Caroline from Middletown, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since November of 2020. The generator was installed by another company, and the relationship began with a startup inspection and a monitoring subscription set up the same day. Every interval since has been kept: the first-year service in 2021, then the two-year, three-year, four-year and five-year visits through to this year. Monitoring on a machine we did not install is the part that changes the year between visits – the weekly self-test stops being a noise in the garden and becomes something that reports its own result. An annual maintenance plan and the monitoring both sit behind the machine.
Project Facts
- Location
- Middletown, NJ
- Service
- Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- November 2020
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 7038-1
- Rated output
- 20 kW LP / 18 kW NG
- Transfer switch
- 90 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Standby generator questions from Middletown homeowners
Does the generator have to be bolted down?
Not every ground-level installation uses the same anchoring method. The requirement changes with the model, the pad type, wind exposure, flood requirements, elevated platforms and any local engineering requirement. The model manual and the site conditions decide it.
Why do outages last longer on some Middletown streets than others?
Mature tree cover over overhead lines is the usual reason. Limbs coming down in wind, snow or ice take the lines with them, so heavily treed streets tend to see both more frequent outages and longer restoration times than open ones. It is one of the honest arguments for standby power rather than a portable generator.
How is a standby generator grounded?
The grounding and bonding arrangement depends on the transfer-switch configuration, and in particular on whether the neutral is switched and the generator therefore treated as a separately derived system. It is designed by a qualified electrical contractor rather than assumed from another installation.