Having backup power in your home can be crucial when it comes to being prepared for severe weather, unexpected provider outages, or more – allowing you to carry on with your day/night without worrying about not having the power on, especially during the winter months or summer when the power grid can get overwhelmed or severe weather can knock out power. It’s a peace of mind. What comes next is knowing and understanding what kind of backup power works for your home and needs down the line, as well as stats and graphs showing the differences.
The days of only having fuel-powered standby generators available are becoming more in the past, as there are quieter, fume-free home battery backups in the market now for residential use that work well and can suit the needs of homeowners while also not burning a hole in wallets with having to worry about gas/propane, upkeep, and noise. Propane and natural gas generators have also come their way over the years as well, being more efficient. Our article below will go in-depth into the pros and cons of each, and how well they can suit your needs and home for when you need them most.
Backup batteries vs generators
Backup batteries vs generators is less of a debate, and more of which power backup suits your needs best and what will work for your home in the long run – and of course, what will fit and feasibly work and fit within your home area and set up.
A broad general summary could be said that most backup batteries are good for shorter-term power outages and for smaller homes/condos/townhomes that are situated in the city or near a city where the power grid is typically more stable, and you would experience brownouts more than blackouts for extended periods.
Generators would be more suited for living out of the city, in the country, in an area where having a loud and large natural gas or propane generator could better serve as backup power if the grid isn’t stable or if there are consistent power outages more often in your area, due to severe storms every year or harsher weather.
That being said, it will continue to depend on many factors and also on what you consider most important and what will fit into your home/land outside of the home. A condo for example may not allow a large propane generator, but they may allow a solar or electric Tesla backup battery power installation.
Standby Generators and costs
Standby generators will of course be louder than other home batteries since it is typically a large fuel-sourced generator that takes a lot of moving parts to provide a lot of power for a longer range of time.
The power consumption of typical household appliances can help determine what size of generator you may need or want, concerning which essentials in your home you want to keep running when the power goes out. Standby generators come in a wide variety of sizes and prices, from $2,000 upwards to $20,000 and higher. Installation costs as well can widely vary and consulting a qualified installer in your area is the best way to determine what size generator you would need for your home (or business, if applicable)
Learn more: How to Calculate the Energy Cost of Your Appliances
Generators are sized in kW/kilowatts, and as such for example – a 10kW generator can produce 10kW or 10,000 watts of power. A qualified generator installer can help determine the proper size after helping to calculate any and all anticipated electrical loads needed for backup power, and then some just in case. Generators can be connected to all of your home’s electrical circuits for full house coverage, or they can be opted in for ‘essential circuits’. A few common essential circuits that homeowners may want covered are:
- Garage doors or gate openers
- Electric ranges
- Kitchen receptacles, fridges, etc.
- Washing machines and dryers
- Fan blower motors for gas furnaces
- Water well pumps
- Security systems
- Essential light circuits around the home
- TV, WiFi, medical equipment
- Sump pumps
- Air conditioners
Most of these take less power consumption than assumed to keep them operational, but the most important step is to determine all of these and how much they equal in total to ensure that your generator can handle the demand needed or else none of them may work, or it may only provide power to a few of the ones you want and not enough in the end.
A popular generator for residential and smaller business use is the 20kW model, as they are air cooled as opposed to liquid cooled and only cost around $5,000. The Cummins series of quiet generator models includes a 200-Amp ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch) all for under $6,000. The ATS monitors utility power and automatically switches to generator power during a power outage while also preventing electrical currents from travelling in the wrong direction across utility lines during power outages, allowing for safe connections without having to worry about any other electrical issues that can crop up otherwise.
