Jim from Farmingdale, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since May of 2013, and there are twelve years between the two jobs on this page.
A 14 kW Generac on a 150-amp service
Commissioned on 14 August 2013. A Generac rated 13 kW on natural gas – 14 kW on propane – on its own pad, behind a 200-amp service-rated managed whole-house transfer switch with two power management modules. The house is 2,200 square feet on a 150-amp service, with a double electric oven, a refrigerator, a dishwasher, a washer and a gas dryer. The double oven is what the modules are there for. Electric cooking is one of the few loads in an ordinary house that can rival everything else running at once, and holding it back for a few minutes is a great deal cheaper than buying a machine big enough never to have to. It has been on a PowerBase plan since it was installed.
A ChargePoint on a 60-amp circuit, twelve years later
4 April 2025, mounted in the garage on the opposite side of the wall from the electrical panel. Hardwired, J1772, on a dedicated 60-amp circuit at 11.5 kW – roughly 36 miles of range an hour – with a load-management module.
162 amps on a 150-amp service
That is what the survey returned when the charger was added: a calculated minimum of 162.87 amps, for a house whose service is rated at 150. Taken at face value that means a service upgrade – the utility, a new panel, and a bill several times what the charger costs. It did not, because the charger is managed. Its module holds it back whenever the rest of the house needs the capacity, so the peak the panel is actually asked to carry never reaches the unmanaged figure. Which is precisely what the two modules on the generator have been doing to the double oven since 2013. Twelve years apart, the same answer to the same question, on the same modest service – and the reason this house has never needed the utility to come and make it bigger.
Project Facts
- Location
- Farmingdale, NJ
- Services
- EV Charger Installation, Standby Generator Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- May 2013
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 6241
- Rated output
- 14 kW LP / 13 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Home sized for
- 2,200 sq ft
- Electrical service
- 150 amp
- Transfer switch
- 0 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
EV charger
- Charger
- ChargePoint Model # CPH50-HARDWIRE-L23
- Charging port
- CCS (J1772)
- Circuit breaker
- 60 amp
- Charging stations
- 1
- Estimated range added per hour
- Estimated Range Per Hour: 36 mi / 58 km
Questions from Farmingdale homeowners
Standby generatorWill a 22 kW generator run an entire Farmingdale house?
For many homes, yes, but that does not mean every load can run at the same moment. Houses with two central air conditioners, electric heat, EV charging, pool equipment or electric cooking may need load management or a larger machine. The answer comes from a load calculation rather than from the phrase whole house.
EV chargingWhy does the charger sit on a 60-amp breaker?
Because 48-amp charging is a continuous load, and the code requires the overcurrent protection for a continuous load to be sized at not less than 125 percent of it. Forty-eight amps multiplied by 1.25 is sixty. The breaker is not oversized; it is sized correctly for a load that runs for hours without pause.
Standby generatorHow level does a generator have to be?
Within the leveling tolerance specified in its installation manual -- applicable air-cooled instructions have used roughly a half-inch overall. A poorly prepared base can settle after installation and bring on drainage, vibration or enclosure problems that were not there on the day it went in.