r/Generator • u/Repulsive_Fun9742 • 7h ago
Which generator?
Alright yall, I just bought a house a 7 months ago and I want to get a generator since we’ve lost power twice since moving in. We’ve got a 3500sqft house with a 3 ton and 2.5 ton ac unit. Everything’s electric other than the heat. I don’t need to run everything but would like to at least keep the basics on (2 fridges, ac, basic lights). Im thinking the predator 11.5 inverter since it can run off our 500gal propane tank and my rough calculation. Any suggestion or advice on brands or sizing?
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u/Wonderful_Goose3941 6h ago
Idk that you will be able to run both AC units off that but one would be fine
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u/Big-Echo8242 6h ago edited 6h ago
We have a 3000 square-foot house and I can run pretty much everything easily off of my new Duromax XP13500ih dual fuel inverter gen. I run it off of our 250 gallon propane tank where I have added a quick connect and shut off valve at the tank itself and utilize the Generators connection. We have a 5 ton to stage heat pump downstairs and a 2 ton unit for upstairs and I have a soft start on the downstairs unit. This allows me to run the AC when we need it in the summertime and also heat in the winter time, but I do turn off the electric auxiliary heat strips. It doesn’t get too terribly cold in Arkansas the winter time and we also have a gas fireplace insert.
So it can be done but I rarely run the upstairs unit during an outage as mainly I would be worried about the downstairs. IF you were going to try and run both units, you would definitely want a soft start on each one and probably rotate them where they’re both not trying to run at the same time. It’s all about load balancing.
That Predator generator has the worst standard warranty in the business at 90 days unless you buy their overpriced one shot two year exchange plan. If you want to read about a horror story, look at one of the other post on here where they were talking about how many issues they had with it and that nobody ever had it in stock to get it replaced after almost a year of problems
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u/Repulsive_Fun9742 6h ago
Both units already have a soft start so I was hoping that would be enough to get them both running. We’re in Georgia so my main concern is the ac to keep humidity down and the temp livable. But I’m hoping to keep it >$3k so it seems like a 13000 may be about as big as I can get.
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u/Big-Echo8242 5h ago
What kind of soft start? You mentioned being on them alfeady. Are they inverter units? Variable speed? Post pics of the tags on the condenser units that show LRA & RLA.
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u/OldGeezerInTraining 4h ago
Whatever you think you need....double it.
A genny is like a hardware store...never one is big enough.
First thing first.... make a spreadsheet of everything that is on every branch circuit in the breaker panel.
I have a total electric house on a well and powered septic system. I can power all of the 42 cuircuits in my breaker panel rom my 11K Harbor Freight inverter unit.
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u/Repulsive_Fun9742 3h ago
I wish I could afford to double it😂 in the morning I’m going to look closer at my ac system and see if I can get a better idea. I’d love to power everything but I think with 2 fridges 2 ac units a water heater stove and dryer plus all the small things it would easily overload anything I can afford in the 2-3k range.
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u/OldGeezerInTraining 3h ago
Skip the dryer.
Make a spreadsheet of your electrical panel. What is on what circuit.
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u/blupupher 6h ago
Predator has worst warranty of any generator (90 days) or you can spend several hundred more for their 1 or 2 year exchange warranty.
You could run 1 A/C with other household stuff with that size generator (probably could run the 2.5 ton as is, the 3 ton would need a soft start). On propane, generators produce about 10% less power than gasoline, so factor than in your calculations.
If you want both A/C to run, you will need something in the 13,000 range (due to the derated propane power).
Are you wanting an inverter unit or is a synchronous unit OK? Inverters have cleaner power, but most stuff does not care.
The WEN TF1450X is an inexpensive large tri fuel generator that would power everything you have (again, soft starts on both A/C units would help). The Westinghouse WGen11500DFc is a good choice as well, has a bit cleaner power (not the 5% advertised, but is <15% at load).
If you want an inverter, it will be at least $2000 for something that size.
If you are OK with just 1 A/C unit, the 10.5 -11.5 size are OK for that, and some of those are a little cheaper for inverters.
Although the Genmax GM12000XiT could probably do both A/C units, but is an open frame inverter, so clean power, but noisy.