Buying a generator can mean spending a few hundred dollars on a portable generator or a few thousand dollars on 30kW generators for whole-home operation. Which generator type you need decides your purchase because, with saving and budgeting, either can grace your home. Let’s explore what defines a household’s generator needs, starting with the frequency of outages in your area. You could use a portable generator if your town experiences one single-day outage per year on average, unless you must operate medical devices.
How Much Generator Power Do You Need?
Make a list of the equipment you could not live a full day without. Add the start-up watts and operating watts of each device. Sum the wattage totals. Anything above 30 kW means you need a whole-home inline generator.
A household that only needs to operate a small air conditioner or heater while charging a cell phone and/or computer can use a portable generator. If you value serene surroundings, choose a quiet source generator like one that operates on solar power. Gas- and diesel-powered generators tend to create a lot of noise.
Maintaining Your Generator Investment
Contact your insurance agent to add your new generator to your home insurance policy. There’s no separate generator insurance. Instead, you schedule the generator on the homeowners’ or renters’ policy you already have. When you need generator repair, file a claim, so your insurance covers the parts and servicing.
People throughout the United States lose power more often now than at any point. The power grid faces power loses 285% more frequently than it did in 1984. That is the year blackout data began to be collected. American businesses lose $150 billion every year to power outages, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. For individuals, it is important to note that if the power is out for more than four hours, any food in the refrigerator and freezer may no longer be good to eat. Many people around the country are turning to generator installers to give them peace of mind and let them maintain a dependable power supply even when there is a power outage in their area. Here are some reasons to have a generator installation done at your home:
- It will protect you when bad weather hits. People may not realize this but the United States sees some of the most violent weather on the planet. Between hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards, much of the country lives in areas where power outages happen fairly frequently. When you have had generator installers put one in at your home, you know you and your family will be protected when bad weather hits. When you have a whole house generator, it will sense when there is any disruption in your power supply and will kick in automatically. All of the food in your refrigerator and freezer will be safe with a generator.
- Whole house generators will run for a longer period of time than a portable unit. When the power goes out, you have no idea if it will be out for a few hours or a few days. There have been instances where people lose power to their homes for weeks. Generator installers will connect the unit directly to your source of fuel. The fuel sources they can accept are propane and natural gas. By connecting directly to that source of fuel, your power will stay on during a power outage as long as you need it. This is the most reliable way to have backup power for your home.
- Your business will not have as much downtime. As was noted, power outages are costly to American businesses. By using a standby generator, you can keep your appliances, servers or refrigerators and freezers running when there is a local power outage. If you run or own a business that relies on these things to stay open, your standby generator will help you stay open. This can also give you an advantage over competitors who have not had a generator installed.
- You can save that refrigerator and freezer full of food. If you have a family that you need to feed, there is a good chance that you go to bulk stores to stock up on food. When the power goes out, you can lose all of it if you have not talked to generator installers about putting in a stand by generator to keep your power on. You can lose hundreds of dollars in produce and meat when your city or town loses power.
- Prevent flood damage with standby generators. Do you have a sump pump in your basement? If you do and you are experiencing bad weather such as a hurricane, the last thing you need is for the sump pump to stop working while the rain is still coming down. When you have had the generator installers in to install a whole house generator, you can avoid costly flood damage and keep that sump pump going no matter what is happening in the rest of your town or city. Flood damage can be expensive to deal with so preventing it should be a top priority.
- Everyone will be more calm when the power stays on. It is easy to get stressed out during a bad storm but when the power stays on, people are more likely to stay calm and relaxed. This can be especially important for households with children.
Most of the United States sits in the path of bad weather. Whether you live on the East Coast, West Coast or someplace in the middle, bad weather is always around the corner. A standby generator can give peace of mind and security.
