Best Whole-House Generators – Consumer Reports

If you often lose power where you live, whether it’s because of storms or other problems with the electrical grid, having a whole-house generator ensures that your appliances are available when you need them, even hardwired devices like your well pump, water heater, and air conditioning and heating systems.

Unlike a portable generator, these professionally installed units, also called home standby generators, pump out lots of electricity and kick on automatically when there’s an outage, letting you go about your business almost as if there isn’t a disruption on the power grid. About the size of a central air conditioning unit, they run on natural gas, which is an essentially limitless source of fuel, or a large propane tank, which doesn’t need to be refueled as often as a portable gas generator.

The largest models we test deliver at least 10,000 watts of electricity, enough to power everything in an average home. Smaller models provide at least 5,000 watts, enough to power key household appliances, electronics, and systems in your home. They will, for instance, keep your refrigerator, air conditioner, and well pump running.