-sine-wave,
square-wave....none of them actually put-out a pure sine-wave, that is what electrical/electronic stuff wants. Depending on what you are running on your inverter, your device can have problems ranging from too much heat, wonky operation, death.
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