Standby Generator Installation and Solar Panel Installation in Matawan, NJ | 6.65 kW Solar & 16 kW Generac

Matawan, NJ · Client since October 2019

Ana in Matawan has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since October of 2019. She signed for the standby generator and the solar array on the same day, and the two were commissioned forty-eight hours apart that December.

A 16 kW machine on 16 December

The machine is a Generac 16 kW, model 70371, rated 16 kW on natural gas and on propane alike, and this house runs on natural gas. It stands outdoors beside the meter behind a 200-amp service-rated transfer switch.

The house is 2,550 square feet and its electrical calculation comes to 16,516 watts. A 4,000-watt air conditioning load is managed while the generator runs, leaving 12,516 watts to carry — inside the machine’s rating with useful room above it, and well clear of the 13 kW the code calculation asks for as a minimum.

What stays live throughout: two refrigerators, the dishwasher, the garbage disposal, the microwave, the washer, the gas dryer, both garage door openers, and a gas furnace that burns gas but still needs power to run its blower.

19 panels on 18 December

The array is nineteen LG 350-watt panels, 6.65 kW in total, on Ecolibrium mounting with a SolarEdge SE5000H inverter and an optimizer on every panel. Estimated first-year production is 8,818 kWh and the utility is JCP&L.

Nothing to remember

The point of an automatic standby generator is contained in the word automatic, and it is easy to undersell.

The machine watches the utility supply continuously. When it fails, the transfer switch disconnects the house from the grid, the engine starts, and power is restored to the panel in a matter of seconds — with nobody home, at four in the morning, in February. It exercises itself weekly on its own schedule so that the first time it runs under load is not the first time it has run in a year. When the utility returns, it transfers back and shuts down without being asked.

None of that requires the household to have watched a forecast, moved a car, fetched fuel, run a cord through a window, or been in the state. That is the difference between backup power that exists and backup power that works, and it is why a permanent installation is a different proposition from a portable one rather than a more expensive version of it.

The array, meanwhile, does nothing during any of this — a grid-tied system shuts down the moment the utility fails and must, so that it cannot energise a line a crew is working on. Two systems bought on one day, doing two entirely separate jobs ever since.

The generator was last serviced on 3 November 2025.

Questions from Matawan homeowners

Standby generatorWhat happens if we add a heat pump, a pool or an EV charger later?

Any major new electrical load should prompt a review of the generator's capacity. A machine sized correctly at installation may no longer be adequate once substantial loads are added. Load management can often accommodate the new equipment without replacing the generator.

Standby generatorHow far from the property line does a generator need to be in Matawan?

There is no single statewide New Jersey property-line setback for a residential generator. Setbacks are set by the municipality's zoning ordinance, so the requirement is a Matawan question rather than a general one. A generator can meet every manufacturer clearance and still breach a side-yard or rear-yard setback, which is why the zoning review happens before the location is fixed.

SolarCan the utility turn a solar system down?

Yes -- approval is not automatic. A system can need modification or further review because of its size, transformer limitations, the condition of the circuit, protection requirements, the service configuration or the grid's hosting capacity.