Standby Generator Installation and Soft Washing in Rumson, NJ | 22 kW Generac

Rumson, NJ · Client since August 2020

Steve in Rumson has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since August of 2020. The standby generator was commissioned that winter and we washed the outside of the house in May 2026.

A twelve-seat hot tub and a pool

The electrical calculation for this house comes to 33,787 watts, well above what a house of this size would usually reach. Two things account for the difference: a twelve-seat hot tub and a pool.

Neither is a load you can simply drop from the list. A hot tub that loses power in January is a problem that gets worse the longer it lasts, and a pool filter that stops circulating is the same argument on a slower clock. But neither has to run at the same moment as everything else in a 4,276 square foot house, and that is what makes them manageable rather than decisive.

So the transfer switch carries two smart management modules sized for exactly those two loads — one rated at 100 amps, one at 50 — and they take 18,000 watts out of the calculation. What the generator is left holding is 17,387 watts.

The machine is a Generac Guardian 22 kW home standby, model 7043-2. It delivers 19.5 kW on natural gas, which is what this house runs on, and it sits behind a 200-amp service-rated transfer switch mounted in the basement beside the service panel.

What never stands down: three sump pumps, two refrigerators, the gas boiler that heats the house, the dishwasher, the garbage disposal, the microwave, the washer and both garage door openers. Three sump pumps is not belt and braces on a house this size, it is the specification.

One thing had to happen before we arrived — bushes and a section of fence near the pool heater and filter had to come out, which was the household’s to arrange. The generator was commissioned on 30 January 2021 and was last serviced in October 2025.

Washing 7,773 square feet in May

On 29 May 2026 we soft washed 7,773 square feet of the exterior. Soft washing does the work chemically rather than mechanically: a sodium hypochlorite and surfactant solution is applied at low pressure, left to kill the algae and mildew growing on the surface, then rinsed. Pressure on its own takes the staining off and leaves the growth behind, so it returns within a season, and on siding and trim the force does damage that shows up long after the house has dried.

Questions from Rumson homeowners

Soft washingDoes soft washing use bleach, and is that bad for a house?

Sodium-hypochlorite-based chemistry is widely used for biological growth, and chlorine-based treatment is specifically recognized in the published asphalt-roof cleaning guidance from both the industry association and the shingle manufacturers. Like any cleaning product it can damage materials if misused, so what matters is controlling the concentration, the exposure time, the overspray, the rinse and the protection of planting.

Standby generatorCan the existing natural-gas service in a Rumson home supply a generator?

Often yes, but the gas system has to be evaluated first. The review covers the generator's BTU demand, meter capacity, available pressure, regulator capacity, pipe diameter and length, and every other gas appliance in the house -- furnace, boiler, water heater, range and fireplace among them.

Soft washingCan pressure washing damage wood?

Yes. Excessive pressure can raise grain, splinter fibers and create visible wand marks in wood. Deck and fence cleaning should use pressure appropriate to the species, age and condition of the wood. Chemistry can often reduce how much mechanical pressure is necessary.