If recent storms have you thinking about emergency backup power for your home, there are a lot of options to consider beyond extension cords plugged into a portable generator outside.
There are other choices from budget-friendly to top-of-the-line. Some use a mid-size or large portable generator combined with a transfer switch or interlock device to fuel the essentials in a home. There are other systems that can power a whole house.
Read on for questions to consider and expert advice.
BUDGET-FRIENDLY PLAN
If the electricity goes out at his home, Todd Koch can keep the essentials going.
“It doesn’t power our whole house, but it keeps us in a place where our refrigerator stays powered, the core functions of the house stay powered,” Koch said.
Ten years ago, Koch bought a portable gas-powered generator at a home improvement store. Then, hired an electrician to install a transfer switch next to the home’s breaker panel. The transfer switch can panel circuits on a home’s panel without running individual extension cords to each appliance. The transfer switch also allows items like a furnace or water heater, that may not have a plug, to stay powered.
Koch showed NBC 5 how it takes him about five minutes of work to pull the generator outside, plug it into the system and flip a few switches to get power flowing.
“It connects directly to the generator when it’s running and allows us to power very specific circuits within the house,” said Koch. “We could choose which ones we wanted to power.”
With a five-gallon gasoline can on hand, the family can light a couple of rooms in the house, and keep the fridge, furnace and internet running. In a freeze, they can power pool pumps.
“You have uncertainty about what you’re going to lose, what you’re not going to lose. This takes that away, right?” said Koch of the system.
Koch said the generator, transfer switch and labor for a professional electrician added up to around $1,500 total.
“I would say for us, as a family, it paid itself off the first time we had to use it,” Koch said.
Someone would have to be home to set up the system. If the family is out of town and there’s an outage, the fridge and other essentials wouldn’t have electricity.
Koch said they don’t use the current system to power the central air conditioning, “It just takes a lot of power and puts a lot more stress on the generator.”
AUTOMATIC POWER
At Lex Green’s house, a whole-home generator starts up on its own if it detects an outage.
“It is all automatic, we don’t have to do anything,” said Green. “You don’t have to be here and it will turn on and switch over to the generator source. Everything will run normally.”
Green said the generator, mounted on a concrete pad next to the house, provides power to the whole home – including the HVAC.
“The number one priority is the heating and cooling,” said Green. “We wouldn’t care if we had lights if we could keep cool in the summers.”
Green said the generator costs around $6,500 plus professional installation by an electrician and plumber. The generator’s fuel source, natural gas, had to be rerouted from one side of the house to the other. All in, Green said he spent around $18,000.
“You ask yourself: how much is it worth to you? For me, there’s the peace of mind knowing it’s there when I need it,” Green said.
WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?
Generally, there are three types of generators: portable generators, inverter generators and whole-house generators.
Within those categories, there’s a wide range of options for residential emergency backup power – depending on the amount of power you need, the available fuel source and the desired level of convenience.
“Anywhere from a portable generator that you can just roll around and plug in a few freezers. You can step it up a little bit and get a bigger portable [generator] with a transfer switch and have that setup,” said Dustin Owens, a journeyman electrician with Milestone.
He added, “They do make smaller whole home generators if you just want to power up a portion of your home and you want it to be automatic.”
For automatic standby power in a whole house generator, Owens said installation cost can vary too. It would depend on factors like whether a homeowner could tap into existing natural gas service. Is there enough volume? If there’s no natural gas service available, propane may be an option.
“That’s probably one of the biggest things is where your breaker panels are located, the gas is located, all that good stuff that plays a huge factor in it,” explained Owens.
Also, consider local ordinances, your utility service’s rules and the homeowners association.
“Some HOAs don’t allow them because of the…
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