Ashok from Monroe Township, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since June of 2017. The 20 kW standby generator at the house was installed by another company in May of 2013, and Ashok moved its servicing to us four years later. Every scheduled interval has been carried out since, from the three-year service through to the nine-year. At the eight-year visit in June of 2022 the hour meter read 158 hours — the equivalent of about six and a half days of running spread across nearly a decade, most of it in outages nobody plans for. The switch is a managed whole-house type, so the machine takes the entire load rather than a selected handful of circuits, and an annual service is the only thing that tells you it still can.
Project Facts
- Location
- Monroe Township, NJ
- Service
- Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- June 2017
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 5875
- Rated output
- 20 kW LP / 18 kW NG
- Transfer switch
- 90 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Standby generator questions from Monroe Township homeowners
Can the existing natural-gas service in a Monroe Township home supply a generator?
Often yes, but the gas system has to be evaluated first. The review covers the generator's BTU demand, meter capacity, available pressure, regulator capacity, pipe diameter and length, and every other gas appliance in the house -- furnace, boiler, water heater, range and fireplace among them.
Does a generator produce less on natural gas than on propane?
Some models do have a lower rated maximum output on natural gas than on propane -- a current 22 kW machine is rated 22 kW on LP and 21 kW on natural gas. Other models carry their own ratings, so the model-specific specification sheet is what settles it rather than a general rule.
Does the house run on the generator during its weekly exercise?
Not necessarily -- it depends on the generation of equipment, the controller and the configuration. Traditional systems commonly exercise without transferring the house at all. Newer equipment with current controls may support different exercise and transfer behaviour.