Homeowner says a $12,016 Honeywell standby generator powered the house through four outages

"It didn't make sense to pay twice as much for a badge on the same internals."

A homeowner who spent $12,016 on a Honeywell 22-kilowatt whole-home standby generator says the system has already kept the entire house running through four utility outages, offering the kind of real-world proof many buyers want beyond spec sheets and sales talk.

Here's what to know

In a Reddit post, the homeowner said the Honeywell model G00723510 was installed in August 2024 and later shared invoice details and notes on how it operates. The final price came to $12,016 and included the unit, transfer switch, concrete pad, propane line, and labor.

The house does not come back online all at once, and that appears to be by design. The homeowner said the generator typically starts about five seconds after utility power fails, but the whole-house transfer switch restores circuits in stages. Air conditioning comes back about 30 to 45 seconds later, which the OP said reflects intentional load management rather than a problem.

The homeowner said there were four actual outages and the generator “started and carried the full house load (including AC) every single time, for the full duration until utility power returned.”

More background

Price was a big reason the buyer went with Honeywell instead of Generac-branded equipment. The OP said the Honeywell unit uses Generac-sourced engine and generator hardware — “same core hardware as a comparable Generac-branded unit” — but was sold locally for close to half the price.

The homeowner said the installed cost totaled $12,016, while a comparable Generac-branded setup in the same area would have cost roughly twice as much.

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Maintenance shifted to an hours-based schedule after a 25-hour break-in oil change. The system is monitored through Generac's MobileLink app, which shows weekly self-test status, run hours, Wi-Fi signal, and warranty information.

What can be done?

One takeaway is to ask for every charge to be listed separately. The homeowner said people in the thread challenged an earlier rounded estimate, which prompted a review of the invoices and an updated total of $12,016 instead of the rougher figure first mentioned.

It also helps to check exactly what the quoted equipment price includes. In this case, the generator itself — with the transfer switch included — cost $5,500, while the post listed $3,750 for electrical installation and labor before the concrete pad and propane-line costs pushed the total higher.

Another useful question for installers is how they bring large appliances back after an outage. Here, the AC did not restart for 30 to 45 seconds after the generator kicked in, showing that staged load management can be normal and does not necessarily mean the home failed to transfer correctly.

The system uses a 250-gallon propane tank, and the homeowner expected about five days of runtime at partial load.

For this homeowner, the main appeal was dependable backup power without paying extra for a more familiar brand name: “It didn't make sense to me to pay double for the badge on the same internals.”

Where can I learn more?

If you're comparing standby generators with other backup options, these articles look at whole-home batteries, solar-supported resilience, and generator safety during outages.

• Energy experts say backup solar can provide quiet home power that traditional generators cannot.

• Installers are seeing more families choose home backup batteries instead of replacing aging generators.

• After Hurricane Beryl, doctors warned that carbon monoxide from generators can make outages deadly.

• Families replacing gasoline units found home batteries offered safer backup without fumes or refueling.