How To Select a Residential Generator | Home

By AnnTriune
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If you're especially concerned with protecting your home from an unexpected power outage, having a residential generator will solve your worries. A residential generator supplies electricity during a blackout. This can be used to supply important electric devices found in your home such as lights, computers, refrigerators, air-conditioners, heaters, and etc. It does this through converting mechanical energy into electrical energy.

A residential generator can either be portable or stationary (stand by), depending on what suits you best. These generators can run on natural gas, diesel, gasoline and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). Portable generators that run on gasoline are the cheapest models. However, they have a short running time and you would have to refill their gas tanks time and time again. This is also not reliable as a long-term power backup since gas pumps might not work during blackouts.

On the other hand, a generator that is stationary can supply continuous power since they are directly attached or hooked up to an external fuel source, such as an external gas line. A portable generator can also be attached to an external source, thereby extending running hours.

In addition, portable generators, despite its affordability, come with disadvantages. You need to transport it from the storage, hook it up to the loads, fill it with fuel, and manually operate it just to get it to start functioning. A standby residential generator on the other hand functions with just a push of the button, or even with no manual operation at all, if it has an automatic transfer switch. This is because it is connected to the house wiring and fuel source. The average transfer time of an automated system is about 10-30 seconds. Furthermore, a standby generator provides higher levels of power compared to portables. Although it might be expensive, standby generators guarantee total protection from long-term power outage since it can supply electricity even to the whole house.

In choosing your own residential generator, make sure you not only consider wattage and price, but also take into consideration how long you might need emergency power, fuel availability, convenience of use, and safety. You should also consider whether you want to power the whole house or just a few mission-critical select circuits. If you have the financial resources to power the whole house, go for it. If not, you can just choose select circuits that are most important to you, like those leading to lights, refrigerator, heater, air-conditioner, and such.

Just be cautioned that having a residential generator might be risky to health and might cause accidents. It can ignite unwanted fires, cause electrocution, and a produce a high emission of the poisonous gas, carbon monoxide.

As a whole, you should buy a residential generator according to your needs. Ask yourself f you want to use it short term/long term or if you want to power the whole house/select circuits. And don't forget to calculate the total wattage requirements of all devices you need to power at the same time, so that you can buy a generator that provides you the right amount of power.

Remember that there is more to buying a residential generator than its cost. It protects and adds value to your home, so consider it as a very important investment you have to make.

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