A Complete Guide to Choosing Your Perfect Emergency Generators

• Published Date: November 07, 2023

Picture a situation where an unexpected electricity outage occurs in your house at night, leaving you in complete darkness with zero essential appliances. In such situations, emergency generators assist as lifelines, providing you with consistent and uninterrupted electricity or power supply.

After you read this blog, you’ll gain every knowledge to help you in choosing your perfect emergency generators. Whether you are trying to enable an uninterrupted power supply or preparing for any natural disasters, understanding emergency generators is important.

What are Emergency Generators?

An emergency generator is stationary combustion equipment, with regenerative engines or turbines that act entirely as a secondary source of electrical or mechanical power whenever there is a power disruption or discontinuation in the main power supply due to power outages or any natural disasters that can’t be controlled by the operator of a facility or the owner.

The emergency generator works best in times of emergencies, to train personnel under simulated emergencies, as part of emergency demand response measures, or for comprehensive performance testing measures as required by the generator maker or by law.

Significance of Emergency Generators

Emergency generators are essential equipment to have in your business or home. In case of power outages in your primary power, these generators serve as a working source of energy so your equipment can remain working as usual. Keeping emergency generators gives you comfort, convenience, and safety. 

Power outages are one the major causes of financial losses in businesses, however, with a proper emergency generator you can avoid such burdens. You can live more securely and comfortably during a power outage, as your important systems will remain running.

For instance, as per a report by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, companies that lose power for over 24 hours experience an average loss of USD 400,000. Similarly, the National Association of Manufacturers found that electricity outages led to the loss of approximately USD 150 billion every year in the U.S. economy.

Moreover, when people think of an emergency generator, they often think the major purpose of such generator is to provide light to a building. Emergency generators play an important role in various facets of disaster response that spread beyond just providing lights in the building.

In the event of power outages because of natural disasters, buildings that are still intact or in evacuation zones can use emergency generators to run HVAC systems and various other important equipment/systems that will assist people during evacuation. 

Exploring the Types of Emergency Generators

Standby Generators

Standby generators remain on standby and permanently outside the home or building. These generators work on either natural gas or liquid propane. They have the capability to generate sufficient wattage to re-energize your home or buildings in an instant after losing power.

This is because these generator runs in combination with a transfer switch to track receiving utility voltage. When the primary power of your home goes out, this transfer switch will disconnect the primary supply line and connect with the generator power line to reestablish power instantly.

Portable Generators

Portable generators are an affordable and smaller choice if you’re trying to power only a few essential electrical appliances or equipment in a power outage. These generators are mainly powered by gasoline, so they should never be used indoors or in any enclosed area where deadly gases such as carbon monoxide (CO) can accumulate.

Extension cords can be connected to and plugged into a portable generator to power small appliances such as sump pumps, refrigerators, furnaces, lights, water heaters, computers, and TVs.

Key Factors to Consider When Selecting Emergency Generators

Requirement of Power

Your electricity needs are everything you intend to supply simultaneously with the generator as a whole. Think about the machinery, equipment, and lights you require to keep working. Consider whether they will all work at the same time or from time to time.

Depending on the nature of your business or house, you need to choose a generator that can safely supply enough power to meet all your electricity needs.

Level of Noise

Based on your location and business, you may need to consider your noise level necessities. For instance, if your house or business is located near a residential setting, you might need to comply with noise rules. You will also need to consider if the generator noise is interfering with your business procedures.

Moreover, even in a less inhabited or remote location, an emergency generator can be quite noisy, which can disturb your workplace like it would for another company or someone’s home.

Fuel Options

Emergency generators can be driven by gasoline, liquid propane, diesel, or natural gas. All types of these fuels offer different limitations and advantages, so picking the ideal emergency generator for your house or business relies on your requirements and preferences.

For instance, natural gas gives less power as compared to other types of fuel, but it might run through municipal or utility pipelines. Diesel has greater power density, though it can be more complex to store as compared to propane.

Moreover, understanding the features of these fuels will assist you in narrowing the choice when purchasing an emergency generator.

Installation & Maintenance

The process of installing an emergency generator is highly complex, necessitating the support of an expert electrical engineer as well as other specialists who are skilled in the transportation, unloading, and logistics of this generator.

Emergency generators should be frequently maintained and checked to guarantee effective function when you need them and to avoid appliance failure in moments like an electrical loss because of a power outage.

Hire someone to handle maintenance and be sure to contact a maintenance professional about a complex maintenance schedule. Generators are often not maintained properly and are an afterthought between electric outages. So, be sure to make a maintenance and service schedule that can be implemented to guarantee your emergency generator stays ready.

Coming to an End

During any unexpected power outages, having the proper emergency generator will turn the problems into a controllable condition. From powering key electronic equipment to preserving business processes and safety, emergency generators are essential. By understanding their types and considering important factors, you can confidently choose your suitable emergency generators.