Installing a whole house generator, such as those from Generac, is a great way to make sure you don’t lose power during storms or other power outages. Whole house generators run on natural gas, and start up automatically when the power goes out.

Depending on which model you choose, whole house generators can provide different levels of power, including:

    • Essential Circuit Coverage: Provides power only to important basic circuits such as heat, lights, and refrigerators.
  • Managed Whole House System: Automatically switches to manage the load to power other circuits and appliances as available.

Watch this video to find out more.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Allen Lyle: Do you remember how cold it was that day we were out there?

Danny Lipford: Oh, man, it was about three or four degrees. I believe I had every piece of clothing that I owned on at that time. And so many of the homeowners were telling us about how they lose power all the time…

Allen Lyle: Right.

Danny Lipford: …Because of the cold weather. And you can understand why they had a lot of the automatic home standby generators out there.

Allen Lyle: Oh, yeah. I mean, it made a lot of sense to me. You think about it. If you have a portable generator, that’s fine.

Danny Lipford: Yeah.

Allen Lyle: This makes more sense because these you know are going to start up right away.

Danny Lipford: Right.

Allen Lyle: What also makes sense is that you can rely on it because these actually will test themselves every week.

Danny Lipford: You know, I thought that was pretty cool, almost eerie. It suddenly cranks up and you don’t know what’s going on. Hey, when you’re selecting a generator for your home, there’s three different things that you need to consider. Three different levels that you can go with. First of all, the essential circuit coverage which is just like the name says, it will power up those essential things that you need. When it’s really cold weather, you need heat. You always need light, and it’s great to be able to power the refrigerator, so that’s one level that will determine exactly what size generator that you need.

Allen Lyle: What I like is the managed whole house system.

Danny Lipford: Yeah, that’s pretty cool.

Allen Lyle: With that, the machine actually decides for you. If you need to use the washing machine, it’s going to crank in the watts for that. When it’s not running, the dishwasher, and when that’s not running, the furnace fan. This decides for you and manages the load. So you can still have the whole house on there but you can have a smaller generator.

Danny Lipford: That is pretty cool. And the thing about them is, the whole house units are a lot smaller than they used to be. I know years ago you used to see these big giant units. Now, a unit this size can handle a pretty large load. Well, it is pretty small, isn’t it.

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Danny Lipford

Founder

Danny Lipford is a home improvement expert and television personality who started his remodeling business, Lipford Construction, at the age of 21 in Mobile, Alabama. He gained national recognition as the host of the nationally syndicated television show, Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford, which started as a small cable show in Mobile. Danny's expertise in home improvement has also led him to be a contributor to popular magazines and websites and the go-to source for advice on everything related to the home. He has made over 200 national television appearances and served as the home improvement expert for CBS's The Early Show and The Weather Channel for over a decade. Danny is also the founder of 3 Echoes Content Studio, TodaysHomeowner.com, and Checking In With Chelsea, a décor and lifestyle blog.

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