Carol in Farmingdale has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since March of 2016. The standby generator went in that May and we came back to wash the house in July 2025.
Almost nothing to manage
Most standby installations involve a negotiation. The calculation comes out above what the machine can hold, so something has to agree to wait — usually the air conditioning, sometimes an oven or a hot tub — and a management module is fitted to make that happen automatically.
This house barely needed one. The electrical calculation comes to 16,436 watts, and the only load taken off the top is a two-ton air conditioner at 2,000 watts, which leaves 14,436 for the generator to hold. The machine is a Generac Guardian 16 kW home standby in a steel enclosure, model 6462, rated 16 kW on natural gas and on propane alike, and this house runs on natural gas.
That the numbers land so comfortably is partly a matter of size — 1,990 square feet — and partly the opposite of what makes most of these jobs interesting. Where many houses put the heavy loads on gas and keep the electrical calculation down, this one runs an electric dryer and an electric oven, which pushes it up. It still fits, because there is not much else competing: one refrigerator, the dishwasher, the garbage disposal, the microwave, the washer and a single garage door.
The transfer switch is service-rated at 200 amps and sits in the garage. The generator was commissioned on 20 May 2016 and was last serviced in October 2025.
4,860 square feet washed in July
On 17 July 2025 we soft washed 4,860 square feet of exterior. Soft washing is done by the solution rather than by pressure: a sodium hypochlorite and surfactant mix is applied at low pressure, left to kill the algae and mildew growing on the surface, and rinsed off.
Force on its own lifts the staining and leaves the growth in the surface, so it comes back the following season, and pressure high enough to clean siding is also high enough to drive water behind it.
Project Facts
- Location
- Farmingdale, NJ
- Services
- Softwash Service, Standby Generator Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- March 2016
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 6462
- Rated output
- 16 kW LP / 16 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Home sized for
- 1,990 sq ft
- Electrical service
- 200 amp
- Transfer switch
- 200 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Exterior cleaning
- Surface cleaned
- 4,860 sq ft
Questions from Farmingdale homeowners
Soft washingWhat is the best time of year to soft wash a house in Farmingdale?
Spring through autumn offers plenty of suitable days, though the weather matters more than the month. Spring is popular for clearing winter buildup and pollen residue. Hard cold, storms and high winds can make exterior cleaning impractical, and heavy rain dilutes the chemistry and cuts short its dwell time.
Standby generatorCan a standby generator run central air conditioning?
Yes, when it is sized for it. The design has to account for both the running demand and the starting surge of the air-conditioning equipment. Load-management equipment can be used where necessary so that demand does not all arrive at once.
Soft washingWhat is dwell time?
The period the cleaning solution is left on the surface to work before it is rinsed away. Rinsing too soon cuts short the part of the process that actually treats the growth. On heavy contamination, more dwell time within the product's limits or a second application is a better answer than turning the pressure up.