Anna from Rumson, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since August of 2020, and came back for a car charger four years later. The generator is the one people remember, and not for its size.
A 20 kW Generac, and a window that had to stop opening
Commissioned on 25 February 2021. The calculation asked for a minimum of 14 kW under NEC Article 220 Part IV and a Generac rated 18 kW on natural gas went in – 20 kW on propane – behind a 200-amp managed whole-house transfer switch with a smart management module. The house is 2,300 square feet with three refrigerators, a dishwasher, a washer, a gas dryer and a sump pump.
The condition attached to the job is the part worth reading. A generator has to sit a set distance from any window or door that opens, because exhaust goes to the nearest opening and a house will draw it in. At the position this machine had to occupy, that distance could not be met – so before the install could go ahead, the household had the window to its right replaced with a fully sealed, non-operational unit. It sounds like bureaucracy and it is not. The alternative is a running engine a few feet from a window somebody opens on a warm night in the middle of an outage.
A Tesla Wall Connector, outdoors beside the generator
July of 2024. The household supplied the charger – a Tesla Wall Connector, NACS – and we installed it outdoors next to the generator, on a dedicated 60-amp circuit at 11.5 kW with a management module of its own, adding roughly 36 miles of range an hour.
Two machines on one wall
The charger ended up a few feet from the generator, which is tidy and also sensible. Both are large loads served from the same 200-amp panel, and by 2024 that panel had already been surveyed once and given a module to arbitrate with. The charger got a module of its own, so it can be held back while the machine is carrying the house – a car charging overnight is the easiest big load in a home to defer, and the last one anybody wants competing with three refrigerators and a sump pump. There is a quieter connection too: the clearance rule that fixed the generator’s position in 2021, sealed window and all, is the reason there was already a settled, code-compliant piece of wall to put a charger on three years later.
Project Facts
- Location
- Rumson, NJ
- Services
- EV Charger Installation, Standby Generator Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- August 2020
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 7039-1
- Rated output
- 20 kW LP / 18 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Electrical service
- 200 amp
- Transfer switch
- 200 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
EV charger
- Charger
- Tesla Model # 1457768-02/NACS (Customer Supplied)
- Charging port
- TESLA (NACS)
- Circuit breaker
- 60 amp
- Estimated range added per hour
- Estimated Range Per Hour: 36 mi / 58 km
Questions from Rumson homeowners
Standby generatorDoes a generator in Rumson have to sit twelve inches above the flood elevation?
That figure should not be treated as a universal rule without looking at the actual property. The required elevation can depend on the flood-zone designation, the municipal freeboard, the Design Flood Elevation, Coastal A or V Zone conditions, NJDEP requirements and the applicable building-code provisions. Each flood-zone installation is worked out individually.
EV chargingWhat is a Tesla Wall Connector?
Tesla's hardwired residential Level 2 charger. The current North American Wall Connector delivers up to 48 amps, about 11.5 kW, on an appropriately sized circuit, and can be commissioned to operate below that where the electrical system cannot support the maximum.
Standby generatorCan the generator stay connected during a pressure test?
The machine has to be protected from test pressures beyond what its fuel controls are built to withstand. The fuel-gas code sets out when appliances are disconnected or isolated for testing, and the plumbing contractor follows both that code and the generator's installation instructions.