According to the Energy Information Administration, the American household loses power once or twice a year, for an average of approximately 3 hours. However, some power outages, like those caused by extreme weather conditions, can last for several days or even weeks! In fact, a recent thunderstorm in Massachusetts knocked down power lines and trees, affecting over 200,000 homes.
During times like these, homeowners face several inconveniences, ranging from frozen pipes and flooded basements to moldy walls and spoiled food. It’s time to take matter in your own hands and invest in a home backup generator that offers a permanent solution to power your house with seamless electrical supply. While small portable generators are great for powering up your essentials—such as refrigerators and microwave ovens—a whole-house standby generator can power everything electrical in your house.
For Frequent Power Outages
If you live in an area that’s prone to severe weather conditions, such as ice storms, blizzards and hurricanes, the generators you should consider are:
- Large inverted
- Home standby
Both of them can power your entire household by connecting directly to your circuit breaker panel. You’ll have the ability to run hardwired appliances like air conditioners, central heating systems, sump pumps, water heaters and electric ranges.
For Occasional Outages
If you experience occasional—but sustained—outages and don’t wish to spend thousands of dollars on a home standby generator, you should consider investing in:
- Large inverter
- Or portable generator
Install a transfer switch to power your portable generator or large inverter automatically during an outage and enjoy continuous flow of power until the main power is restored.
For Rare Outages
In case you have life-saving equipment that requires constant power supply, or if someone in your home requires a dialysis machine or an oxygen tank, it’s wise to be proactive and invest in a generator. The generators you can consider are:
- Recreational inverter
- Midsized inverter
While recreational inverters are compact enough to power a TV in the back of a pickup, a midsized generator provides ample power to run a window A/C, fridge or space heater.
What You Need To Know About Wattage
Another way to figure out the generator size that’s right for you is to add up the wattage of all the electrical appliances that you need to power during an outage.
It’s important to note here that some appliances like sump pumps, refrigerators and air conditioners draw more wattage when they’re cycling on—these surge watts can throw your calculations off. Consult with an electrician on the amount of wattage required by your hardwired appliances.
Our professional electricians in Wilmington, MA not only provide complete home generator installation, but they can also help you choose the right generators based on your budget and power needs.
Get in touch with us for more information about our 24 hour emergency services or schedule our electrical service online, today!