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On Wednesday, August 14, 2013 1:16:02 PM UTC-4, Moe DeLoughan The smaller
new one was probably the better deal. IDK about other brands,
but if it's a Generac, go to Amazon and take a look at what a whole lot
of people there are saying about their experiences. Everything from it
didn't work right out of the box, to it's been failing many times, to it
ran fine during it's weekly auto start test runs, then failed during afew
hours of use. A neighbor had a 12KW one, about 5 yers old, that was
professionally installed and it failed during just a few hours use in a
hurricane. Gen section shot and the dealer told him it's not worth fixing.
I looked into fixing it for myself, but the parts would be $500+ and given
what I saw on Amazon, decided it wasn't worth it. So, if you intend to
install it as a whole house one, or
put money into it for parts, I'd do some checking on the specific make
and model first.

For many a 5 kw or so is usually about the best size. The larger ones
really burn a lot of gas. If it is powered by oil, then a larger one is
fine.
At 3 to 4 dollars per gallon, the gas generators can get expensive to run.