Most of our outages last 4-6 hours, but having the 20KW natural gas Genrac has made our life so much easier during those times. We rushed to have the installation the day before Sandy, although the storm wound up missing us. Previously, we used a small Honda gasoline generator on the deck to power just the lights and refrigerators. The breaking point occurred during a derecho where power went off for two days. Every 10 hours or so I would have to fill the tank and waited in line for hours at a gas station. It was then I decided that the whole-house generator would be the better way to go. A friend who didn't have the natural gas line installed the propane version of the same generator.
We don't run the high-wattage electric ovens or dryer when the generator is on. It is set to kick in at 20 seconds after an outage.
It has not been problem free. Once the generator's control board failed during an outage. Another time, during its weekly test run, the starter mechanism failed. Yet in another instance, a failure of the HVAC cold-start capacitor caused the generator to behave erratically.
Since my installation, Kohler has made major inroads into the residential generator market. I don't know which brand would be more reliable.
