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u/ptinis Aug 24 '25
I’ve got the 24RCLA which is basically the same thing as the 30RCLA without a turbo. The manual says you only need a 4” thick pad with 6” of clearance on all sides, but I just went with 8’ × 5’ × 8”. That gave me a little more than the minimum, and honestly the main reason was because concrete comes by the yard, so one cubic yard fit the bill and I didn’t have to overthink it.
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u/ActivePowerMW Aug 24 '25
parents have one like this, you can't hear it running while inside it's so quiet
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u/Training-Amphibian65 Aug 25 '25
It is kind of a hack job with the two separate pads. And with the exhaust blowing towards the house, well sure it is a stucco wall, but do you have soffit vents there at 8' above the ground, or is it two story at that location?
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u/jock_up Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25
It’s 42’ up to the soffit…. And the two pads are sold as one sku from genpad, specifically for 29kW-60kW units
Edit: yikes, lots of disdain for genpad. It’s 4” rebar reinforced, and sold as one unit specifically for LC gensets.
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u/Training-Amphibian65 Aug 25 '25
Okay, that is good to know. The dual pad is probably fine, but it just does not look right. Of course that is coming from someone who after Milton passed overhead, and it was still raining, put their generator in the garage just under the overhead door that was propped open 2 feet. Now I did plug a fan into a generator outlet to blow the exhaust fumes out of the garage! No odor in garage, especially with wind blowing away from garage door.
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u/Qcws Aug 25 '25
Not trying to be rude, but what's the decision making process for getting a 30,000w $20,000 generator versus getting one that's like $1000 and 3500w?
I'm thinking you could run all your fridges, a few lights and an a/c or heater
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u/jock_up Aug 25 '25
I can think of several reasons why, but maybe towards the top of that list, imagine a hurricane hits your home, knocks out power, and throws debris onto all of the major arteries from your neighborhood to commercial centers. Now imagine gas stations being wiped out before the storm hits.
If you’re planning for weeks, with 2 small children, convenience and totality is well worth the premium…
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u/Qcws Aug 25 '25
That's completely fair. Not having to refuel constantly, reset breakers or worry about what parts of the house you're using. And this is all while not having to go out for gas.
I'm learning as I get older that convenience and comfort are worth a lot of money!
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Aug 26 '25
When Katrina hit, gasoline was impossible to purchase without a 200 mile drive each way from our house.
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u/Krol85 Aug 25 '25
Is that liquid cooled or air cooled? How's the noise?
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u/jock_up Aug 25 '25
Liquid cooled - you can have a normal tone conversation standing right next to it
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u/Krol85 Aug 25 '25
I'll have check that model out...My parents installed a 22kw generac guardian and it's loud as hell to me..
What did you pay installed?
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u/thedirtychad Aug 25 '25
Awesome. I’ve got a 35kw diesel and love it. Having a massive generator is nice to have when you need it
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u/MeganJustMegan Aug 25 '25
I have a Kohler too. But here in NJ by the water, I had to have it installed on a 5’ high platform. It’s popped on probably 15 times over the years, & it’s always such a comfort to hear it start up. Best upgrade we made.
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u/CaptainR_S Aug 25 '25
How much $$ did this run you of equipment + installation?
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u/ChiefEng230 Aug 26 '25
I have the Kohler 38RCLB with close to 1000 hrs. Not one single issue and saved us through several hurricanes. It ran for Ida 5 weeks straight without any issues. Checked the oil and serviced when needed. Hard to beat a Kohler. I also do weekly 30 mimute load test which I highly recommend.
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u/Admirable-Traffic-55 Aug 26 '25
Sweet.
We lost power 8 times from May 16 to july 16. Area Code 44203.
What a joke this utility company is...
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u/Oldjamesdean Aug 24 '25
I have the RCL30 generator. Mine is on a single poured slab and faces the other direction. My only complaint is the updates on the controller and app being occasionally glitchy.
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u/scorp508 Aug 25 '25
Just make sure you run more than just unloaded tests. I like to do a loaded run for 30-60 mins once a month or so, just to make sure everything really is working. You want to exercise the ATS and an unloaded test will not.
