A standby generator installation is two trades happening at one address. There is gas work: a fuel supply that has to reach the unit and actually carry it. And there is electrical work: a transfer switch tied in at the panel so the house can be separated from the utility before the generator picks up any load. Both are permitted, both are inspected, and neither is optional. That is why the sequence of this project matters more than the shopping does.
The other half of the job happens outdoors, and it is the half people underestimate. The unit is placed permanently, and it has to sit a code-compliant distance from windows, doors, vents, and property lines. On a big lot, that is a formality nobody thinks about again. On a narrow one it can shape the entire project, because legal placement also decides how far the fuel line runs and how far the wiring has to travel back to the house. Installers worth hiring walk the property before they talk about equipment.
An installer walks the lot, finds legal placement, checks the fuel supply, measures the runs back to the panel, and asks what you expect to keep running. Scope gets decided here, not later.
Equipment and scope are set on paper, then permits are pulled for the gas work and the electrical work. Review timelines vary from one city to the next, so ask what yours looks like.
Base set, unit placed, fuel line run and tested, transfer switch installed at the panel. Your power is off for part of this, and some properties take more than one visit.
Inspectors sign off on both trades, then the installer commissions the unit and tests it by simulating an outage, so you watch it start, take the load, and hand it back.
We do not publish numbers, because the same machine on two lots is not the same job. Scope is the largest lever: a whole-home installation and an essential-circuits installation are different projects rather than different sizes of one project. After that it is distance, since how far the unit sits from the panel and from the fuel supply decides how much trenching, pipe and wire the work takes. Fuel type matters, because propane brings a tank and its own requirements. Siting counts too, when clearances push the unit somewhere awkward. Permit and inspection scope varies by city. Ask for itemized bids and compare scope before you compare totals.
Not automatically. Two things decide it: whether there is legal placement on the lot, meaning a spot with code-compliant clearance from windows, doors, vents and property lines, and whether fuel can reach that spot in the quantity the unit needs. Most properties work. Some tight lots need creative placement, and a few cannot be made to work at all. A site visit answers this in an afternoon.
Sometimes, and it is worth checking before you fall in love with a scope. A generator is an appliance with its own demand, added to a house that already has a furnace, a water heater, and perhaps a range. Whether the existing supply carries all of that is a real calculation, not a guess. If it does not, the fix is part of the project and belongs in the bid rather than in a surprise.
Nobody honest will give you a date on the first call. The physical installation is short compared with everything around it: equipment availability, permit review in your particular city, coordination with the gas supply, and inspection scheduling. Ask your installer which of those is the long pole in your jurisdiction, and ask what happens if the inspector wants something changed.
Only if that is what you bought. A whole-home installation and an essential-circuits installation are genuinely different scopes, with different equipment, different fuel demands, and different wiring. Both are legitimate. The mistake is assuming one and being quoted the other, which is why the list of what has to keep running should be written down before anyone prices anything.
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 →Before equipment gets chosen, someone should walk the property: where a unit can legally sit, how far that is from the gas supply and the panel, and what you actually need running when the power is out.
Learn more →Get the siting and scope sorted before anyone quotes equipment.
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