Zendure Power Station / Unsplash
Severe weather knocked out power to millions of American homes last year, and grid reliability has continued to decline in many regions. Whole-house standby generators fill that gap automatically, starting within seconds of an outage and running on natural gas or propane without the manual setup a portable unit requires. Installation costs range from $2,000 to $20,000 or more, and the units themselves run $3,400 to nearly $7,000, so the stakes on choosing correctly are high.
Consumer Reports put six home standby generators through lab tests covering power delivery, power quality, fuel efficiency, noise, and ease of use. Continue reading to see which made the list.
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At 22,000 watts on propane and 19,500 watts on natural gas, it has enough output for an average home. Consumer Reports found the unit scores superb marks in power delivery and power quality but suffers from mediocre fuel efficiency and a middling result in noise tests. Remote monitoring through a companion smartphone app and a self-testing function make it easy to operate, though the electric start requires a separate $200 battery purchase.
