Stacey and Dante from Cranford, NJ have been Green Sun Energy Services clients since March of 2021. Two systems, signed six days apart and commissioned on the same day.
An 18 kW standby generator
A Generac 7228 rated 18 kW on propane and 17 kW on natural gas, running on natural gas, on a 200-amp transfer switch. The house is about 2,500 square feet and the switch is service-sized, so the panel transfers as it stands rather than a chosen set of circuits.
7.875 kW of solar
Twenty-one LG 375-watt panels on an Ecolibrium Solar mounting system, with first-year production estimated at 10,210 kWh.
Finished the same day
That is unusual and it is worth doing where the schedule allows. Both systems touch the electrical service, and commissioning them together means one shutdown, one inspection visit and one set of tests rather than two of each – and the interaction between them gets checked at the point where both are live.
Project Facts
- Location
- Cranford, NJ
- Services
- Solar Panel Installation, Standby Generator Installation
- Client since
- March 2021
Solar
- Panels
- LG Model # LG375N1C-A6
- Panels
- 21
- System size
- 7.88 kW
- Inverter
- SolarEdge SE6000H-US000NNC2
- Mounting system
- Ecolibrium Solar
- Estimated first-year production
- 10,210 kWh
- Share of the home's electricity
- 90%
- Electric utility
- PSE&G
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 7228
- Rated output
- 18 kW LP / 17 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Home sized for
- 2,500 sq ft
- Electrical service
- 200 amp
- Transfer switch
- 200 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Questions from Cranford homeowners
Standby generatorCan a standby generator be installed in Cranford without natural gas?
Yes. Residential standby generators commonly run on liquid propane. A properly sized tank, regulator and piping system has to be designed to deliver adequate vapour flow and pressure for the machine.
SolarDoes the electric meter get changed?
The utility has to provide metering capable of properly measuring the electricity delivered to and received from a net-metered customer. Which meter that is, and how it gets swapped, varies by utility.
Standby generatorDoes a generator keep the well running during an outage in Cranford?
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.