Generator Installation
Standby And Portable Generator Installation Across Northern Utah
An outage in July is an inconvenience. An outage in January at 7,000 feet is a different situation. No furnace, no well pump, no fridge, and pipes that start thinking about freezing within a few hours. If you are on a well or a septic pump, you also lose water and drainage entirely.
Generator installation is not about comfort at that point. It is about the house staying functional while the utility works on the line.
Standby vs Portable
Two very different approaches, and the right one depends on your situation.
A standby generator is permanently installed outside on a pad, wired into your electrical system, and fueled by natural gas or propane. When power drops, it starts automatically within seconds and runs until utility power returns. You do not have to be home. You do not have to do anything.
A portable generator is cheaper and requires you to be present. You start it, you refuel it, and it connects through a manual transfer switch or an inlet box. It works, but somebody has to be there in the storm to make it work.
For a primary residence up in the mountains, or for anyone on a well, we usually recommend standby. For a cabin used a few weekends a year, a portable with a properly installed inlet may be the sensible answer.
The Transfer Switch Is the Important Part
This is the piece that keeps you and the utility crew safe, and it is the part people try to skip.
An automatic transfer switch isolates your house from the grid before the generator connects. Without it, generator power can backfeed onto the utility lines and kill a lineman working to restore your service. It also protects your generator and your house when utility power comes back.
Running a generator into a dryer outlet with a double-male cord, which people genuinely do, is illegal and lethal. There is no safe version of it.
The switch also determines what stays on. Whole-house coverage runs everything. A critical load panel powers a chosen set of circuits — furnace, well pump, fridge, a few lights and outlets, which lets you use a smaller and cheaper generator. We help you decide which circuits actually matter to you.
Sizing It Correctly
Undersize the generator and it stalls or trips when the well pump kicks on. Oversize it and you paid for capacity and fuel you will never use.
We do a real load calculation based on what you want running, accounting for the startup surge on motors. Well pumps, furnaces, and air compressors all draw several times their running load for a moment at startup, and that surge is what actually determines the size you need.
Well pump, furnace blower, refrigerator, freezer, sump pump, some lighting, and a few outlets is a very common critical-loads list. Add air conditioning, an electric range, or an EV charger and the number climbs quickly.
What the Install Involves
- Site selection, with attention to code clearances from windows, doors, and vents
- Concrete or composite pad, level and drained
- Standby generator installation and anchoring
- Fuel connection, natural gas line, or propane tank and regulator sizing
- Transfer switch installation at or beside the main panel
- Critical loads subpanel, if that is the route you choose
- Conductors, conduit, grounding, and bonding
- Permits, inspection, commissioning, and a test run with you present
We coordinate the gas side with a licensed plumber when a new line is needed. Propane sizing matters here — a tank that runs a stove fine may not keep up with a generator under load in cold weather.
Mountain and Rural Considerations
If you are in Kamas, Oakley, Coalville, or anywhere off the main lines, outages last longer and matter more. Cold-weather kits, battery warmers, and enclosure placement relative to snow drift and plow paths all get factored in.
Placement is worth thinking hard about. A generator buried in four feet of drifted snow with a blocked exhaust is a generator that does not run, and carbon monoxide clearance is not negotiable.
For anyone on a well, note that losing power means losing water immediately. That single fact moves a lot of rural homeowners from “maybe someday” to “let’s schedule it.”
Maintenance and Exercise
Standby units self-test weekly on a schedule you set. Beyond that they need oil changes, filters, plugs, and battery checks on a service interval, roughly annually for typical residential use.
A generator that has sat untested for three years is a large expensive lawn ornament. We set up the exercise schedule at commissioning and walk you through what needs doing and when.
Frequently Asked Questions
The generator itself, the pad, the transfer switch, the electrical work, and the fuel connection are separate pieces. A critical-load setup with a mid-size standby unit costs meaningfully less than whole-house coverage. We quote after sizing the load and looking at the site.
It depends on whether you want whole-house or critical circuits only, and on motor startup loads. A common critical-loads setup covering furnace, well pump, fridge, and lighting fits a mid-size unit. We calculate it rather than guessing.
Yes, generally both electrical and gas permits. We handle the electrical permit and coordinate the gas side. Placement clearances get inspected too, which is another reason siting is decided early.
Yes, if it is connected safely through a manual transfer switch or a properly installed inlet box. Never through an outlet with a suicide cord. We install inlets and manual switches for portable setups regularly.
Typically within about ten to thirty seconds of detecting an outage. Long enough that your clocks reset, short enough that the furnace and fridge never notice.
Natural gas if you have a line, since there is no tank to refill and no running out. Propane if you do not, which covers a lot of rural properties here. Propane needs the tank and regulator sized for generator demand, especially in cold weather when vaporization rate drops.