Tom Drake
Member
- Location
- West Palm Beach, FL
Which service calculation do I use for determining a whole house generator? Optional or Standard. Trying to avoid load shedding as much as possible. New 5800 sq ft home with 60K generator
Generator - Residential Standby
- Thread starter Tom Drake
- Start date
- Status
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
Either.
Thing to remember is utility power is more robust but a bigger issue may not be total load but whether or not the generator is capable of starting some of your larger motor loads and/or without too much voltage drop when doing so.
Thing to remember is utility power is more robust but a bigger issue may not be total load but whether or not the generator is capable of starting some of your larger motor loads and/or without too much voltage drop when doing so.
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
A 60 KW should start anything in that house. Even standby backup electric heat is staged. I venture to guess you would have to purposely attempt to overload that generator.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
Yes 60 kW is a lot of generator for most houses. He didn't give details of what this house actually has. Can probably get by on 1/4 of that capacity on most houses you or I commonly see, electric heat being one exception. Huge mansion with a commercial venue style party room and even hotel style guest rooms/suites - who knows what the needs may be.
Tom Drake
Member
- Location
- West Palm Beach, FL
The problem I have is, plans show load shedding 18 appliance circuits (not Heat) we are in Florida. The calculations on plans are not correct. So I have to change them. I typically use optional method for main service. Not sure if that applies to calculation of generator.
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