Whole-house generators

Covering everything or covering the basics

Full-house coverage moves your entire panel to the generator through a service-rated transfer switch. Everything works, within the generator's capacity. Partial coverage uses a smaller generator wired to a short list of circuits in a dedicated subpanel. You keep the essentials going and accept that some rooms stay dark.

The price gap between the two can be large. Before deciding, walk through the house and list what you would truly miss during a three-day outage in January and a three-day outage in July.

There is no wrong answer, only a tradeoff between cost and comfort.

How load management helps

Few homes run every big appliance at once. Load management takes advantage of that. It watches the generator's output and keeps large loads, like central air, an electric dryer or a car charger, waiting until there is room. With it, a mid-size generator can cover the whole house most of the time. Ask the installer which loads they would manage and how the system decides who goes first.

Gas or propane for a whole-house unit

A whole-house generator uses a lot of fuel at full output. On natural gas, the question is whether your meter and service line can feed the generator along with your furnace, water heater and stove. The installer checks this with the utility and arranges a meter upgrade if needed.

On propane, the question is tank size. A bigger tank means more hours of runtime between deliveries. Your propane supplier and installer can estimate runtime based on the generator and how you use power. Leave all fuel line work to licensed professionals, and if you smell gas, leave the house before calling 911 or the utility.

Either fuel works well for a whole-house unit. The choice usually comes down to what is already at your street.

Hillside homes and heat

Many Ossining houses sit on slopes with finished lower levels, and a lot of them rely on sump pumps. A long winter outage can mean no heat, frozen pipes and a basement filling with snowmelt. If you are choosing what to cover, put heat, the sump pump and the fridge first, then lighting, then comfort loads like air conditioning.

Finished basements with sump pumps are worth extra attention, since water damage can cost far more than the generator.

What to ask

What size do you recommend, and why? What can run at the same time? Will you add load management? Does my gas meter need an upgrade, and who schedules it? How big a propane tank would I need for several days of runtime? What does the weekly self-test sound like, and when does it run? Getting these answered in writing helps you compare quotes.

Also ask how long the gas utility usually takes to schedule a meter upgrade, since that step often sets the project timeline.

Questions homeowners ask