Standby Generator and Solar Installation in Tinton Falls, NJ | 29.48 kW Solar & 26 kW Generac

Tinton Falls, NJ · Client since August 2025

David in Tinton Falls has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since August of 2025. The standby generator was commissioned in November and the solar array in December. Both systems are unusually large, and the reason is the same in each case.

A 26 kW machine and six modules

The electrical calculation for this 4,000 square foot house comes to 47,018 watts. That is roughly double a typical house of the same floor area, and the reason is what is in it rather than how big it is: an electric vehicle charger, a heat pump, and 14,500 watts of air conditioning.

A generator that could hold 47,018 watts outright does not belong on a residential property. What went in is a Generac 26 kW, model 7290, delivering 22.5 kW on natural gas, and behind it six load-management modules.

Between them those six modules take 26,180 watts out of the calculation, leaving 20,838 for the machine to carry. The EV charger and the heat pump are both on the managed list, which is exactly right: a car does not need to charge during a blackout, and a heat pump has a backup heat source. What is not managed keeps running without interruption.

One physical problem had to be solved before any of it could be installed. An existing mini-split unit stood where the generator needed to go, so at the household’s request it was relocated and wall-mounted. That sort of thing is invisible in a specification and decides whether a job is straightforward or not.

29.5 kW of solar, 67 panels

The array is 67 JA Solar 440-watt panels, 29.48 kW in total, on Unirac mounting with an Enphase IQ8HC microinverter behind every panel. Estimated first-year production is 28,994 kWh — and the utility is JCP&L. It was commissioned on 13 December 2025.

Sizing two systems for one house

The two systems were designed to different targets, and keeping those targets separate is what makes both of them correct.

The array is sized against the household’s annual consumption: how much electricity this house uses across a year, and how much roof there is to offset it. The generator is sized against something else entirely — not annual usage but simultaneous demand, the worst plausible moment when the air conditioning, the appliances and the well of ordinary loads are all drawing at once.

Those two numbers have almost nothing to do with each other, and a house like this one shows why conflating them goes wrong in both directions. Sizing the generator from the annual figure would produce a machine far too small. Sizing the array from the peak would produce one far too large. Each system gets its own question, and load management does the work of reconciling the answer with what a residential machine can physically deliver.

A service plan for both systems

With a 26 kW generator and a 29.48 kW solar array both commissioned, David added a service plan to cover ongoing maintenance for the two installations.

The plan provides an annual maintenance visit and an extended parts-and-labor warranty, giving both systems a structured path for upkeep beyond the installation warranties already in place — Generac’s 5-year limited warranty and Green Sun’s 5-year workmanship warranty on the generator, and the 25-year workmanship warranty on the solar array.

Green Sun can also assist with any questions around available incentives, SREC registration, and the financial and tax considerations that come with a system of this size — walking through the options and connecting David with the right resources.