Selecting a Quality Home Standby Generator System

With all the storms and power outages across the country, many people have been looking at purchasing a home standby generator system. I had purchased a portable generator a few years ago and had wired in a manual generator transfer switch, figuring this was giving me a margin of safety. Unfortunately, my plans for being prepared fell apart when the time came for everything to actually work.

I try to purchase American made products whenever possible so choosing a Coleman Powermate generator made me feel comfortable. Little did I know that Coleman Powermate had filed for bankruptcy and parts are no longer available.

This summer, a major power outage occurred with the high winds of Hurricane Ike, lasting for several days. No problem, I’ll start the portable generator and with 2 days worth of gasoline, we won’t have any problem waiting for the main power to be restored. Wrong! The generator ran for 6 hours before the generator head overheated and burned out the stator. That is when I found out about the bankruptcy. No parts available anywhere for Coleman Powermate generators. I also discovered the generator heads for these generators were made in china much to my disgust. That might account for their financial problems.

The wait for the power to come back on finally was over and I had determined that a home standby unit had to be a better option. After 3 days of research, I had narrowed my choice down to a Generac Guardian or a Briggs and Stratton unit. The deal breaker was the weekly exercise feature. The Generac had this feature, the Briggs did not. I am like most people who have the best of intentions. I mean to start the generator every week like the manual suggests, but things seem to get in the way. The Generac does this automatically every week for 12 minutes and then shuts down. One less thing to worry about……

I called Ziller Electric in Michigan and within 3 days, the generator arrived. Being a large, heavy unit, I suggest having several friends or a forklift available to help move it. Generac does a great job with their installation manuals. The unit I ordered had a pre-wired transfer switch, which made installation very easy.

I removed the old manual transfer switch from the breaker panel and wired in the new automatic transfer system. If you follow the manuals step by step, it makes perfect sense how this unit works and be sure to follow the safety warning in the manual. Opening up a breaker box can be intimidating if you have never attempted this before, so be certain the main power is off before removing the cover. All the wiring is color-coded and marked with the locations, so if you take your time and follow the manual, you will not have any problems. If you are in doubt about your abilities, seek the help of a professional.

I elected to power this generator by natural gas, so this involved installing a natural gas line from the existing gas appliances to the generator. Again, this is not as difficult as it may seem, but if you are in doubt about your abilities, seek the help of a professional.

Everything has been tested and operational now for a month with no issues at all. If you are looking for a quality home standby generator at a fair price, I highly recommend the Generac Guardian Series.