Standby Generator Installation and Solar Panel Installation in Manahawkin, NJ | A Kohler Standby and 16 Panels

Manahawkin, NJ · Client since January 2016

Alise in Manahawkin has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since January of 2016. The standby generator and the solar array were signed on the same day, which is unusual and, on the evidence of this house, sensible.

A Kohler 20 kW in April

Not every standby machine we install is a Generac. This one is a Kohler 20RESB in an aluminum enclosure, rated 20 kW on propane and delivering 18 kW on natural gas, which is what this house runs on. It was commissioned on 15 April 2016.

The house is 2,000 square feet on a 200-amp service and its electrical calculation comes to 17,880 watts. A 5,000-watt air conditioning load is the one taken off the top while the generator is running, which leaves 12,880 watts for the machine to hold — comfortably inside what it delivers, and well above the 13 kW the code calculation asks for as a minimum.

The transfer switch is a 200-amp non-service-rated unit sitting outdoors beside the meter. That is the more conventional arrangement: it sits behind the main disconnect rather than replacing it, which means two enclosures on the wall instead of one, and it is the right choice where the existing service equipment is sound and there is no reason to disturb it.

4.8 kW of solar in August

The array followed in August: sixteen LG 300-watt panels, 4.8 kW in total, on QuickMount rails with an Enphase M250 microinverter behind each panel. Estimated first-year production is 6,409 kWh and the utility is Atlantic City Electric.

Why both, and not just one

The two systems are often presented as alternatives, and they are not. They solve opposite problems.

Solar reduces what a household buys from the grid across a year. It does nothing whatsoever during an outage — a grid-tied array without storage shuts down the moment the utility supply fails, and it has to, because feeding power back into lines that linemen are working on would be dangerous. A household with solar on the roof and no generator sits in exactly the same dark as everyone else on the street.

A standby generator does the reverse. It contributes nothing to an ordinary electricity bill and everything to the four days a year when there is no supply at all.

Signing for both on the same day, as this household did, is the version of the decision that skips the argument.

Questions from Manahawkin homeowners

SolarWhat is panel efficiency?

How effectively a module turns the sunlight striking its surface into electrical power. Higher efficiency fits more generating capacity into a limited area, which matters most on houses where the usable roof is the constraint rather than the budget.

Standby generatorWhat does a whole-house generator actually mean?

Whole-house generally means the transfer equipment serves the home's main electrical system rather than a small emergency-circuit panel. It does not promise unlimited capacity. High-demand appliances may still be prioritized or briefly shed while generator capacity is being used elsewhere.

Standby generatorDoes a generator keep the well running during an outage in Manahawkin?

Yes, when the well pump is included in the design. A private well pump is electric, so without power there is no running water at all -- a different order of problem from losing the lights. Homes on a well are among the clearest cases for standby power, and the pump belongs on the load list from the start.