A 4,300 square foot shingle roof:
Stephani in Middletown has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since March of 2015. The roof came first, and the standby generator followed four years later.
There were two layers of shingle on the house and both were sound. Both came off anyway. A tear-off to the sheathing is the only way to see what the deck underneath is actually doing, and a third layer laid over two good ones would have hidden it for another twenty years. The contract was signed on 22 March 2015 and the work was finished on 16 April, twenty-five days later.
What went back on, in order: GAF roof deck protection over the bare sheathing, ice shield three feet up from every gutter edge and through all the valleys, GAF Pro-Start along the eaves and rakes, and aluminum drip edge. Then GAF Timberline HDZ shingles in charcoal, Cobra Snow Country ridge vent along the ridges, every pipe flange replaced and all flashings sealed. The roofing system carries a 50-year manufacturer warranty.
One complication is worth naming, because it catches people out. The roof already had solar hot-water panels on it. They had to come down before the tear-off could start and go back up afterwards, and on this job that was the household’s own arrangement rather than ours. Anything mounted on a roof has to be scheduled around the roofers, not left until after them.
18 kW of backup on a managed switch
The load survey for the 2,576 square foot house came to 24,727 watts of calculated load. The single largest item in it is the five-ton air conditioner, at 6,500 watts on its own.
The machine is a Generac Guardian 20 kW aluminum home standby, model 7038-1. It delivers 18 kW on natural gas, which is what this house runs on. It sits on a GenPad outside and feeds a 200-amp GenReady load center with power management built in, mounted indoors in the garage and fed from the home’s 200-amp service. That load center is the reason the numbers work: it is a managed whole-house switch rather than a plain one, so during an outage it decides what runs and when.
Take the air conditioner off the top and the load the generator has to hold drops to 18,227 watts. Everything else stays live throughout: the electric oven and cooktop, the electric dryer, the washer, the dishwasher, the refrigerator, the separate freezer, the pool filter and both garage door openers. On a summer outage the air conditioner waits its turn, and nothing else in the house is asked to.
The generator was commissioned on 18 April 2019 and has been under a PowerBase plan ever since. It was last serviced in December 2025.
Project Facts
- Location
- Middletown, NJ
- Services
- Roofing Installation, Standby Generator Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- March 2015
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 7038-1
- Rated output
- 20 kW LP / 18 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Home sized for
- 2,576 sq ft
- Electrical service
- 200 amp
- Transfer switch
- 200 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Roof
- System
- GAF Timberline Lifetime Roofing System
- Area replaced
- 4,300 sq ft
- Warranty
- 50 years
Questions from Middletown homeowners
RoofingDo I need gutter guards in Middletown, NJ?
They can reduce routine debris buildup, especially on wooded properties, but no system eliminates all maintenance. The best guard depends on roof slope, tree type, gutter size, and the homeowner's expectations.
Standby generatorWill the sump pump keep working if the power goes out?
It will if it is on the generator. This matters most in exactly the weather that causes outages: heavy rain and a power cut tend to arrive together, and a sump pump without power cannot keep a basement dry. A sump pump is one of the loads worth confirming during the survey rather than assuming.
RoofingCan roof replacement damage my landscaping?
Tear-off produces nails, shingles, and debris, so a professional crew should use tarps, plywood, magnets, controlled debris paths, and cleanup procedures. Delicate shrubs, pools, air conditioners, patios, and neighboring property need extra protection.