I have been looking at standby generators for the home. Cummins, Caterpillar, and John Deere all make one. The price of all three is in the same ballpark with the Cummins being slightly more expensive. Looks like $15K will set up a 20 or 30 kilowatt system with transfer switch. Does anyone have any experience with a similar type genset? Thanks, Ed B

 

we install a lot of gen set's the onan-cummins, cat and john deer are all equal quality. there is some real bargains out there on used generators. also watch the heavy equipment auctions, richey brothers has them quiet often in the 25 to 100 kw size. there are two main type transfer switches one the manual and the other the auto. and as it looks you have to throw the lever to run the gen set on the manual. the auto is many times more expensive. to do it legal you will have to get a licensed electrician to connect. there is safe cheap ways to connect if you do it yourself

 

one side note if you find a three phase generator do not let it bother you, it can be wired to get nearly the same kw rating as the single phase

 

20kw will be a third of that cost if you use a propane one. I have set up a couple of 16kw generac units that seem to be ok......

 

i think propane is the way to go. dont have to worry about stale fuel. i kept changing out fuel finally converted mine to propane put a tank in the ground.

 

you do have to use a conditioner in the diesel but you never have to change it out. the three makers listed also make propane and ng generators with onan the most. they are rated and designed for use on ng or propane and altitude, a lot of the low end generac, coleman, china and others are not. and there frequency, voltage stability, or transient - surge capabilities are not any good. if you look at generac only look at there high end rated units and try to buy from a local dealer that can adjust them to your altitude, they do make some with both partial and full automatic transfer switches

 

Thanks for the replies. I have looked at the propane units and the only one I liked was a 20kwt Cummins/Onan with a 4 cylinder GM engine. The cost of a unit like that comes close to the cost of a diesel genset. All three of my vehicles and the tractor run off of diesel so I really do not think stale/old fuel will be a problem. We will just have it delivered instead of filling up at a station. I will have to start looking at the used units. We have a big Caterpillar dealer in Hattiesburg. Thanks again. Ed B

 

The gas units are okay, but usually require more maintenance. But, if diesel is within your budget, go for it. I have worked for a generac dealer as a field tech, and cannot stress enough to stay away from them. I currently work for cummins power gen, and will tell you, you get what you pay for. If the Cat is cheaper than the cummins, you are probably looking at Cat's label on a triton genset so do the research. Cummins has some real nice sets w/ kubota diesel's in them. Stay away from cheap transfer switches also, as they are every bit as important as the genset. I have no exp. w/ the JD sets as I work on industrial sets.