June marks the beginning of the hurricane season. After the record-breaking storms in 2017, being prepared this year is more important than ever. When rain and winds take out power to your home, a whole-home generator will keep your life going until power is restored.
Beyond the general convenience of a powered home, a generator will ensure that important functions like refrigeration, security systems, air conditioning, and internet stay running. When the lights go out and you have no way to receive weather alerts or contact family members, you’ll wish you had a generator. Read below on our best advice for purchasing a whole home generator and why this is a better choice over other models.
Why Whole Home Generators?
In the world of home generators, there are 3 major categories: portable, standby, and whole home. Each option has its pros and cons. With our proximity to the coast and a forecasted increase in storm activity, we believe a whole home generator is the best choice.
Most portable home generators run on gas. During a major storm, trips to the gas station become hectic and gas supply becomes unpredictable. Why rely on gas to keep your home running during an extended power outage? Not to mention, portable generators only run for several hours on a typical tank of gas. This means you will need several cans of fresh gas on hand. This makes the portable generator a poor choice as a power source during extended outages.
Standbys offer more features and convenience over portable generators. Attached to your home, standby generators come on automatically after a power outage, meaning you don’t have to worry about trips to the gas station or braving the elements to set up your portable. However, standbys have a limited capacity of 9kw to 20kW and aren’t suitable for running for extended periods (several days, for instance).
Whole-home generators are the ideal option to power your entire home when it takes more than a few days for the power to return. When the power goes out, your generator will turn on automatically and power everything in your home. Even large homes are covered.
Now that you’ve made the smart choice to go with a whole home generator, we will help you find the right one for your home.
Find Your Perfect Match
Whole-home generators are available with several options from fuel sources, sizes, costs, and more. Choosing the right size for your home and power needs is an important step. This handy image from electricgeneratorsdirect.com helps to organize the options so you can make the best choice easily.
As you can see, power options for whole-home generators range from 22kW to 48kW capacity and vary in price starting from $8,000 to $14,000. Decide on the power needs and size of your home. A single-story, 3-bedroom home will have fewer power needs than its larger counterparts. For more details on choosing the right size generator, Consumer Reports goes into this in great detail.
After you’ve decided on the size, look at the fuel options available for the applicable models. Whole-home generators can use natural gas, propane, and diesel. You will need a fuel source large enough to run your generator for several days. This option will depend on what is allowable in your neighborhood and what is available in your area. You also need to consider installation and setup costs.
When deciding on the costs, keep in mind the expense of installation as well. These generators will need to be installed by professionals. Because these units have an estimated life of 15 years, you will need routine checkups just like your HVAC systems.
This video from Consumer Reports gives some great points about the difference between portable and whole-home generators.
Your experts at [company_name] can get you to storm ready. Keep life going and stay safe and comfortable when disaster strikes. A whole-home generator is an investment in your home, and one well made. Give us a call for a free estimate and start the process now to be storm ready!
