Most folks ask me about backup power for the first time right after a bad storm, standing in a dark kitchen with a phone flashlight and a fridge full of food they’re about to lose. That’s the worst moment to make a $10,000 decision, and I’ve watched plenty of people overspend because a salesman caught them scared.
So let’s slow down. Whether you actually need a standby generator depends on a handful of things you can figure out at your kitchen table, no pressure and no quote sheet in front of you.
I spent twelve years wiring these systems into homes across the Midwest, and I’ll give you the same read I’d give a neighbor over the fence.
Key takeaways
- A standby generator makes the most sense if you lose power more than about 4-6 times a year, or if an outage puts someone’s health at risk.
- Expect $8,000 to $15,000 installed for a whole-house unit, plus fuel and yearly service.
- For occasional short outages, a good portable generator does most of the same work for a fraction of the money.
- Well water, a home medical device, or a work-from-home job change the math fast.
Do I need a standby generator, or do I just want one?
This is the honest question, and it’s fine to want one. But let’s separate the two, because the answer changes what you should buy.
Start with how often your lights actually go out. Pull up your utility’s outage history if they publish it, or just think back over the last two years. Three flickers and one afternoon outage? You probably don’t need a permanent system. Four or five multi-hour outages, plus a two-day mess after every ice storm? Now we’re talking.
The other trigger has nothing to do with frequency. If someone in the house runs a CPAP, an oxygen concentrator, a medication fridge, or a stairlift, even one long outage is a real problem. That single factor pushes plenty of my customers straight to a standby unit regardless of how rarely the power blinks.
What a standby generator really costs
People fixate on the sticker price of the generator itself and forget the rest. A 22 kW air-cooled unit might run $5,000 to $6,000 for the equipment, but the install is where the number climbs.
You’re paying for a transfer switch, a concrete or composite pad, gas line work, permits, and the electrician’s labor. On a job last winter outside Columbus, the gas line trench alone added about $1,400 because the meter sat on the far side of the house.
The numbers that surprise people
- Equipment: $4,500-$7,000 for a whole-house air-cooled unit
- Installation and transfer switch: $3,000-$8,000 depending on gas and electrical distance
- Yearly maintenance: $150-$300 for an oil-and-filter service visit
- Fuel: a 22 kW unit burns roughly 2-3 gallons of propane per hour under load
That fuel figure matters more than people expect. Run a propane unit hard for a three-day outage and you can watch a 500-gallon tank drop fast. Natural gas hookups sidestep the tank worry, which is a big reason I steer city customers that direction when the line is available.
Never run any generator, portable or otherwise, inside a garage or near open windows. Carbon monoxide from a single unit can kill in minutes. The CPSC reports dozens of generator-related deaths every year, nearly all from CO in enclosed spaces. A standby unit sits outside for exactly this reason.
When a portable does the same job for less
Here’s the part the showroom won’t lead with. For a lot of homes, a $900 to $1,500 portable generator covers the essentials, the fridge, a few lights, the furnace blower, and a phone charger, well enough to ride out a short outage.
The trade-offs are real: you have to drag it out, start it, feed it gasoline, and you can’t run central air off a small one. But if your outages are rare and short, that’s a lot of money saved. I lay out the full comparison in this standby vs portable breakdown, and beginners should read the portable generator starter guide before spending anything.
A mistake I see all the time: someone buys a portable, then backfeeds it into a wall outlet with a homemade cord. That can electrocute a lineman working to restore power. If you go portable, spend the extra couple hundred on a proper interlock kit or manual transfer switch.
How to know which size fits your house
Sizing trips up almost everyone. Go too small and the generator trips under load; go too big and you paid for capacity you’ll never touch.
The quick version: add up what you truly need running at once. A well pump might pull 2,000-3,000 starting watts. Central AC can hit 3,500-5,000 watts on startup. A typical fridge settles around 600 running watts after the compressor kicks on.
Most whole-house comfort lands in the 18-24 kW range, but a “managed” setup with load-shedding modules can run a smaller unit smartly. I walk through the whole calculation in this generator sizing guide so you can ballpark it before an installer ever shows up.
Situations that change the answer
| Your situation | What I usually recommend |
|---|---|
| City home, power out 1-2 times a year | Portable or nothing |
| Rural with a well pump, outages 4+ times a year | Whole-house standby |
| Medical device in the home | Standby, size for reliability |
| Work-from-home, frequent short blips | Standby or a large inverter/battery |
Well water is the quiet decider. Lose power on a well and you lose running water and toilets too, which turns a nuisance outage into a genuine hardship after a day or so.
The stuff nobody mentions until after you buy
Two things catch people off guard, and I’d rather you hear them now.
First, noise. These units aren’t silent. A quality air-cooled generator runs around 60-70 decibels at 23 feet, roughly a loud conversation, and it exercises itself weekly whether you’re home or not. If your neighbor’s bedroom window is close to your side yard, read up on what those decibel numbers actually mean before you pick a spot.
Second, the warranty is not all the same. Coverage ranges from two to five years, and what counts as “covered” varies a lot between brands. I always tell people to read the full standby generator guide and understand how these warranties really work before signing, because a cheap unit with thin coverage can cost more over ten years than a pricier one with solid support.
Ask any installer for the model’s rated altitude and temperature derating. Units lose output in high heat and thin air, and I’ve seen a “22 kW” generator deliver noticeably less on a 100-degree day. Ready.gov also has a solid plain-language power outage preparedness page worth bookmarking, and the CPSC’s portable generator safety center covers CO risks in detail.
Your next move before you spend a dollar
Do one thing this week: write down how many real outages you’ve had in the last two years and how long each lasted. That single list answers most of the question for you.
If the number is small and short, buy a portable and a transfer switch and call it done. If it’s frequent, long, or someone’s health hangs on it, get two or three standby quotes and compare the total installed price, not just the box. Either way, you’ll be deciding from your own numbers instead of a salesman’s, and that’s the whole point.