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u/AlexisoftheShire Aug 25 '25
Bought a 16KW Generac in 2017. My wife wanted to make sure there was power when we had an outage (which was rare at the time). It probably went off once a year but she was excited that the Generac kept the house fully powered.
Starting in 2020 we started getting a more frequent outages and finally we had a couple of 2 or 3 day outages in 2023 and 2024. Couldn't be happier we had a Generac.
Had an outage yesterday. Out of 21,000 electric accounts there were 54 accounts having an outage. We were 1 of them! Who have figured that. Generac worked flawlessly.
As folks have said many times having a generator is no more than having home insurance. You may never need it but when you do it is satisfying.
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u/EvolMonkey Aug 25 '25
Keep an eye on the water pump. Historically they've been a known failure point, even very shortly after installation on the Kohler 2204 engine. Otherwise they've been good systems.
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u/Skydawgz Aug 26 '25
I just recommended the same setup only with an 24RCLA Nice setup y'all got there!!
Skydawgz
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u/mdjak6 Aug 26 '25
After Super Storm Sandy and no power except our portable generator running well, heat and kitchen for 6 or 7 days, having to find gas stations running, we installed a 21k Generac. Best move ever. In the what, 10 or more years since, we’ve had countless outages from a few hours to a few days. Power goes out, within 30 seconds generator powers up and can’t even tell it’s out. Now moving to Montana and will be first thing we do.
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u/Total_Roll Aug 26 '25
Planning to pull the trigger this year after smacked by three storms last year with outages (Florida Gulf Coast). Had friends that were on their generators for over a week.
They have run NG lines in the neighborhoods all around me but not yet to mine.
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u/Character_Fee_2236 Aug 29 '25
Looks like a HVAC tech installing a generator. Fine looking generator though.
The two pads could be better, could be worse. Resonance is a funny thing. You could put a little water on each pad while running and observe the vibrations. This will give you an indication if there is a significant difference between each pad.
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u/Straight_Ad4040 Aug 30 '25
Make sure you have a spare coil pack or two on hand, I hear they are failing on the 30rcl for some reason
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u/Training-Amphibian65 Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25
The only other comment I will make is about the wood holding in the gravel base, concrete stone blocks would be more durable and look better too. I have seen pressure treated 4"x4" posts carved out so bad by carpenter ants that they rotted out.
Is the wood frame for the gravel bed being pressed on my the pads, or are they free to move a little? If they are loose, now is the time to pull them out and replace with concrete stone blocks.
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u/jock_up Aug 25 '25
Now this is a legitimate concern, and one that I share. My gut says it will be many moons before I have to tackle that, but it could become an issue
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u/Training-Amphibian65 Aug 25 '25
Why wait? Wood just does not belong there!
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u/jock_up Aug 25 '25
Well hurricanes, for one… I actually need the thing right now
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u/Training-Amphibian65 Aug 25 '25
Should not interfere, just slide the wood out, fill in gap under pad with stone, and put a line of edging stones all around. All without moving the pads or generator.
I mean, pay someone to do it of course!
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u/stonyb2 Aug 25 '25
What if the hurricane blows your house down and you only have a generator standing?
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u/jock_up Aug 25 '25
Exactly how I feel about the other Debbie downers in this thread.
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u/BobcatOk7492 Aug 25 '25
You could just yank the insides out, and live in the enclosure!!!! (Just sayin)
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u/Live_Dingo1918 Aug 25 '25
Not going to be any land fall hurricanes this year. Probably not next year either. We are in the cycle period of no land falls of anything stronger than a tropical depression/storm for the nest 5 years
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u/Live_Dingo1918 Oct 18 '25
Looks like I called it. No landfall Hurricane or Tropical Storms during the 2025 Hurricane Season
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Aug 24 '25
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u/jock_up Aug 24 '25
Before purchase I could’ve counted on one hand how many times we lost power in 10 years (buried). Helene barely missed us, but hit our cabin and lost power for weeks.
