The more electrical devices in a house, the more costly it is to get a generator large enough to handle the full load. KOHLER® has a product that will make it possible to reduce the size of a generator using something called “load control”. One of our customers recently saved thousands of dollars on his KOHLER® home generator package. Here’s the story of Ben*.
He Couldn’t Have it All. Ben had a home that was about 2000 square feet. He needed to power the home, including electric water and oven, HVAC, multiple appliances, a wide range of electronics and a swimming pool. Ben is also a beekeeper, and his bees and their hives must be kept at a steady temperature, so they are in a climate controlled building.
The bottom line for Ben was money. He simply was reluctant to spend $14,000 on a generator for the bee hives and his home. He came to us for advice. We recommended that he buy a smaller generator – and a “Load Control Module”.
What’s More Important? We helped Ben prioritize which electrical items were most important to him. If he had to pull the plug on an item, which would go first – the air conditioner, the oven, the pool, or the “honey house”? Which items absolutely had to stay on, no matter what?
Frankly, we thought that Ben might say his bees were most important (just kidding, Ben!), but he did not. He chose his HVAC first, then the bees, then his pool pump.
On the Dole. We then placed all of the home’s power needs into the three groups so that when the power goes off, very quickly the generator comes on, and the load control module assesses how much power is going to be needed. It looks at how many amps it has, and ‘thinks’, “It will be okay to bring on the air conditioning and the other group one things on that load. We have enough power.
“And yes, we also are making enough power for the bees. But oops! We don’t have enough amps to run the pool pump, so we will shut that out.”
The generator continually assesses the situation, so that later, when the sun goes down and there isn’t a demand for the air and other appliances, it recognizes when there is enough power for the pool pump, and it doles out power to the pool. When the need changes again, the pool pump will shut off, because that’s marked the least important on the load control list.
Placing Value. For Ben, his $14,000 generator pricetag turned into a $5000 generator pricetag. He bought the $700 cost of the load control module, but he got a rebate of $75 from KOHLER®. The KOHLER® LCM saved him about $8000. And in case you’re wondering, the load control module carries the same 5 year limited warranty as the generator and transfer switch.
Don’t worry. Bee happy. To borrow from the song, now Ben doesn’t have to worry when the power goes out. So now Ben’s happy, and – most important – his bee colony is happy, and powered for life! And, honey, that makes us happy, too!
PS Right now KOHLER® is still offering that rebate. Call us today to find out more about how a load control module may help you save money in your home or business.