Whole house generators may not be something you will need on a day-to-day basis, when you do need one, there is no replacement. A generator can provide power to your house following a storm or any other time of power outage.
The size of the generator needed will depend on how you plan to use it. For some a generator is needed for work sites, tailgate parties, or small outdoor facilities. Other may need a generator as a backup power source for their entire house, which means they will need significantly more watts. Before buying a generator, it is important to talk to a professional about what you plan to use it for and how often you plan to use it.
Buying and keeping an emergency generator is not extreme or part of a doomsday plan. It is a realistic safety measure to protect yourself, your family, and your assets. In the first six of 2014 alone, there were 130 reported outages. It takes less than four hours for the food in your refrigerator to start going bad.
If you have an electric water heater, an outage also means no hot water for bathing or cleaning. If your home is fully electric, this means you will also lose heat and air conditioning. Depending on where you live, the loss of temperature control can quickly turn deadly.
To determine the size needed for whole house generators, you need to add up the rated watts of the appliances and fixtures you want to work throughout the outage. The total is the watt power of the generator you need to buy. You can have a plan in place of what appliances and fixtures you will use throughout the outage to reduce the size of the generator needed, but then you have to stick to that plan throughout the outage; using anything that was not figured into the total watts will reduce the available power.
Generator installers can work with you to help figure out the size you will need to fill your specific needs. Additionally, when pursuing generator installation, you want to choose a company that has extensive experience in the field. When you are facing a power outage, you don’t want to find out your installers didn’t know what they were doing. You can also double check your numbers using a generator size calculator before having the generator installed to ensure you have the appropriate size whole house generators.