Whole House Generators
During a power outage, a generator that is able to supply electricity to your house is referred to as a house generator. A house generator will allow you to continue using necessary home appliances, such as heaters, air conditioners, and refrigerators during an emergency.
What a house generator does is it converts mechanical energy into electrical energy through the use of a small engine that stimulates electromotive force. House generators come in two general categories of systems – portable and standby – and can run on numerous types of fuels, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas.
The run time of portable generators is typically short and their tanks need to be refilled multiple times each day if they are being run continuously.
Therefore, if you are looking for a house generator that can start automatically because it is connected to both house wiring and a fuel source and has an almost infinite run time, you are going to want to consider a whole house generator that is a permanently connected standby system.
Whole house generators have higher power levels than portable generators with ratings that range from 3kW up into the hundreds of kW. They are great in the event of a long-term emergency, and while they are more expensive and necessitate professional installation, they can significantly increase the value of your house.
As the most powerful type of generator, the whole house generator is also the most complicated. When deciding on which whole house generator is right for you, the first thing you need to take into consideration is which household appliances you need to function during a power outage and how much energy these appliances require to operate.
The types of appliances you should be considering include: refrigerators, freezers, lights, medical equipment, televisions, computers, phones, electric stoves, microwaves, air conditioners, heaters, washing machines, dryers, and septic systems.
One model of a whole house generator is the Kohler 8.5 kW Residential Generator. This whole house generator has the capacity to provide a sufficient amount of power to operate a 4 ton central air conditioner, and a few other kitchen appliances and pieces of electric equipment. Other brands of whole house generates include: Generac, Briggs, Stratton, and Gillette.
Another whole house generator factor to take into consideration is switch type. There are two varieties of switches for whole house generators: automatic and manual.
Automatic switches will instinctively turn your generator on during a power outage, while manual switches need to be turned on by hand. Manually operated whole house generators are less expensive than automatically operated ones, but they are typically less desirable.
A final component of whole house generators to think about is whether you want a generator that is air-cooled or liquid-cooled. Air-cooled whole house generators only provide about 20 kilowatts of electricity, but this generally is a sufficient amount of electricity to power most single family residences. Larger homes, however, necessitate more expensive, liquid-cooled generators, which create up to 150 kilowatts of electricity.
There are several factors to consider when deciding on a whole house generator. If you are still unsure about which generator is right for you, contact your local electrical contractor for more help.
