Backup Generator Installation: How a Standby System Actually Goes In

A standby generator is not an appliance you plug in. It is a permanent installation with a fuel supply, a concrete or composite pad, a transfer switch wired into your electrical panel, and a permit. Here is what the job actually involves, in the order it happens.

Standby or portable

A portable generator is wheeled out, filled with gasoline and started by hand. With an interlock kit fitted at the panel it can safely feed selected circuits in the house. It is the cheaper answer and it works, as long as you are home, awake and willing to go outside in the weather that caused the outage.

A standby generator sits permanently outside on a pad, runs on natural gas or propane, tests itself weekly and starts on its own within seconds of the power dropping. You do not have to be home. For most people out here that is the whole point.

Step one: what do you actually want running?

This is the conversation that decides the size and most of the cost. Two honest options:

• Essential circuits. Heat, fridge, well pump, septic pump, some lights and outlets, internet. Smaller unit, smaller bill, and it covers the things that cause real damage when they stop.
• Whole house. Everything, including air conditioning. More generator, more fuel, more money, and nobody has to think about what is on.

If you are on a well, the pump goes on the list. No power means no water, and that catches people out more than anything else. Same for a septic pump. See what size generator you need for the sizing detail.

Step two: fuel

Natural gas is the easy case if the street has it — no tank, no refills, no running out. The gas line usually needs upsizing to feed the generator alongside everything else in the house, which is a plumber’s job and part of the quote.

Propane means a tank, and the tank has to be sized and sited. Out in Mendham, Chester, Harding and the western Somerset towns propane is common and the tank is often already there.

Step three: where it goes

Manufacturers set minimum distances from windows, doors, vents and the property line, and your township may add its own. It also needs to be close enough to both the gas supply and the panel to keep the runs sensible, and reachable for servicing.

Getting this wrong is the most common reason an install fails inspection, so it is worth settling before anything is ordered.

Step four: the transfer switch

This is the part that makes it safe and legal. An automatic transfer switch sits between the utility supply and your panel. When the power drops it disconnects you from the grid, starts the generator and feeds the house. When utility power returns it switches back and shuts the generator down.

The disconnection matters as much as the connection. Without it, a running generator can push power back down the line to the utility crew working on it. That is why this is not a job for an extension cord and a bright idea.

Step five: permits and inspection

Electrical and usually gas permits, filed with your township construction office, with an inspection on completion. We file, meet the inspector and hand you the signed approval when it clears. Unpermitted generator work becomes a problem at closing.

What owning one is like

• It exercises itself weekly for a few minutes. You will hear it, and so might your neighbors.
• It needs servicing roughly annually, like a small engine, because that is what it is.
• The battery that starts it is the most common failure and typically lasts around three years. A dead battery means the generator does not start when you need it, and you will not know until then.
• Add whole-home surge protection if you do not have it. The switch back to utility power is exactly when a spike shows up — see whole-house surge protection.

Why this comes up so much here

Much of our area is fed by overhead line through heavy tree cover. In Mendham, Harding, Chester, Far Hills, Watchung and Colts Neck an outage is not unusual and it is not always short. That is why standby generators are one of the most common jobs we do in those towns and much rarer a few miles east.

What it costs

Generator installs are quoted up front once we have seen the property, because the price is driven by the size of the unit, the fuel work, the distance from the panel and the pad. There is no useful single number, and anyone giving you one over the phone is guessing.

Our minimum service call is $229.99 and covers one basic repair. A visit that needs circuit tracing and testing is $259.99. After-hours emergency calls are $389.99.

We are an authorized Generac installer.

Frequently asked questions

Serving Central New Jersey

We install and service standby generators across Monmouth, Middlesex, Somerset, Union, Morris and Essex counties, out of our Hazlet and Bridgewater offices. See our generator installation page, or get on the schedule.