Write down what must keep running when the power goes out. Not what you'd like running — what genuinely matters.
For most households that list is short — refrigeration, heating, a pump if you have one, some lighting, and a way to stay reachable — and a short list means a smaller, cheaper installation than most people arrive expecting.
Tap the call button and read us the list. That's the whole sizing conversation, and it takes about five minutes.
Beacon Electric sizes, specifies, and installs standby and portable generator systems across Somerset, WI — including correcting unsafe connections on generators you already own.
Before anything else, because people are killed by this specific mistake.
The improvised method — a lead with plugs on both ends, energising the house through an outlet — is genuinely lethal, and not primarily to you.
With no transfer switch, your generator's output travels backwards through your service and into the utility's network, where it can be stepped up by the transformer serving your street. Line workers restoring supply expect that network to be dead. This is the mechanism by which people are electrocuted during outages, and it is not theoretical.
It's also a fire and equipment risk in your own property, because when utility power returns it arrives while your generator is still running and connected.
A transfer switch physically prevents both. It cannot connect you to two sources at once — that is its entire purpose.
Never run a generator indoors, in a garage, in a carport, in a basement, or near an open window or vent. Portable generators produce carbon monoxide in quantities that kill quickly, and every outage season produces fatalities from exactly this.
Outdoors, well clear of the building, exhaust directed away — and a working carbon monoxide alarm inside regardless.
If you currently have an improvised connection, that's the first call to make, and it's a modest job to correct.
This is the sizing exercise, and you can do most of it before you speak to anyone. Write two lists, in this order.
The fridge and freezer — contents represent real money, and a lost freezer is the most common outage cost.
In cold weather this moves from convenience to safety. Worth knowing that a gas or oil heating system needs only its controls, pump, and fan powered — a small load with a large benefit.
A well pump if you have one, and a sump pump if the property needs one. A sump pump during a storm outage is not optional.
Not every fitting — a few circuits.
Router, phone charging, and whatever a household needs to stay reachable.
Where anyone depends on it. This changes the conversation entirely and should be stated up front.
Cooking, air conditioning, an electric water heater, a home office in full, workshop equipment, vehicle charging, and eventually everything. All legitimate — but this is a choice with a price, not a default.
Motors — well pumps, sump pumps, compressors, air conditioning — draw substantially more current at the instant they start than while running. A generator sized on running loads alone may be unable to start them. This is the single most common sizing error, and it's why "add up the wattages" isn't a method.
If two large motors can start at once, the generator has to cope with both. Load management can prevent that, and it's frequently cheaper than the larger generator it avoids.
Two genuinely different products for two genuinely different situations.
Sits outside on a pad, runs on natural gas or propane, starts automatically when it detects an outage, and transfers your circuits over without anyone being home. It exercises itself weekly. You do nothing.
The case for it: outages that are frequent, long, or that occur while you're away; a property that can't tolerate a lapse — a sump pump, a well, medical equipment, a home business, tenants; and anyone who doesn't want to be starting a machine in the dark and the rain.
The costs of it: the highest purchase and installation price, a permanent fuel connection, a permanent outdoor footprint, a location satisfying clearance and noise requirements, permits, inspection, and periodic servicing.
Stored away, wheeled out when needed, plugged into an exterior inlet, started by hand. You then select which circuits it feeds.
The case for it: infrequent or short outages, a lower budget, and someone reliably present and physically able to set it up. It also has a second life — job sites, camping, and lending.
The costs of it: it does nothing unless someone is home to deploy it, it needs fuel stored and rotated, it's manual every time, and its exhaust must be managed outdoors and away from the building.
A portable generator with a properly installed inlet and manual transfer switch is a real, safe, code-compliant installation, and it's dramatically better than any improvised arrangement. It's frequently the right answer for a household that experiences a couple of short outages a year.
The wrong answer, in either case, is a generator with no transfer switch.
This is the component that determines what your system actually does, and two quotes that differ substantially usually differ here rather than on the machine.
Requires someone to operate it. You start the generator, then switch over. Simple, reliable, inexpensive — and it does nothing while you're away.
Detects the outage, signals the generator to start, waits for it to stabilise, transfers the load, then reverses the process when utility power returns and holds steady. It works whether or not anyone is home, which is the entire reason to have one.
Feeds a defined set of circuits — your critical list — from the generator. Cheaper, smaller generator, and it forces the useful discipline of deciding what matters.
Handles the whole property. More capable, larger generator, higher cost.
Sheds or sequences large loads so a smaller generator can serve a bigger set of circuits. This is the option that most often reduces the required generator size — and therefore the price. Worth asking about specifically.
So the scope is visible before the day.
The critical list, the starting loads, and the sequencing — producing a size with reasoning behind it rather than a category.
Clearances from windows, doors, vents, and property lines; the pad or mounting; drainage and flood exposure; noise relative to your bedrooms and your neighbours'; and access for servicing.
