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After going 6 days without commercial power in the spring of 2020 we purchased a Generac 18kw natural gas unit. It will power the whole house as long as we don't operate the electric oven when both AC units are running. 2200Kw units were unavailable for the foreseeable future according to the dealer.

During the outage we operated with a portable 3300 watt generator. It was only enough to power the refrigerators(2), freezer, couple lights ,and a recharge station. No heat except for a gas log fire place. Had to put 4 +/- gal of gas in three times a day. Was sure glad I had it though. We would have lost a lot of food without it.

Our power line was the last one repaired due to access problems. They had to clear a path through the city park to the broken pole and the trees laying on the line Required removing some of the city's chain link fence and trees
Another big wind like that one would likely drop some more 100= foot trees onto the line again.

The only thing I would do different would be to shop the Generac installation. The cost was $12k. 1/3 of which was installation.

Keith B wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:00 pm

Chemist45 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:29 pm Carlson1 asked

Has anyone checked into or own a Generac Generator? I was wondering how elk they worked and what the cost might be for a small house.

I have a Generac 20KW that runs on propane. Its about 5 years old and has only been used a few hours here and there until this past week.
It does a self test every week and I have a 250 gal propane tank in the ground.
This past week, it ran from Monday morning until Wednesday at 5:30. It shut itself off twice when we got power back for short periods.
I got the automatic transfer switch, so I don't have to do a thing.
This generator was worth every dollar I paid for it.
5 years ago, Mrs Chemist gave me a little grief about the cost.
2 days ago she thanked me for buying it.

A whole-home auto start generator with a automatic transfer switch is optimum for situations like this snowmagedon. In Texas, it’s probably more likely it would be used during a power outage from a severe storm or tornado, If you have natural gas available, it’s even better than a propane model. A 22kw is enough to run most all electric homes. With natural gas you can go with a smaller unit. A smart transfer switch will prioritize your items in the home and take non-essential items off line if a higher priority item like water heater or heat strips need to be utilized.

A reputable electric contractor can evaluate your needs and properly size a unit for your home. Well worth the money if you can afford the initial expense.

The above is what my neighbor has on natural gas. It test runs for a period of time every Thursday. The Generac installer does the routine scheduled maintenance plus any warranty work. After our 6 day power outage last March I want to do the same, but $12,000+ is a bit steep for me at the moment. We survived with a 3300 watt (surge) generator to run the freezer, fridge, a light or 2 and a charging station. Sometimes at night we had to disconnect the fridge and freezer to run a little 1500 watt electric heater. The neighbor's Generac runs the whole house and is automatic,