Back Up Generators In Dallas For Homeowners
A backup generator is a piece of equipment designed to restore power to your home or business when the power goes out. The equipment is available in a wide range of sizes from small, portable units to large, whole-house systems. Portable units require gasoline while whole-house systems use diesel or propane.
A backup generator acts like an insurance policy. There is no telling when or if one will need it. Whether it is worth the investment depends on one’s tolerance for power interruptions, budget, and personal situation.
Back Up Generators For Your Home
When we moved to the beach in Southern Delaware, we had lots of “future improvements” in our new-construction building plan. Living close to the coast, a generator made the top of the list. In the wake of Sandy, we’re so grateful we had the forethought. No one wants to show up at the home improvement center just as a hurricane is approaching, having to scramble for one of the 60 generators delivered that afternoon. There’s a balance to strike between the electrical load and generator wattage, and it’s best not figured out on the fly. If you think you might want to run your house (or a portion of it) on a generator, take some time to do some planning first.
1. Figure Out Your Load
We worked with an electrician to figure out what we wanted our generator to run. We decided on the sump pump, furnace, hot water heater, kitchen refrigerator and outlets, garage freezer, and the living room lights. A 5,000-watt generator will run all of that for us on about 13 gallons of fuel per 24 hours.2. Install a Transfer Switch
You can’t just plug a generator into a wall outlet. That’s called back feeding, and it is extremely dangerous. Your house needs to be disconnected from the grid before starting a generator. Otherwise, the electricity produced could travel beyond your house, entering the grid and potentially killing utility personnel at work.The safest way to run a generator is by installing a transfer switch. The switch includes an electrical sub panel with a switch for each circuit you want to run with your generator. The transfer switch is wired directly to the house’s electrical service, and the generator gets plugged into that sub panel. (Our electrician wired an outlet for the generator on our garage exterior.) Throwing that transfer switch completely cuts your house off from the grid; meanwhile, power from the generator is only allowed to go to circuits you’ve designated.
3. Purchase the Right Generator
We don’t live in a secluded area, where services are cut off regularly (or at length). Nor do we have medical equipment that runs 24/7. So we didn’t feel a standby generator was necessary. A backup generator is just fine. Larger systems are obviously more expensive to purchase, install, and run. For us, a 5,000-watt backup generator struck the right balance between what we felt was essential for comfort and what our budget would allow. Read full article here…
The Benefits Of Back Up Generators
The benefits of backup generators are the fast and automatic delivery of power during a blackout.It allows homeowners to operate their homes, including heating and cooling systems, televisions, computers, and other appliances. Call (214) 238-8353 us for your home service and repair needs.
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