We are all reliant on electricity these days, society would crumble without the established electrical power that has been set up to provide electricity to all of the appliances everyone uses on a daily basis. But what does the average homeowner do when the power goes out during a storm or utility outage. If you live in an area that has frequent outages you’ll need to get some form of power insurance to keep the refrigerator running.

By setting up a portable generator within your home you’re installing a power source for your appliances. However before you consider getting one you should figure out how much power you’ll need. Once you have an idea for how many amps per hour your home will need you should look at the voltage of the generator and the wattage of the appliances that get emergency electricity, if the generators can power them. You can find many different wattage calculators that can help you gauge what kinds of power generators you should get.

Ensure that your power generators have a circuit breaker which will protect it from overloading and short circuiting. Another feature you should look for is an oil alarm and a voltage regulator, the oil alarm will automatically shut down the engine to prevent damage while the voltage regulator will stabilize the output of the device to a set voltage. The generators usually come with a display and controls to manually manage the output of the generator. The capacity also plays an important role since you’ll be using it for an extended period of time, but most generators can go at least 4 to 7 hours per refuel and they come in either diesel or petrol so your fuel of choice will be open to you as an option.

You also need to consider safety when installing a natural fuel generator to your home, if it isn’t set up in an area that’s able to get rid of the dangerous gases the generator creates you could potentially fill your home with toxic gases. A properly ventilated generator will be much safer than a generator in an enclosed room which would quickly become too toxic for a human to breathe in. And because gasoline can “gum up” if left standing too long, there’s always a chance that your portable generator won’t start. So you’ll have to start it up periodically just to make sure it’ll run when you actually need it, unless you live somewhere that has power outages often where you’ll be using it too often for it to “gum up”.