Frequently asked questions about standby generators in Houma

It depends on whether you want to back up the whole house or just the essential circuits — the AC, fridge, well or sump pump, and a few outlets — and that comes from a real load calculation, not a guess off square footage. The load calc accounts for the startup surge of motors like the AC compressor and well pump, which draw several times their running wattage for a moment when they kick on. We talk through what you actually need to run and size it to that.

Whole-home backup runs the entire panel, central air included, and needs a larger unit. Essential-circuit backup powers only selected circuits — typically the refrigerator, a well or sump pump, some lights and outlets, and often one AC zone — through a smaller, less expensive generator and transfer switch. For a lot of Houma homes, essential-circuit is the more cost-effective answer; the question is which circuits are worth backing up.

Often, yes, with load management. A smart transfer switch can temporarily shed lower-priority loads when a big motor starts, so a smaller generator covers more of the home without you having to oversize the unit to handle everything running at once. We figure out whether load management lets you drop to a smaller, cheaper unit on the call.

Motors — the AC compressor, well pump, sump pump — draw several times their normal running wattage for an instant at startup. A generator sized only for steady-state wattage will trip the moment one of them kicks on. Honest sizing accounts for that surge, which is exactly the part a guess off square footage misses.

It depends on what you need to run and for how long. A standby unit is wired in, starts automatically, runs on natural gas or propane with no hand-refueling, and can carry the whole house or your essential circuits through a multi-day outage. A portable is far cheaper but has to be rolled out, refueled by hand every several hours, and run safely outdoors. If you lose power for days in hurricanes and need AC, a well or sump pump, or medical equipment, a standby usually earns its keep.

If the real need is a fridge, a few lights, and a fan through occasional short outages, a portable with a proper interlock or manual transfer switch can cover it for a fraction of a standby install. We will tell you honestly when that is the better call rather than selling a whole-home unit your budget and your outages do not justify.

No — that is back-feeding, and it is dangerous. It energizes the utility line outside your home, which can kill a lineman working to restore power, and it can damage your wiring. A portable used for backup must connect through a manual transfer switch or a properly installed generator interlock, never through a regular outlet.

Never. Portable generators emit carbon monoxide — an invisible, odorless gas — and running one in a garage, carport, basement, or against the house can be fatal, even with the door open. Carbon monoxide poisoning during power outages is a documented, recurring cause of death after Gulf storms. A portable must run outdoors, well away from doors and windows, no matter the weather. A permanently installed standby unit removes this risk because it lives outside and is wired in.

The transfer switch. It disconnects your home from the utility line before connecting the generator, so the generator cannot back-feed power onto the grid. That disconnect is the whole safety point of a properly installed transfer switch, and it is why a generator wired in without one — or plugged into an outlet — is a hazard, not a shortcut.

For carbon monoxide, yes — a standby unit is sited outdoors per the manufacturer’s clearances and is wired in, so it removes the garage-and-extension-cord risks that hurt people with portables. Both, however, must use proper back-feed protection. The standby’s automatic transfer switch handles that by design.

It depends on the house. Natural gas runs off the utility line, so there is no tank to refill and no runtime limit from fuel storage — but the existing gas line has to have the capacity to feed the unit under full load, which a proper install verifies. Propane stores energy densely and works where there is no gas line, but the tank size sets your runtime. The right answer comes from your house, not from what an installer happens to stock.

Not always — it has to be checked. A standby generator under load demands a certain gas pressure and pipe size, and an existing line sized for a stove and water heater may not be enough. We verify the gas line capacity before promising natural gas, and if it falls short we tell you what the line upgrade or a propane setup would involve.

As long as the tank holds fuel, which is why tank size is matched to the outage length you want to cover. Propane stores well for long periods, so it suits homes that lose power rarely but for days at a stretch. We size the tank to a realistic hurricane-season outage rather than a single day.

It is the device that senses when utility power fails, disconnects your home from the grid, and connects it to the generator automatically — then reverses the process when the grid returns. It is the heart of a standby system and the safety component that prevents back-feed. An automatic switch does this without you touching anything; a manual switch requires you to throw it by hand.

Yes. Generator and transfer-switch work in Louisiana is governed by the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors and requires a local electrical permit and inspection, and a gas hookup adds its own permitting and a licensed gas fitter’s scope. The permit is what protects you if anything goes wrong, and the inspection confirms the back-feed protection is actually there. We route your job to a vetted, licensed local electrician.

Often, yes. If you have a generator that was wired in without proper back-feed protection, or you are running a portable off an outlet, adding a permitted automatic or manual transfer switch is exactly the fix that makes the setup safe and code-compliant. We assess what you have on the phone and quote the switch install.

A standby unit runs a brief self-test exercise cycle on a schedule (commonly weekly or biweekly) and needs routine oil, filter, spark-plug, and battery service so it actually starts when the grid drops. A unit that sat untouched for years is the one that will not crank the night you need it. We set a maintenance cadence so the backup is a real backup, not an expensive lawn ornament.

In the off-season — spring is ideal. Permits, the licensed electrician, the gas hookup, and the equipment itself all have lead times, and every one of them gets longer the moment a storm enters the Gulf. The calmest, cheapest install is the one done well before the cone, not the week before landfall.

The most common culprits on a neglected standby are a dead battery and overdue oil or filters — the unglamorous maintenance items that get skipped until the night they matter. We service the engine, battery, and transfer switch and confirm the exercise cycle runs, so the unit is actually ready for the next outage.

Yes — we cover Terrebonne Parish and the surrounding bayou communities including Bayou Cane, Thibodaux, Raceland, and Morgan City. Distance affects scheduling, not the quality of the install or the load calc.

Because the outages here are long and the stakes are real. Hurricanes can leave Houma-area homes without power for days, and on low-lying bayou lots the bigger worry is often a sump pump that quits and lets the water come up, not just the heat. Backing up the essentials — or the whole house — is about keeping the pump, the fridge, and the AC running through that.

We route your job to a vetted electrician licensed for the work, with generator and transfer-switch installs done under a local electrical permit and inspection. Ask and we will confirm the license and the permit on the work — the inspection is what verifies the back-feed protection is in place.