I’ve had a whole house generator fed by natural gas. I’ve had it for 8-10 yrs. when I was looking into such, I was told that Generac makes the best,and that they are sold under multiple brand names. Think lawn mowers - most have engines made by Briggs & Stratton, regardless of the lawnmower brand.

I have no no idea how mine is cooled. I know it automatically runs every Wed afternoon for 5 minutes and comes on quite quickly when I have a power outage.

Mine is very loud. I always feel a bit of guilt when neighbors have to open their windows and hear this noise during a power outage. But not guilty enough to not use it!

Yeah they are very loud. If you're afraid of a living dead apocalypse coming, and you run that thing you'll be the first to go.

"The noise it makes is enough to wake the dead..."

We love our Generac! We had a couple of issues when it was first installed, but we have a first class installer who made everything right. We added a module that will now alert the company (and us) if there's a problem.

Cummins/Onan. Generac advertises more. You need a specialist to install. While your electrician can set up your electrical box to more easily accept the system, he cannot do the install. That's for a specialist. FYI, There are ways to reduce the noise. But, you will have to plan for it.

I believe Cummins/Onan is a quieter generator than most.

You can build a screen around the generator and use a product called Acoustic Fence to line the screen. It will baffle the sound.

Acoustifence

I have a portable Generator that I v=converted to run on bottled propane. It's noisy.

To address the next door neighbor's concern about noise, I offered him 20 Amps when my generator... he bought the extension cords and is happy as a lark when he can run his fridge or freezer or a fan or two...

Makes for good neighbors.

Check into what special offers your utility company might have. We live in Vermont and have just installed two Tesla PowerWall batteries available through Green Mountain Power. It’s a ten year rental at $30 a month and should provide back up power for the whole house.

loh2001 Intriguing approach. Seems a reasonable cost!

loh2001, a 2 battery Tesla set-up costs $14,100, not including installation and comes with a 10 year warranty. I’d say you got a good deal.

Doesn't a $30/month payment add up to less than $4,000 over 10 years? Maybe I'm misunderstanding, where does the $11K amount come from?

Green Mountain Power subsidizes the Tesla batteries, because they use the power from them to maintain consistent power for the grid. So they’re constantly taking out and then putting back in. They don’t take any out if there are storms or potential outages expected.

It helps that we live in a net zero capable house with solar panels on the roof, but I know the program is available to all.

This is not offered by my electric company, Entergy.

Our standby generator trade partner sells and installs both Kohler and Generac. He prefers the Kohler air cooled, but if the capacity requires a liquid-cooled unit, he likes the Generac better. Most of what we install are 20 kW Kohler units and they've proven to be reliable. If you plan to install a standby generator to run an air conditioner, better ensure it will be capable of starting the unit.