Generator Guides
Everything we'd tell you standing in your driveway — how to size it, hook it up without hurting anyone, feed it, and keep it starting. No fluff, real numbers.
Owner's guides
The four-step sizing method installers actually use: list must-run loads, separate running from starting watts, size for the biggest surge, then add headroom.
Extension cords, generator inlets, interlock kits, and transfer switches compared — with costs — and why backfeeding through a dryer outlet can kill a lineworker.
A $1,100 portable covers most outages; a $12,000 standby covers all of them without you touching anything. Where each one actually makes sense.
Gasoline is everywhere but goes stale in months. Propane keeps for decades but costs you ~10% of output. Why dual fuel wins for outage kits.
Portable generators kill about 70–80 people in the US each year, almost all by carbon monoxide. Every one of those deaths is preventable with placement rules.
Why a 52 dBA inverter sounds one-quarter as loud as a 68 dBA open frame, what campgrounds allow, and how to quiet the generator you already own.
Generators don't wear out — they rot from sitting. The break-in procedure, the oil schedule, and the 10-minute storage ritual that keeps yours starting.
Sizing by home size
Typical must-run loads by home size — a starting point before fine-tuning in the full calculator.