Cathy in Farmingdale has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since November of 2024. The standby generator was commissioned in April 2025 and the house was soft washed eleven weeks after that.
17 kW for a house that needs twelve
This is a compact house — 1,817 square feet on a 150-amp service — and nearly everything with an appetite for power runs on gas: the furnace, the clothes dryer, the range and the hot water. The electrical calculation comes to 15,308 watts. The one three-ton air conditioner accounts for 3,000 of that, and it is the load that stands down when the generator is running, which brings what the machine carries to 12,308 watts.
The machine is a Generac Guardian 18 kW home standby, model 7226, delivering 17 kW on natural gas, which is what this house runs on. That is a good deal more than 12,308 watts, and the headroom is deliberate rather than accidental. A generator sized to the last watt has nothing left when a household adds a freezer in the garage or a window unit upstairs, and re-sizing after the fact means replacing the machine rather than adjusting it.
The transfer switch is service-rated at 150 amps, matched to the service rather than to the generator, and stands outdoors beside the meter. It carries a surge protective device — worth having on any house, and worth more on one where the generator and the utility both feed through the same enclosure.
On backup the house keeps the refrigerator, the dishwasher, the garbage disposal, the microwave, the washer, the garage door and the gas furnace, which needs power to fire even though it burns gas. That last point catches people out: a gas furnace in an outage is as useless as an electric one until something turns the blower.
The generator was last serviced in March 2026.
A soft wash eleven weeks later
On 30 June 2025 we washed 2,736 square feet of the exterior. Soft washing is done by the solution rather than by pressure: a sodium hypochlorite and surfactant mix goes on at low pressure, is left to kill the algae and mildew living on the surface, and is rinsed off. Force alone takes the stain off and leaves the growth, so it comes back within a season, and on siding and soffits the pressure itself opens seams and drives water where it should not go.
Project Facts
- Location
- Farmingdale, NJ
- Services
- Softwash Service, Standby Generator Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- November 2024
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 7226
- Rated output
- 18 kW LP / 17 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Home sized for
- 1,817 sq ft
- Electrical service
- 150 amp
- Transfer switch
- 150 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Exterior cleaning
- Surface cleaned
- 2,736 sq ft
Questions from Farmingdale homeowners
Standby generatorCan a generator be installed in a flood zone in Farmingdale?
Yes, but the generator and its electrical equipment may need to be elevated or otherwise protected. The installation is evaluated against the property's FEMA flood zone, its Base Flood Elevation and Design Flood Elevation, the municipal flood ordinance, any applicable freeboard, and NJDEP requirements where they apply. It is a property-by-property assessment rather than a rule of thumb.
Soft washingAre plants covered up during the work?
Watering and rinsing protect planting better than wrapping it in plastic does. Plants need air and can overheat under a covering, particularly on a sunny day. Sensitive landscaping is assessed on the day and protected according to the actual conditions rather than by habit.
Standby generatorCan an existing propane tank be reused for a new generator?
Possibly. Existing propane equipment can be reused when it is correctly sized, sited, regulated, maintained and capable of supplying the demand the generator adds. The propane supplier should verify capacity and regulator performance before the machine is commissioned rather than after.