If I got a generator for my house to be prepared for a power outage (California wildfire country) – how does that work? Do I have to run extension chords from any appliances I want on generator power? Is there a way to connect a generator to the house so that lights work?
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There’s two options for this
Portable gas generators are meant for construction, being in the woods, etc but can be used to power appliances in an emergency. They are gas powered and you hook up to them using an extension cord.
A standby generator for your house will typically either be Diesel or natural gas and will be hooked up directly to your fuse panel using a transfer switch.
When it detects that power is out, the generator will start automatically (depending on the model) and once it’s running the transfer switch will cutover to the generator.
The generator will keep running until either the mains come back up, or the generator runs out of fuel.
The downside is there is 30 sec or so of power loss between losing power and how long it takes the generator to spool up and cutover.
In the IT + Medical world this is a massive problem because the equipment we work with can’t loose power. So to hold the equipment we also need a UPS or a battery backup system in addition to the generator.
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