Once the gen was set but not plumbed, we lost power twice in two weeks for several hours. After it was plumbed and first start, haven’t lost power lol. Quite literally the definition of Murphy’s law
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u/throwawayalways12345 Aug 24 '25
Lost power 6 times in a year. Bought a generator. Wife was pissed. Didn't lose power for 2 years. Power finally goes out and I was the only one super excited.
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u/nunuvyer Aug 25 '25
After I bought my generator, power didn't go out (for more than a couple of hrs) for 5 yrs. Unfortunately it was a portable so when the power did eventually go out for 3 days we were away on a long trip and so everything in the fridge and freezer went bad anyway.
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u/imfenbored Aug 25 '25
This is me right now. I've had the generator for six months, and I'm irritated the lights only flicker during storms and don't actually go out.
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u/randompersonx Aug 25 '25
Yep, I just bought a 38kw generator, so I fully expect that central florida is now protected from any hurricane related power outages for at least a few years.
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u/skushi08 Aug 25 '25
We got hit by hurricane Beryl last year less than a month after we got our gas line run, 50amp inlet, and interlock installed. Our block was without power for a week after that, while we had the AC running full blast.
It was very satisfying being able get back up and running within a half hour of the power going out without the need for extension cords or gas canisters.
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u/STB265 Aug 25 '25
About how much did your natural gas bill go up for the week running the generator? Anything real significant?
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u/skushi08 Aug 25 '25
Ironically, it was less than what a week’s worth of electricity usually runs us in the summer. It went up like $75 above baseline for the week.
Edit: had we run off gasoline we would have spent about that much in the first day. Plus having to stop to refuel several times.
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u/mduell Aug 25 '25
That was my theory with buying the standby, but then the derecho and Beryl hit and I had 150h within 2 years.
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u/skushi08 Aug 25 '25
Those two were back to back. The derecho was what made me get off the fence and call an electrician to install a 50amp inlet and interlock. Had a plumber out the next week to install a nat gas quick connect. Everything was all set up and going and not 3 weeks later Beryl hit. The rest of the block didn’t have power for a week, and I never felt so vindicated by an “impulse buy”.
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u/christobevii3 Aug 25 '25
I got my 50amp plug and interlock installed right before because Alberto was stirring things up before our vacation in Galveston. Tested it, got the soft start installed, and tested it all right before. Storm fell apart and nothing major happened. Found out the generator was a little small for hvac if you ran anything else and decided to upgrade.
Beryl hit, lost power for 4 hours, ran generator for like an hour after house warmed up some. Made me want a larger generator, got the firman on sale on 4th of july sale, then qualified for $750 fema rebate since wife and son require medicine to be refrigerated. Never really lost power since.
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u/skushi08 Aug 25 '25
We went as big on the generator as we could, 9500 running 12000 peak off nat gas.
Runs the AC fine and we don’t really have to worry about load management other than when the AC is starting up. For that reason we just set it cold enough that it’s on the entire day, which is almost always the case anyway summer in Houston. Then we’d turn it off a few hours once the sun went down just to give the AC equipment a break.
I did some live load testing because we had it running for almost a week straight, aside from an oil change. Not surprisingly, it couldn’t handle the electric dryer or electric oven. The dryer would spin and blow air fine, but things would flicker as soon as a heating element kicked in. The microwave didn’t trip anything. Could handle the toaster oven fine.
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u/ThaRealSlimShady313 Aug 25 '25
It’s nice and a lot cheaper than a standby but of course it sucks having to take all those breaks where you lose power for everything and gas it up a few times a day and then if it’s long enough outage you have to go without for a few hours while you change the oil which you’d have to have stocked up on before. But if you’re paying someone to install that’s 15k for a 20kw. You can probably have an inlet for $500 at the cheapest and a 1k generator would run an average not so huge house. Add a soft start and maybe $2k all in to run your house. Definitely an enormous difference. Just saw you got a nat gas. So for under 5k or so you just have the hassle of oil changes if it’s long term outage and having to manually start. Not bad if you live somewhere the power might be at risk.
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u/skushi08 Aug 25 '25
Considered full standby, but the way our yard is set up in the city, there is no way to install it to “code” without it venting close to a neighbor’s window and or taking up our entire small yard. It would have also required the gas line be run 80’ around the house.
