House generator

It’s going to vary by a lot.

Water cooled vs air cooled and brands.

Just get an air-cooled unit. Don't be one of those people that think they need a fancy liquid cooled unit to run their Dr Horton shitbox. You'll look like an arse.

No I don't have a very good idea about this. That's why I'm trying to get some perspective about it. To be more specific I'll want something to run a 4 ton a/c unit and a refrigerator and freezer. Before talking to a contractor I wanted some input as to what questions I should ask and what to avoid.

I’ll have a hot take here but in actuality if your only big 240 load is a 4 ton hvac then you won’t need as big of a generator as people will tell you. If you add in an electric dryer, electric central heat, etc, it ramps up very quickly. Then ask yourself what quality of life do you want during an outage: do you want it to be like the power never went out, or are you comfortable with load shedding / closing some circuits.

If hvac is your only big load, a 13-14kw standby has plenty of “motor starting capacity” to comfortably start your 4 ton ac and power the rest of your house. After the momentary large surge the ac actually only uses a few kw to run.

The install cost will vary greatly based on your specific installation.

Your main concerns with a home standby are: sufficient sizing, long term reliability, and dealer / service network.

A home standby is a different application than just running the ac and an ice box for hurricane season, it lends to the broader application of being able to run your entire home.

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I'm looking into a house generator. I'm looking for advice about which brand, how much power, and about what the average cost for installation.

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Based on what I have read so far, here and elsewhere, Cummins and/or Kohler appear to be the top recommendations, however, Generac has a larger dealer network -- and there may be more competition to obtain a better price than the two mentioned --- and service/parts may be easier to come by, should you require that.

Price, aside from installation and labor, will be determined by power (loads you want to run during an outage) you need and the brand that you choose. Typically, for the average homeowner, 16–20 kW is likely what you'll be looking at.

All that said, I prefer to have either a Kohler or Cummins. I don't believe I need liquid cooled --- air cooled should be plenty sufficient for my use.

I was able to get away with a 10kw tri fuel for natural gas portable and I installed and interlock and plug to the panel. I can run my a/c & fridge. I have a small house with a 1.5 ton unit.

Kind of a weird thing to be upset about. Out of everything happening in the world today you pick a topic bashing a shitty homebuilder? Don't you have gay pride shite to go celebrate?

We have a 3100 sq ft house and have a 24kW generac. The size obviously depends on what you need/want to run. If I recall, I went one larger than they said I could get away with.

Runs everything with ease when it's needed. Had it for 4 years. Probably kicks in 3-5 times per year between storm power loss and power company errors that inadvertently cut power. We ran it for almost an entire week only once post storm and had no issues.

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get an idea of the brand's that are the better ones

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Cummins is the best. They make air cooled units which is usually the right thing for a home. Kholer are really good as well.

have 2000 sf home. went with 18kw air cooled Kohler. runs everything in the house . $11,000 for generator and install with automatic transfer switch.