The benefits of getting a power generator

AccuWeather

Paul Hope of Consumer Reports shares how a power generator can help people maintain power in regions prone to severe weather events like hurricanes and blizzards.

Transcript

00:00A home generator could be a money saver and even a lifesaver in an emergency.

00:05Paul Hope is Senior Home and Appliance Writer with Consumer Reports.

00:09Paul, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

00:12Happy to be here.

00:13All right. Extreme weather is causing more power outages across the U.S.

00:18Who do you think should consider buying a generator?

00:21You know, increasingly, that answer is almost everybody,

00:25or at least anybody who lives in an area where you are prone to severe weather events knocking out the power.

00:31So obviously, we all know that that can come in the form of a hurricane,

00:34but people in the Northeast or the upper Midwest are every bit as much at risk

00:39because of things like heavier storms in winter.

00:42So it really is something that increasingly a lot of people, if not everyone, should be considering.

00:48Well, as we can see in some of the video, there's different size generators.

00:51So how do you determine what would be the right size for you?

00:53For example, if you would just need it for your refrigerator versus maybe needing it for medical devices?

00:59Absolutely. So the easiest way to figure that out is really just to go around the house,

01:03think about those essentials that you would want to power in an emergency, and add up the wattages on them.

01:08You can usually find the wattage on either the back or the bottom of a typical device,

01:13like a toaster or a space heater, things like that.

01:16So just add up all the wattages of the things you'd like to be able to power at the same time

01:20and make sure that you buy a generator that is rated to run at at least that wattage,

01:24if not a little bit higher, so that you have a little bit of leeway.

01:27Wow, that's some excellent advice.

01:28It probably only takes a couple minutes around your house to calculate that up.

01:32All right. Obviously, the price can be something that maybe people are interested about.

01:37So what is the price range kind of roughly?

01:40And what do people need to know when they're looking for a generator?

01:44Sure. So the gold standard in generators is what's called a whole home generator or a home standby generator.

01:49Those are those big ones that we sort of associate with hospitals, municipal buildings.

01:53They're designed to run on natural gas or propane.

01:56They kick on automatically in the event of an outage.

01:59And they typically run indefinitely, as long as you have access to one of those fuel sources.

02:04They also power pretty much everything in your house.

02:06Those will typically set you back anywhere from $3,000 to $8,000 for the generator itself.

02:11And you could easily spend that much or more on the installation.

02:14Most people will be better served by a portable generator and find them far more affordable.

02:19That's the good news.

02:20A portable generator is priced anywhere from about $5,000 to $1,500, depending on the output and the features.

02:26And then you might spend about that much again to have an electrician install what's called a transfer switch or an interlock device,

02:32which lets you hook your generator up to your house and run things without having to use a million extension cords.

02:38I have learned so much, which is excellent, because I was the one asking all these questions when I pitched the idea.

02:42So thank you so much, Paul Hope, for bringing us all that excellent information.

02:46Again, with Senior Home & Appliance, the writer for Consumer Reports, we appreciate all of your wonderful information.

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