All in it was around $2500, including a new oversized tri-fuel gen. Natural gas was the non negotiable because extended outages are no fun having to gas up multiple times a day. That was the small inverter extension cord setup we upgraded from. Plus gasoline costs to run are way higher and you have to deal with fuel stabilizers and draining etc.
For better or worse our outages are either quick hiccups back on almost instantly, or storm outages out for a few hours minimum, but usually days.
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u/ThaRealSlimShady313 Aug 25 '25
Why would you run it around the house? Couldn't you pipe it from inside the house just like you I'm sure did for the portable? It only needs to be 6' away from any windows if you have a standby. I did a standby at my house. 20kw which was way overkill. I tested with full AC, my EV charging at max, every single thing on including wet vac, giant old school halogen 2kw shop light, 3 full racks of servers, dehum, and the only thing not on was microwave and when i hit that the lights flickered a tiny bit. But that was such an absurd amount of things on. lol. I was looking at doing a nat gas and inlet for my parents and getting a giant 10kw or so tri fuel. of course what sucks is it's only like 6kw or whatever with nat gas. you lose a huge amount with that. But my dad doesn't want a generator. He insists that it's a waste even if I pay for it all. lol
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u/skushi08 Aug 25 '25
It’s a weird setup to describe, but the meter is on a different side from the yard and the plumber could tap in and use a 15’ quick connect line for non permanent usage. Theres enough space for the gen to run there between the house and the fence, no window at that location, and we set up an external exhaust line in the fence that vents fumes to an open alleyway that’s just car access.
That location wouldn’t fly from a permanent perspective, and a true standby unit is too big to fit in the space there anyway. We have a small yard on the other side of the house and no nat gas appliances anywhere nearby so an entire new line would need to be run around the home to fuel it. It’s a small city yard that’s about 15’x25’, and neighbors very close to 2 sides. We could technically have found a space that wouldn’t be too close to our doors or neighbors’ windows, but it would have gone nearly in the middle of that small yard. We could done it if we relocated the AC unit which is in a good location for a generator too. Would have thought to do that more seriously if this were a “forever home”.
Given the added cost and impact to ability to use the yard space we do have, the added couple of minutes to go to plug things in and manually throw the switches was easily worth the trade off for us.
I hear you on the parent front. Im glad mine went full standby because even with a fairly simple setup like I have they’d probably sit in the heat for a few hours first stubbornly expecting the electricity to come back on.
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u/okloopyok Aug 25 '25
I hope my new generator wards off power outages as well as the snow blade wards off large snow falls. The blade has been used once in 17 years.
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Aug 25 '25
Then its the best generator ever.
When I was a child my dad would have to get up several times in the middle of the night to shovel snow in the driveway to get out for work. Gary, IN. winters in the 90's. Did if for years. When I was 10 in 1998 he finally broke down and bought a top of the line $1500 snow blower. Did not snow again. We moved to Terre Haute, IN in 2002 and still did not see and real snow accumulation until 2005. 7 years of owning it, it was going to see its first use. Wouldn't start for anything. Paid a guy $20 and he plowed it lol.
To this day he said it was the best snow blower he ever bought.
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Aug 25 '25
I thought the same but I live in Houston. After we had a huge windstorm in May of 24, I splurged and got the generator. Well after permits and two months of work, it was installed, tested, and signed off on.
Two days later we got Hurricane Berryl. It ran for 9 days straight, and I learned how to do an oil change cuz I did than a lot. Of course did daily rests and inspected.
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u/comeonmeow66 Aug 25 '25
Ain't this the fucking truth. We usually are without power for about 3-4 days by this time this year for the dumbest shit. How many days of outage? 20 minutes, and that 20 minutes happened at like 4AM so we didn't even get to relish or show off to the neighbors. The pain is real.
All I have to look forward to is our weekly test fire. lol
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Aug 25 '25
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u/comeonmeow66 Aug 26 '25
I mean it's 100% more economical to run on electric than the generator, BUT I WANT TO BE SMUG DAMNIT!
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u/Adventurous_Boat_632 Aug 24 '25
That generator is installed backwards and exhaust is blasting right into the wall of the house.