Ours has been in service for about a year, and it has been good to have the few times it has been needed, most recently being the March 14 wind/snow event. I chose a 14KW Kohler for a few reasons. The size allowed me to install it with a "service-entrance" transfer switch, for whole-house availability, rather than have just a few critical circuits handled. I chose Kohler over Generac partly because it has hydraulic valve lifters, instead of solid lifters, requiring that extra annual service step of checking clearances.
As for tank size, I wondered about getting just a 250 gallon propane tank, since nothing in the house otherwise needed propane. But the propane company sales rep looked up my 14KW size on a chart and said the 500 would be needed. At design minimum temperature, there must be enough tank surface area to absorb heat from ambient air to vaporize liquid propane at a sufficient rate to feed the generator to run at full capacity.
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