Is a Portable or Whole House Generator Better for my Houston Home?

If you’ve lived in the Houston area or any region of Texas for even a few months, you probably know by now that violent storms are par for the course. That makes it all the more important to have a generator to help you plan ahead.

 

With a generator, you’re able to keep powering your lights, air conditioning or heating, refrigerator, freezer, and other electrical devices and appliances. Once you decide to get a generator, you’ll probably start wondering if a portable generator or a whole house generator is best. We can help.

First, Let’s Talk About Generators in General

A generator converts mechanical energy from an external circuit or source and transforms it into electrical energy. Well, in actuality, generators don’t create electrical power themselves. They utilize mechanical energy and force a flow of electric charges, similar to how a water pump causes a flow of water but doesn’t actually create the water.

 

Generators are a common necessity in Texas for both homes and businesses because the Lone Star State has more than its fair shares of power outages.

 

Generators provide comfort during power outages by preventing a total loss of power, thereby allowing the continuation of some daily activities, whether at home or work.

 

Different generator models are available to you. We’ll go over the two primary types.

Portable Generators

Many homeowners are more familiar with portable generators. These are the smaller type you can buy at a hardware store, fill up with fuel, and run in the short term. They don’t provide enough power to keep your entire home running if the electricity goes out. Plus, portable generators can be dangerous and leak carbon monoxide.

 

Most people will usually have only enough power with a portable generator to run a freezer, so food doesn’t perish. But when you think about it, what are the most important considerations when power is out. Perishable foods and A/C comfort both rank pretty high up there when you live in Texas. It gets fairly hot most months out of the year, and a few hours or days without power can make things mighty uncomfortable.

 

At the same time, you’ve invested lots of money in food for your refrigerator and freezer, and you don’t want to lose that investment. So, most homeowners these days desire a more comprehensive solution. That’s where a whole house generator comes in.

Whole House Generator

Whole house generators are also called standby or backup generators. Their output ranges much higher than portable generators, so you’re able to run multiple appliances simultaneously. Typically, they’ll power your whole home for an extended time.

 

Instead of having to add fuel yourself, whole house generators usually have an engine that requires maintenance from a technician. Whole house generators are sophisticated machines that have more automation involved in the programming. In other words, they’ll usually come on automatically when it detects the power has gone out.

 

Typically, with a whole house generator, a technician will come out once or twice a season to service the generator. At that time, they’ll check its fuel level and other things to maintain the unit. This regular maintenance helps the generator run efficiently and effectively when you need it.

 

Whole house generators are typically located outside along the house in the same areas you would typically place a central air unit. For this reason, whole house generators are considered much safer and don’t have the carbon monoxide concerns portable generators do.

The Takeaway

In a warm climate like the one Texas has, comfort and peace of mind are everything. Almost all of us can remember an outage where we lost an entire freezer of food or sweated it out for hours or days until electricity was restored.

 

Today’s modern homeowner demands a solution that offers them the same comfort that traditional electricity does. While a portable generator will provide minimal comfort, a whole house generator allows life to go on the same as it does when power runs from the circuit breaker to the power lines.

 

Whole house generators will often power your entire home until power is restored, whether it’s two hours, two days, or twenty days. You just can’t put a value on that kind of peace of mind.

 

Contact our electrical experts to learn more about whole house generators for your Houston, TX home. We serve clients in many areas beyond Houston. Call us today at 713-863-1133 to have your whole house generator installed before the next major power outage.