How to Add a Whole-Home Generator to Your Home

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Posted January 31, 2025

Did you know that more power outages occur nationwide yearly than ever before? One study found that power outages have increased by more than 60% over the last decade alone.

With this in mind, there has never been a better time to invest in a whole-home generator. You won’t have to worry about your power going out once you have a home generator that can install backup power.

However, there are some crucial steps you’ll need to take before you get the whole-home generator installation process started. It’ll ensure that you can get the best whole-home generator for your house from the start.

Are you ready to start shopping around for the best home generator options? Here’s what you’ll have to do to get one set up so you can rely on it the next time your power goes out.

Decide Which Type of Generator You Want

If you haven’t ever shopped for a generator before, you might not realize there are several different types of generators. A few of the most popular types are:

• Portable generators
• Inverter generators
• Standby generators

Some pros and cons come with each of the different types of generators. But generally speaking, standby generators will be your best option. They’ll turn on automatically when the power goes out, proving to be the safest option.

Pick the Right Fuel Source for a Whole-Home Generator

Once you have a type of generator picked out, you’ll likely have to decide which fuel source you want to use for it. This will be especially true for those opting to go with standby generators.

You can provide standby generators with either natural gas or propane in most cases. You’ll need to pick out the one that’s going to work best based on what your home has access to, how much these fuel sources will cost you, etc.

Natural gas tends to be the best option for most homeowners. But you’re more than welcome to select the fuel source you want prior to putting a whole home generator into place.

Figure Out How Big You Want a Generator to Be

After you decide which fuel you want to use for a whole home generator, you’ll need to consider how big you want it to be. If you get your hands on a too small generator, it will let you down when you need it most.

The size of the generator that you pick out for your home will depend on how large your home as a whole is. If it’s on the smaller side, you might be able to get away with a small generator. But this isn’t going to be the case when you have a big home that uses up a lot of electricity.

The company that sells you a whole home generator should be able to walk you through your best options once you let them know the square footage of your home.

Choose Which Generator Brand You Like Most

Experts are already predicting that the generator sales industry is going to be worth more than $28 billion within the next ten years. The industry is expected to blossom into a big business as long as the U.S. continues to experience more power outages at a rapid rate.

Because of this, there are so many new companies coming out of the woodwork and trying to sell generators to people. You should avoid trusting a company that’s too new to provide you with one.

Instead, you’ll want to invest in a whole home generator from a company like Generac or Kohler. They’re two of the best brands in the business when it comes to selling high-quality whole home generators that will check all the right boxes for homeowners.

Settle on a Budget for Buying a Generator

As you shop around for a whole home generator, you’ll see they’ll be available at a wide range of prices. Some will sell for as little as just a few thousand dollars, while others will have price tags that exceed $15,000.

Rather than operating without a budget, you should try to understand what you can afford to spend on a generator before you do anything else. It’ll help you avoid putting yourself into debt for the sake of having a whole home generator installation done.

Buy the Whole-Home Generator You Want

When you reach this point in the process, there should be a few generator options that you have your eyes on. You should do as much research as possible on each home generator you would like to learn more about.

As you do this, you should consider everything from a home generator’s capabilities to its warranty. By doing this, you should find that one home generator should start to stand out above all the rest.

That will be the generator you’ll want to bring home and have installed. As long as you’ve done all your homework, you should be confident in what this generator can do for you.

Find a Company to Handle Whole Home Generator Installation

Choosing which whole home generator you want to buy is only half the battle when you invest in one. You also need to work on getting a generator installed, and you should not attempt to install one on your own under any circumstances.

Installing a whole home generator will require hooking it up to both your home and a fuel source. It’s a tall task for even the most experienced electricians, let alone a do-it-yourselfer who doesn’t know the first thing about whole-home generator installation.

Fortunately, well over 230,000 electricians are working throughout the country these days. Many of them will be able to assist you with installing the generator.

Your job will be to find an electrician in your area who can help install your new generator. They should be able to offer all the electrical services you’ll need to strategically position a new generator outside your home so it’s ready to spring into action during a power outage.

Select the Best Place to Put a Generator

The best place to put a whole-home generator outside your house is usually somewhere between your house’s electric meter and its gas meter. But you can have some say over exactly where an electrician puts it.

As you’re going to find out in a few moments, some maintenance will need to be done to your generator over time. So you’ll want to put it where you’ll be able to get to it quickly.

You’ll also likely want to put a whole-home generator where you can hide with a few bushes, a fence, or something else. It’ll stop a generator from hurting your home’s curb appeal.

The electrician that you bring on board for whole home generator installation should be able to help you pick a place that works well for your generator. They will also be able to make this place work for you when it’s time actually to install your generator.

Learn How to Perform Whole-Home Generator Maintenance

As we alluded to a few seconds ago, a whole-home generator must be maintained over the years to keep it in tip-top shape. If you don’t do whole-home generator maintenance, you will be asking for trouble.

Here are just a few of the things that you’ll need to do to maintain your generator in the years to come:

• Changing the oil and oil filter
• Replacing the fuel filter
• Putting a new air filter into place
• Cleaning the crankcase breather
• Inspecting the coolant concentration
• Removing old spark plugs and replacing them with new ones
• Performing load bank testing

But if you don’t know how to maintain your generator, you should leave this job to the professionals. The same company you hire to install a generator should also be able to perform maintenance.

Whatever you do, you shouldn’t neglect to do maintenance on a home generator. If you do, you might inadvertently void the warranty on your generator. You might also find that it won’t work as efficiently as it should when you need it the most.

Start Putting Your New Generator to the Test

Installing a brand-new whole-home generator might take a few days. If it is put on a concrete pad, it must be poured before your generator is installed. And even if you aren’t putting a pad like this down, it can still take time for an electrician to get a generator hooked up and running.

But once your new generator is installed, it’ll be ready for you to put it to the test. The next time that you have a terrible storm in your area and the power in your area goes out, your generator should turn right on and keep everything in your house powered up.

You won’t have to be concerned about everything in your refrigerator or freezer going bad when you have a whole home generator. You also won’t have to worry about anyone in your family falling down a flight of steps or tripping over a coffee table due to a lack of lighting in your home.

All it will take is one power outage to see how invaluable a home generator can be. It will begin to pay for itself immediately, and it’ll prove to be well worth the investment you made in it if you follow all the steps listed here.

Purchase a Whole Home Generator With Our Help

Are you in the market for a whole home generator? If you are, Hiller would love to help you out! We specialize in selling Generac and Kohler whole-home generators and have many options. We can also provide the electrical services needed to hook up a generator to your home.

You won’t have to worry about power outages taking a toll on you and your family from now on when you trust us to put a generator into place for you. Contact us today to add a whole-home generator to your home.

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