By size
15kVA Generators
The size that straddles the boundary between two markets, where a careful load survey can save several hundred thousand shillings by keeping you below the cliff.
Suits
- Large home with heavy water and heating load
- Medium apartment block
- Small workshop with a compressor
- Restaurant or bakery
The size on the cliff edge
15 kVA is where the two Kenyan generator markets overlap, and it is the rating where buyers are most likely to be quoted wildly different numbers for apparently the same machine.
Approached from below, 15 kVA is a stretched import: the top of a product range built for 6 to 12 kVA duty. Approached from above, it is the smallest member of an industrial range, with the parts availability and build that implies, and a price closer to the KES 970,000 that a 20 kVA Cummins commands.
Both are honestly described as 15 kVA. They are not the same purchase.
Why a load survey pays for itself here
At no other rating does an hour of arithmetic save so much money. Two questions decide which market you are shopping in:
Can the largest motor start be reduced? A star-delta or soft starter on a compressor or a submersible pump cuts the starting current substantially and often brings a load that looked like 15 or 20 kVA inside 12 kVA. The starter costs a fraction of the difference.
Does electric water heating have to be on the generator? It is frequently the single largest load and frequently the least necessary during an outage. Taking it off the essential-loads panel can move you down a whole market.
If neither helps and the load genuinely needs 20 kVA of capacity, the honest advice is to buy industrial plant rather than run an imported set permanently at its limit, where it will regulate poorly and fail early.
FAQ
▸Why is 15kVA hard to price?
Because it sits on the boundary. Below it, the imported band tops out around KES 250,000 at 12kVA. Above it, industrial plant starts around KES 970,000 at 20kVA. Genuine 15kVA machines exist in both camps, so quotations for the same rating can differ by a factor of three depending which market they come from.
▸Should I size up to 20kVA or down to 12kVA?
This is the most valuable question at this rating and it is worth a proper load survey. If a soft starter on your largest motor, or moving electric water heating off the set, brings you inside 12kVA, you stay in the imported band and save several hundred thousand shillings. If your load genuinely needs 20kVA, buying a stretched 15kVA import is a false economy.