There are two types of transfer switches when it comes to generators, manual non-automatic switches and ATS, the automatic transfer switches. Portable generators will typically have a manual switch and standby generators more often than not will come with an automatic switch for additional safety and ease of use for everyone. The size of the ATS must match the size of the ‘load center’ it will be connected to. Using the 20kW as an example, these are connected to a 200-Amp load center, which therefore means that it would come with a 200-Amp ATS. If the generator you’re interested in will be connected to a main breaker panel, with a 100-Amp load center, you will need a 100-Amp ATS. Be sure to check the size of the main breaker on the load center/s installed in your home, and always be sure to ask and make sure from the generator installer that everything matches and makes sense for your home setup.
If your home has multiple load centers and you wish to power the entire house, you will still need an ATS for each load center. If it’s just for essentials, the installer can move those essential circuits to one of the load centers and relocate the non-essential circuits to other load centers not covered by the generator.
Overall costs for generators
Costs for generators, as mentioned earlier can vary wildly from a couple of thousand for a 10kW smaller generator, upwards to $20,000+ depending on your home, power needs, and installation process based on all of the above. The Cummins air-cooled generator we linked above before as an example is growing in popularity as it is quiet, and they have been recognized as a brand leader for quiet running generators while staying relatively affordable.
Installation costs can vary widely depending on multiple factors. The lowest-cost installation can be obtained when the generator is positioned at or near the home’s gas meter. Installation costs will be higher the further distance away that the generator is from the gas meter, or if you have multiple meters that are on opposite sides of the house. When budgeting for a professionally installed standby generator for the home, it’s best to assume that installation costs will closely approximate the cost of the generator equipment – this isn’t always the case, but more often than not the rule of thumb is fairly accurate. If you spend $6,000 for the generator equipment, expect the total to be around $12, 000 just to be safe. If the generator is positioned away from meters, it can be expected to be higher.
Project costs for liquid-cooled generators can often range well into the teens and 20,000 ranges for cost if it’s a larger area or larger generator. If your home exceeds 2,500 square feet, or is an all-electric home and you’re looking for a whole-home backup generator, liquid-cooled generators are typically the way to go compared to others as far as price vs value and worth. Of course, the best course of action is to always contact a professional that can give you much better estimates based on your own home and wants/needs.
Noise
Generators will vary in size and noise levels, depending on the make and type and how far away it is from your home. A generator placed nearby will be much more noticeable than one that may be placed a bit further out, especially if you’re in the country or outside of the city. This chart from Electric Generators lists common noises and where generators can typically sit.
This said, there are now air-cooled generators that are marketed as ‘quiet running’ that will run far quieter than the traditional natural gas styles that are very noticeable regardless of where you are. The quietest generators will be of course any solar or battery-powered generators, which will fall under the battery-powered backups in the rest of the article here. They’re the quietest since there is of course no internal combustion engine, as a result of that, they’re relatively noiseless, and, at most, send out a humming noise.
Generators with internal combustion designs, the quietest of those are inverter generators. Decibel tests show that regular generators can be as high as 76dB or higher, while the inverters are around 66 dB. They’re also great for campgrounds, for example, where there are noise limits, same with houses within cities. There are currently no industry standards regarding noise levels when it comes to generators and, because of this, manufacturers can test the noise levels under whatever conditions produce the most favourable results. Besides ratings, and decibels listed, sounds will also vary from person to person because of locations and how every individual hears and perceives sounds. What may be too loud to Person A may not even be an issue to Person B.
Solar generators and electrical home batteries
On the other end of the generator spectrum compared to gas-powered internal combustion, we have solar generators and electrical home battery generators. They vary of course between makes and models, but are typically much quieter and are more for smaller homes and for condos and townhomes within the city that cannot use large and loud generators that burn fuel, as there are noise limits and other regulations where it would be unsafe.
This graph from ShopSolarKits shows a wonderful comparison of solar generators and their prices, from $1,000 and under, which makes them far more affordable as well to buy and get installed into your home.
This battery storage system chart also shows the differences between solar battery systems in 2024, including their outputs, types, backup power, AC surges, and more. It’s a comprehensive and easy-to-read chart that allows users to determine what is most important to them and what will work best in their homes.
