Home Backup Generators

Generator listings are written to make every machine sound like the obvious choice, and they mostly do it by leading with the biggest number on the spec sheet. Peak watts. Starting watts. Surge watts. The figure you can actually plan around — running watts, on the fuel you intend to use — is usually further down, and on some machines it is not published at all.

This hub is organized around the three decisions that actually separate generators, in the order they matter.

Decision one: how much running capacity

Running watts on your chosen fuel is the number. Everything else is secondary. If you have not worked out your load, the sizing calculator takes about two minutes and will usually tell you that you need less generator than you thought.

Decision two: which fuels

This matters more than most buyers expect, and it matters most on day three of an outage when the gas stations have no power either.

• Gasoline only. Highest output per dollar, worst storage story. Gasoline degrades in months and the carburetor is where that failure shows up. If you buy gasoline-only, buy fuel stabilizer with it.
• Dual fuel (gas + propane). The sensible default. Propane stores indefinitely, a tank swap is clean, and you lose roughly 10% of output running on it. Published propane figures vary by brand — Champion and WEN publish theirs clearly, several rivals do not.
• Tri-fuel (gas + propane + natural gas). The real upgrade. A plumbed natural gas line does not run out, which makes outage length almost irrelevant. You pay for it in output: natural gas typically costs 15-25% of the gasoline rating. The house-side gas connection is licensed work.

Worked through properly in is a dual fuel generator worth it and dual fuel vs tri-fuel vs gas.

Decision three: conventional frame or inverter

A conventional generator runs its engine at a fixed speed and gives you more watts per dollar. An inverter generator varies engine speed to match demand, which makes it dramatically quieter, substantially more fuel-efficient at light load, and produces cleaner power — low total harmonic distortion, which matters for modern furnace control boards and anything with a circuit board in it.

The honest trade-off: at the same output an inverter machine costs noticeably more and has electronics that a plain alternator does not. For a machine that runs a few days a year, many people are right to take the cheaper conventional frame. For a machine running in a suburb at 2am next to a neighbor's bedroom, the noise difference is worth real money. How quiet is a quiet generator puts published decibel figures side by side, including which manufacturers state their measurement distance and which do not.

The thing almost every buyer gets wrong

They buy the generator and nothing else. A generator with no transfer switch or interlock kit means extension cords through a window, which rules out the furnace, the well pump and the sump pump — the three loads you most wanted. A generator with no carbon monoxide alarm inside the house means the one risk that actually kills generator owners is unmonitored. And a generator with no fuel stabilizer in the tank will very likely refuse to start the next time you need it.

Budget for the connection and the safety equipment at the same time as the machine. On a correctly sized setup they are perhaps 30% of the total, and the generator is useless without them.