I installed my own except for the new gas line. Did all the electrical work myself and then had it inspected and the meter reinstalled (also installed a new main panel at the time).

I have the 15KW air cooled set. It has been trouble free for 18 months now. Has autostarted to cover a number of power outages and has never once failed to start and transfer load. Very reliable, but again, only 18 months old. It is not silent but not that loud either. Does not really sound like an engine or a lawn mower. More of a hum and a rushing of air. It is behind the house and in the room directly adjacent to it one car barly hear it. It would not wake me if I were sleeping there. In other rooms or in front of the house, I cannot hear it at all.

The electrical install took me most of 2 days, but I do not do this everyday for a living either. Knew what I was doing but took my time and am a perfectionist. It had to 'look good' as well as function well. Our Home Depot here sells and installs them and charges a flat $1500 for installtion plus the gas line which varies depending on where your gas comes into the house and the incomming gas line size.

If you have any specific questions, fire away. I'll try to answer them.

Overall, I am very pleased with the unit, considering its nearest competition was nearly twice the cost.

I'm looking at one of these too. What is involved with ongoing maintenance? We're trying to compare the overall cost of going with a heavy duty battery backup for our flood control system versus a generator that will also support our fridge and one a/c unit.

Annual oil change. Its weekly exercise is automatic. Air filter at 150 hours which is at least 5 years if there are no long power outages.

In other words, very little maintainance is required if installed properly.

Thanks JC. Sounds like a pretty good solution for us.

Sorry for the hijack, but I do have one other question. I saw a comment on another thread about it not being able to handle ambient temperatures above 100 degrees. We had planned to locate ours in the "attic" of our garage. We'll properly vent it of course, but we're in Chicago and I can easily see it being subjected to 100 degrees plus in the summer.

Do you recall seeing that specification for your model?

Thanks!

Ours has no problem sustaining load on a 108deg day but...Judging by the volume of air it uses to cool itself and the huge number of BTUs it generates in heat, I think you as asking for trouble trying to mount it anywhere 'inside' it will just heat up the attic space far too quickly. Besides, the attic can easily be 130deg plus in the summer if its 100 outside. Not that its impossible, but would be very difficult to get sufficient cooling and air flow there. It moves ALOT of hot air. 225,000 BTU worth at full load.

Thanks JC. I have the same concerns about putting it in the garage. We've only lost power for more than a couple of hours once in the 10 years we've been in this area. So the whole generator thing is more of an insurance policy than something we expect to use frequently. But if we are to lose power, it is most likely to be in the dead of summer.

My husband is going to try to talk to someone at Generac about our plans to see what they say. With the amount of use it would get, and the conditions under which it would be used, I think putting it alongside our ac units outside is the way to go. Even if it's a bit loud.

The generac home standby units are really not that loud. the acustic enclosure and very good muffler discharging into the hot air exhaust does a very good job of noise control.

Hi,

I have a generator but it is an Onan not a Guardian. When I was thinking about getting a generator my electrician did recomend a Guardian though. He thought that the Onan was quieter, maybe because it was water cooled. Guardian I think also make water cooled generators as well. The down side is the Onan is more expensive and heavier, i.e. more expensive to install. Noise is not too much of an issue for me because my neighbours are far away (60 feet and over).

All combustion engines have lower power at higher air temperatures because the air density is lower at higher temperatures.

So far (about a year) the generator has worked well. Self runs every two weeks. Maintenance has been topping up with oil once. So far relatively little to do.

Best, Mike.