Your thinking is on line with mine: What are the chances of having a situation where both heat pumps w/heat strips on + the rest of the house would start at the same time.........nearly none although we did have a 0* night with 35mph wind about a month ago. Didn't loose power during that fortunately.
I can get by just fine with a manual start ( and maybe even an auto transfer)24KW for in the 6000.00 range.
But a 30KW that would run everything all out on startup is going to run me twice that.
Me, being the conservative that I am, am having a hard time justifying the difference, when there is a real good chance the 24KW even w /auto switch will be just fine.
Thanks to all,
John