So what would be a rough estimate of $ install for the typical generac home generator considering gas line and main house breaker are within 5 ft ? Just labor not including cost of gererator.

Tree fiddy

the way I understand how they do it is you buy the generator, they deliver and set and you hire the electrician to install the interlock.

get an electrician out first to determine what size you need according to your breakers, I have one coming this week to give us an estimate due to having 2 200a breaker boxes.

I'm thinking I can afford maybe 10kw, that may not be "whole house " with a.c. but sure would be better than nothing. I bet I could get by with it..

A 10kw genset will give you 40-amps at 240-volts, a rough estimate within 50’ of the house panel will be around 7500 installed. My guess is there will be a lot of barely used units hit the market very soon. Reason being, folks thought they had a big enough unit to carry their entire house and the generator kept kicking out on overload. With all the rolling blackouts it created a mess.

facts

thanks

Had a quote of $10k for a 17kw whole house generator installed(includes generator, auto transfer switch, and labor). Plan to get another bid to compare....

Might want to wait a bit, I suspect there will be a premium currently

350 is not gonna cover anything but materials for one or the other. I'd estimate about 2 to 3 grand total for install if both are right there

Are these going to be the multiple flux capacitor generators?

How many 200A breaker boxes you have is typically just an indication of how many circuits you have. What you really need to be looking at is what things on your electrical system you need to have running, then add up the amps (and any surge requirements) to support that. That's what really determines the target size for a generator, not the service limit of the distribution box installed, nor the service drop coming from the power company.

For instance, I have a 200A service with easily 40 breakers in the box. Yet, I only attach a 7500w 240v generator. This works because the loads I decided I need supported will run with 7500w of power available. Many of my breakers are drawing nothing - they are for receptacles with nothing plugged in, or lighting in a room that is typically turned off.

Those of you who "go big" and think you'll just run all of it will be just fine - for a short period of time - which is when you run out of fuel. You'll need to plan to keep enough on hand, or all that emergency planning & infrastructure won't do much for you. If you plan on fueling it with natural gas, that may work (if you don't get cut off due to supply constraints), but you better have a really thick wallet. Generators running on natural gas consume a LOT of it. I tempered what I just "have to have" to a reasonable level so that I do not get into a logistics nightmare of trying to get enough fuel to sustain it.

You should do a generator interlock and power inlet for each distribution panel, then plan on two generators. Why? Because that way you'll have two inlet supply cables, and two generators. If a cable or generator were to fail while in use, you have a backup plan to use the remaining generator for the highest priority needs. If you get one large generator, and it fails, you're hosed.

You've got four main choices. Generac, Briggs, Kohler, Cummings. Generac used to be the no brainer choice, now they are junk. Quality on them is just terrible. Briggs makes a great generator, but they just filed bankruptcy. Cummings makes a great generator, but parts and service are hard to come by. Kohler seems to be the logical choice left. They all cost basically the same. They have all have 10-16 week lead-times right now.

For a 20KW generator, if you do the subcontracting for electrical and you install a manual transfer switch the you are looking at $7-9K depending on how long your electrical runs are. If you want an automatic transfer switch and all the bells and whistles you are looking at $12-15K