On standby units, a natural gas connection sized for the demand, or a propane tank with capacity to match a realistic outage duration. Gas work is coordinated with the appropriate trade.
Installed adjacent to the panel, with circuits selected and transferred deliberately.
Critical circuits identified, moved where necessary, and labelled clearly — so during an outage nobody is guessing.
Generator installations have specific requirements as separately derived systems, and these are not the same as the property's existing arrangement.
Generator installations are notifiable and inspected in most jurisdictions, and there may be planning, noise, or setback requirements as well as electrical ones.
Tested against the loads it's meant to serve — including starting the motors on your list — rather than simply started and shut down.
How to operate it, what the weekly exercise sounds like, what its indicators mean, and what to do when it doesn't start.
Not urgency — reasons the conversation is worth having.
What you need running determines the machine — and for most households that list is short, which means a smaller and cheaper installation than they expected.
It's the commonest sizing failure: a generator that handles everything's steady draw and can't start the well pump.
Shedding and sequencing frequently allow a smaller generator to serve the same circuits — a real saving rather than a compromise.
There is no version of this work that connects a generator to a property without one. If you have an improvised arrangement now, correcting it is the first conversation.
A generator that runs for four hours on the propane you have is a four-hour generator.
The point is knowing it will start the sump pump at three in the morning, which requires testing against that load rather than watching it idle.
Licensed, insured, and background-checked electricians serving Somerset, WI.
A generator that hasn't been maintained is a decoration, and outages are precisely when you find out.
And notice when it doesn't. A standby unit that has stopped exercising has stopped being reliable.
Oil, filters, plugs, and battery — the battery being the commonest reason a standby unit fails to start.
Not just on the exercise cycle. Starting is not the same as performing.
And use stabiliser. Stale fuel is the commonest portable failure.
Vegetation, stored items, and snow accumulate around outdoor units.
As part of servicing.
And know its expiry date.
Whoever's home during the outage may not be whoever attended the handover.
You'll have the load assessment, the options, and the price before work begins — with the machine, the switch, the fuel work, and the civil work priced separately so you can see what you're buying.
Beacon Electric proudly serves Somerset, WI and the surrounding neighborhoods, sizing and installing standby and portable generator systems for domestic and commercial properties throughout the area. Unsure whether you're in range? Call and ask.
Click Here To Call Number(833) 435-4497It comes from your list, not your square footage. Write down what must run during an outage, then let the starting loads — pumps, compressors, air conditioning — set the size, because those draw far more at the moment they start than while running. Most households need less than they expect.
No. That's backfeeding, it's illegal, and it can kill utility workers restoring supply to your street by energising lines they expect to be dead. It also risks fire and equipment damage when utility power returns. A transfer switch is the non-negotiable part of any generator connection.
It disconnects your property from the utility before connecting it to the generator, and it physically cannot do both at once. Manual versions you operate yourself; automatic versions detect the outage, start the generator, transfer the load, and reverse it when supply returns.
Standby if outages are frequent or long, if nobody's reliably home, or if something can't lapse — a sump pump, a well, medical equipment, tenants. Portable with a proper inlet and manual switch if outages are occasional and short and someone is around to set it up. Both are legitimate; only the improvised connection isn't.
It can, if it's sized and paid for accordingly. Most people find a critical-circuits system covering refrigeration, heating, water, some lighting, and communications delivers the great majority of the benefit for a fraction of the cost.
A well pump or air conditioner draws several times its running current at the moment it starts. A generator sized only on running loads may simply stall when it tries. It's the most common sizing mistake there is.
No. Carbon monoxide from a portable generator kills quickly, and an open door is not ventilation. Outdoors, well clear of the building, exhaust directed away — and a working CO alarm inside regardless.
On natural gas, indefinitely while supply holds. On propane, it depends entirely on tank size — which is why the tank is sized against a realistic outage, not a test run. On a portable, it's the fuel you've stored, and stale fuel is the most common failure.
Almost always — electrical, and frequently gas, planning, or noise as well, depending on jurisdiction and siting. Inspection is what confirms the transfer arrangement is correct, which is the part that matters most.
Yes. Oil, filters, plugs, and battery, on a schedule. The battery is the commonest reason a standby unit fails to start when it's finally needed.
Largely. Modern standby units vary considerably, and siting relative to bedrooms — yours and theirs — matters as much as the specification. Local noise requirements may also apply and are worth checking before siting.
Stop using it now, and have an inlet and transfer switch fitted. It's a modest job, it makes the generator you already own safe and legal, and it removes the mechanism by which someone else could be killed.
The list comes before the kilowatts. Starting loads set the size, not running totals. Load management frequently shrinks the machine you need. And the transfer switch is the part that makes it an installation rather than a hazard.
Beacon Electric sizes from your critical circuits, tests under real load rather than at idle, installs a proper transfer switch every time, and will correct an unsafe existing connection before anything else.
Tap the call button and read us your list.
Click Here To Call Number(833) 435-4497