Storm power
Standby generators
Back-up generators for homes and businesses in Southeast Texas. Installation, repair and the ongoing service that decides whether the thing actually starts.
Chapter 01
Sizing it to what the house has to run, not to the biggest number
The first conversation is about what has to stay on. For most households that is cooling, the refrigerator and freezer, a well or sump pump if you have one, some lighting and the outlets that keep phones and medical equipment alive.
Answer that honestly and the size follows. Buy on the headline figure instead and you either pay for capacity that never gets used, or you discover on the wrong afternoon that the air conditioning was never on the list.
Generac standby generator installed on a concrete pad against the brick exterior of a house
Installing on a Gulf Coast lot: the pad, the transfer switch, the fuel
The unit sits on a pad, clear of the ground and clear of where water goes when this coast does what it does. Placement is also about clearances and about not putting exhaust next to a window.
The transfer switch is the part that matters most and gets the least attention. It is what disconnects you from the grid before your generator energises anything, which protects the house and protects the utility crews working on the line outside. It is not optional and it is not a place to save money.
Then the fuel: natural gas run and sized properly, or propane with a tank big enough to be worth having. A generator that runs for four hours is a noise, not a plan.
Chapter 03
Service is the half people find out about too late
A standby generator spends almost all of its life not running. That is exactly why it fails. Batteries die quietly, fuel goes stale, and a unit that has not been exercised has no way of telling you it will not start.
Crown Electric services and repairs generators as well as installing them. If yours was put in by somebody else and has not been looked at since, that is still a call worth making before hurricane season rather than during it.
Installation, repair and service. Emergency service available outside office hours.