How Does a Standby Generator Work?

Home » Blog » How Does a Standby Generator Work?

Are you interested in understanding standby generators and how they provide power? Learning the basics of how these systems function can be helpful when considering installing one or troubleshooting your standby generator repair needs. Let’s go over some important things to know about these generators.

Powers Essentials

Standby home generators typically power your home’s most essential devices during an outage. This includes major appliances like your refrigerator, freezer, furnace, sump pump, and well pump. It will also maintain power for necessary circuits like lights, outlets, and the home security system. With the right size generator and proper load calculations, essential home backup power can be maintained for hours or days until utility electricity is restored. If maintained properly during standby generator repair, these units will automatically detect when the main power goes down and switch themselves on within seconds.

Utilizes Fuel Supply

Most standby generators run on natural gas. This integrated automatic fuel supply means the unit can run nonstop without worry that a fuel tank will run dry. For standby generator repair situations, your chosen team will be able to effectively provide the natural gas needed. These generators cost less to maintain than ones powered by diesel fuel.

Recognizes Outages

Inside your home’s electrical panel lives an automatic transfer switch – the brains of the standby generator system. This specialized switch ‘listens’ for interruptions in the main utility electricity feed. If grid power is lost, it will command the generator unit to start up. Once running, the transfer switch shifts your home’s circuits and electrical load onto the generator’s power output. The transfer switch also handles swapping everything back over to utility power when it returns.

A standby generator provides essential automatic backup power to keep your home’s critical systems running. One of the best ways to ensure that your generator will be ready to switch on when a power outage occurs is to run the generator at least once a week for half an hour, with intervals of 10 minutes in between the various generators you have. If you’re in need of a standby generator repair or purchase, turn to our team for your standby and natural gas generator needs. We look forward to working with you soon.

How Does a Standby Generator Work?

Safety Information