Generac Guardian 04390 15000 Watt Emergency Automatic Home Standby Generator

Generac Guardian 04390 15000 Watt Emergency Automatic Home Standby Generator
Review by Ed Berling (Illinois, USA) :
Just to add a few things to the above reviews….This generator is NOT built to be used 24/7 - 365 days a year. But if your power goes out once or twice a year it should save your […], or in my case about $50K in home theater equipment and maybe another $15K in tools.Like a lot of people, quite often there’s no one home at my house when everyone is at work and at school. What do you do if the power goes out? You could have a basement full of water in a matter of minutes during a heavy downpour if your sump and ejector lose power. Sure you have insurance, but do you really want to go throught the hassel of replacing everything in a flooded basement? If you have a decent level of experience you should be able to install this unit yourself.

If you’re going to use NG (I did) you’ll have to run a supply pipe with shut-off out to within a foot of the unit. This, of couse, could involve drilling through the brick on the outside of your house along with some 2″ by. Everything is provided to hook the transfer switch to your breaker box but, once again, you will have to mount the box and possibly move the whip etc.

All easy enought to do, but you do have to know what you’re doing - and it will take the better part of a Saturday. A few more things - you’ll have to buy a car battery to start the unit ($60 - $80 depending on the size of your generator), all of the pipe and shut-offs etc. to supply the NG, some sort of gravel/river rock to set the pad on and a breaker for your electrical box. I have the 15K unit so I needed a 70 amp Homeline breaker from Square D to fit my breaker box. Not a very easy size/model to find, but I was able to get one online for about $15. A good Fluke meter will tell you if the voltage and Hertz are within specs.I haven’t had to use it, but it does work fine - it ‘exercises’ every week at 11:30 am - and it is supplying the correct voltage to all of the appliances hooked to it. I consider it cheap insurance for a basement full of ’stuff’.

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