Owning a home comes with a whole host of stressful situations. Just when you’ve got the last thing sorted out, something else crops up. And here in Florida, that something else might just be a hurricane or other storm taking out power for days at a time. Of course, many of us rely on portable generators in order to be prepared for situations like that, but it’s a less-than-ideal solution. Portable generators can give you electricity, but they also generate other causes of stress. Whole house generators actually solve the problem completely.
Safety
You’re already worried about whether your home and your family are safe during a storm. Portable generators add extra hazards. First, to start up a portable generator, you have to go outdoors in the very weather conditions that caused your power to go out. In order to get power, you expose yourself to high-speed winds, rain lashing down, and falling trees and other debris. Second, you need fuel for your generator. If you’ve got plenty on hand, you’ve been keeping tanks of highly-flammable fuel in your home at all times, adding to the risk of a house fire. If you don’t have fuel, you’ll have to trek out into the storm to purchase some. Third, portable generators create exhaust. If you’re exposed to it due to poor ventilation, the carbon monoxide can be deadly.
On the other hand, a whole house generator does not require you to go outside to start it up. It does not require fuel tanks or trips to purchase fuel, because it connects to your local natural gas lines. And it is professionally installed, with a perfectly safe ventilation system.
Effectiveness
Portable generators are not intended to power an entire home. When you use one, you have to make some tough choices about where their limited power goes. Do you want to run your air conditioner? Or do you want to keep your food from spoiling? Connecting various appliances to the generator usually leads to extension cords tangling throughout your home. And, of course, they have to be manually started up. If the power goes out during the night, you may wake up to find it’s been out for hours. If you have a sump pump, and the reason for the power outage involved a lot of rain, you might wake up to flooding in your home.
Whole house generators are specifically designed to power an entire home. You won’t have to prioritize certain needs and allow others to go unmet. You won’t trip over extension cords. And their connection to your home’s electrical system means they come on as soon as the power goes out. Your sump pump will keep the floodwaters at bay, the food in your refrigerator won’t spoil, and critical systems like your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors will have uninterrupted power.
Imagine it: you’ve been relying on portable generators, but now you have a whole house generator. You wake up in the morning to find that the power has gone out. You feel a flash of panic—how long has it been out? What will you find when you survey your home? And then you remember. Your generator came on all by itself. You don’t need to scramble to see if you have fuel. And everything in your house has continued to function perfectly.
If you want to experience that relief, we’d love to talk to you about whole house generators in Bellview, FL.
Contact the team at Commander Air Inc. Your hometown heating and cooling specialist for three generations.