Sizing sounds like a math problem and mostly is not. It starts as a conversation about what has to keep working when the power is out, and that answer is different in every house. A family with a well pump, a sump, and someone who works from home has a different list than a couple who care about the refrigerator, the furnace, and enough light to read by. Write the list first. The equipment is a consequence of the list, not the other way around.
Then the property gets a vote. Where a unit can legally sit, with code-compliant clearance from windows, doors, vents and property lines, sets the location. The fuel available at the address sets the ceiling, because natural gas supply and propane storage each have real limits. And the distance from that legal spot back to the panel and the fuel source shapes the labor. A proper assessment is a walk around the outside of your house with a tape measure, not a form.
What you want to be true when the power is out, room by room. This is the only part where your preferences count, and everything after it is constraints.
Find the legal placements, measure the runs to the panel and the fuel supply, and check what is on the other side of the nearest wall and the nearest fence.
The wish list meets what the supply at your address can carry. Sometimes everything fits. Sometimes the list gets shortened, and better now than after installation.
Get the circuit list, the placement and the fuel plan written down before anyone bids. Proposals only become comparable when every installer in the running is pricing the same job.
An assessment is usually folded into the bidding process, but what it uncovers is what moves the project price. Whole-home and essential-circuits scopes are genuinely different jobs, and that gap is larger than any equipment choice within either one. Distance from the legal placement back to the panel and the gas supply drives trenching, pipe and conductor runs. Fuel type matters, since propane means a tank and its own siting rules. If clearances force the unit to an inconvenient corner, that work shows up in the bid. Permit and inspection scope varies by city. Have the assessment produce a written scope, then let installers price that identical scope.
You work backward from the list of what must keep running, then check that list against the fuel available at the property. That is the honest method. Anyone who names equipment before asking what you want powered, and before seeing where the unit can legally sit, is quoting a catalog rather than sizing your house.
Effectively, yes. The two scopes use different equipment, place different demands on the fuel supply, and involve different work at the panel. Changing your mind afterward is not a settings change; it is a second project. Spend the time on the decision now, when it costs you a conversation instead of a reinstallation.
Often, but it has to be verified rather than assumed. The unit needs code-compliant distance from windows, doors, vents and property lines, plus clearance for service and airflow. Narrow lots, tight side yards and close neighbors are where this gets interesting. A site visit settles it, and it is worth doing before you get attached to a plan.
More than most buyers do. A standby unit is audible while it runs, and it also runs its exercise cycle on a schedule, which is the part neighbors actually notice because it happens when nothing is wrong. Placement, orientation and the timing of that cycle are all adjustable at the design stage and awkward to change once the base is set.
The permanent version: a unit set outside on a base, plumbed for fuel, wired through a transfer switch, permitted and inspected. We connect you with installers who treat the gas side and the electrical side as one job.
Learn more →The switch is what separates your house from the utility while the generator runs. Without one, power can travel back down the line toward the crews working on it. This is the part of the job nobody should improvise.
Learn more →A unit that will not start, throws a fault, or runs briefly and quits. Most of what fails traces back to a machine that sat untouched for years. We connect you with people who service other companies' installations.
Learn more →Oil, filters, battery, fuel connections, and a real test under load rather than the self-exercise the unit runs on its own. A generator that is never serviced is a generator that fails on the day you needed it.
Learn more →Get the siting and scope sorted before anyone quotes equipment.
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