![]() Every 3-6 hours you will need to refill the tank on the portable. Their tanks often don’t hold more than three. Portable generators consume 12 to 20 gallons of fuel per day. You go inside the home and you manually transfer the switch and power up the select loads on your protected panel. Now you hopefully have not had to tinker with a finicky generator and it’s finally running. Just how many fuel storage containers do you have on your residential property?Īre you comfortable with that? Is your home insurance company ok with that!!? Have you conditioned the fuel in the generators tank and fuel delivery system for storage? Have you conditioned the fuel in all your stored fuel containers for storage? Will any of that fuel work, or is it now varnish. What we have found with those who don’t pull out the portable unit and exercise it with some regularity is this is not the case. Once this is done, the best case scenario is the portable starts right up. Once there you find the cord that is made to go from your portable unit to the power inlet and you plug it into the generator and the power inlet. Rummaging through the garage or shed in lousy conditions you find the generator and you drag it, possibly through the snow, or carry it to the power inlet location on the exterior of your home. After all, you did just have a power outage, adverse weather could be likely. This, according to Murphy will happen when it’s dark out, you have no light other than a flashlight, and it may even be cold and snowing. Make no mistake, even on wheels a portable that’s capable of running most of your home is a heavy piece of equipment. The power goes out, someone must go get the portable generator from where it has been stored. A Common Drawback of Portable Generators and Manual Transfer SwitchesĬonsider this likely scenario – portable generator solution installed. ![]() Usually the manual transfer switch is mounted near the homes breaker panel with cabling to an exterior mounted inlet. While a permanently installed home standby unit is more money than a portable it is not nearly the same solution.Ĭonsider the code compliant (many are not) installation of a manual portable generator / transfer switch solution as a backup source for your home. Power quality varies greatly with the use of a portable, and this can affect the sensitive appliances within your home. As a Generator installer I frequently get asked why one should choose the home standby option, when a portable generator is available for less money? After all, manufacturers produce portable units today that can power up the essentials, and both produce electricity right? Power from a portable is the same as power from a home standby unit isn’t it? The practical answer is no.
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