Jonathan came to Green Sun Energy Services in October of 2019, as the owner of this Little Egg Harbor property. He signed for the solar array and the standby generator on the same day, and both were commissioned on the same day, 27 November 2019. He has since moved on from the house; the two systems are still there.
Five feet off the ground
Most standby generators in this set sit on a composite pad at ground level. This one does not. It stands on a platform five feet high, built to the Uniform Construction Code before we arrived, and there is no pad under it at all.
That single requirement changes the whole shape of the job. A generator raised five feet has to have its gas and its electrical runs brought up to it rather than across to it. The machine has to be reachable for servicing at that height. And the platform itself has to carry several hundred pounds of engine and enclosure, in weather, for decades — which is why it is built to code by a builder rather than improvised.
The reason is elevation. On low-lying coastal ground, backup power that sits at grade is backup power that fails in exactly the conditions it was bought for: the storm that takes the electricity out is frequently the same storm that puts water where the generator is. A machine at ground level in a surge is not a machine that runs the sump pump — it is another thing to replace afterwards.
The machine itself is a Generac 16 kW, model 7176, rated 16 kW on natural gas and on propane alike. The house is 2,300 square feet on a 150-amp service, its electrical calculation comes to 16,616 watts, and a 4,000-watt air conditioning load is managed while the generator runs, leaving 12,616 watts to carry. The transfer switch is service-rated at 150 amps, matched to the service. It was last serviced on 10 September 2025.23 panels, 8 kW:
The array is twenty-three LG 350-watt panels, 8.05 kW in total, on Ecolibrium mounting with a SolarEdge SE6000H inverter and an optimizer on every panel. Estimated first-year production is 10,148 kWh and the utility is Atlantic City Electric.
One decision, taken once
Signing for both systems on the same day and having them commissioned on the same day is rarer than it sounds, and on a site like this one it was the sensible way round.
Both systems needed the same coordination: the service, the transfer equipment, the array and the interconnection all had to be planned together and inspected together. Doing them as one project meant one set of permits, one electrical design, and one crew that already knew where the generator platform was going before deciding where the array’s conduit would run.
Split across two companies and two years, that same house produces two designs that each assume the other does not exist.
Project Facts
- Location
- Little Egg Harbor, NJ
- Services
- Solar Panel Installation, Standby Generator Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- October 2019
Solar
- Panels
- LG Model # 350N1C-V5
- Panels
- 23
- System size
- 8.05 kW
- Inverter
- SolarEdge SE6000H-US000NNC2
- Mounting system
- Ecolibrium Solar
- Estimated first-year production
- 10,148 kWh
- Share of the home's electricity
- 97%
- Electric utility
- Atlantic City Electric
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 7176
- Rated output
- 16 kW LP / 16 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Home sized for
- 2,300 sq ft
- Electrical service
- 150 amp
- Transfer switch
- 150 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Questions from Little Egg Harbor homeowners
Standby generatorDoes a generator keep the well running during an outage in Little Egg Harbor?
Yes, when the well pump is included in the design. A private well pump is electric, so without power there is no running water at all -- a different order of problem from losing the lights. Homes on a well are among the clearest cases for standby power, and the pump belongs on the load list from the start.
SolarDoes solar equipment have to be listed?
Yes. Modules, inverters and mounting systems are each subject to product-listing requirements under the applicable standards, and the equipment has to be installed according to that listing and its instructions rather than to general practice.
Standby generatorIs an emergency shutdown required?
The 2023 National Electrical Code contains requirements addressing emergency shutdown of generator prime movers. Whether and how they apply is determined from the generator's rating, its location, the model and the installation, and the factory equipment is evaluated against them rather than presumed to comply.