San Francisco Generators

It comes off a load calculation at your panel, not off the square footage. A typical San Francisco house with gas heat and a gas range is comfortable on 14kW to 18kW. Houses with a heat pump, an induction range or an EV charger generally need 22kW to 26kW. Anything above that moves into liquid-cooled equipment and a different price class. We measure what is actually connected before quoting a size.

A portable is wheeled out, started and refuelled by hand, runs on gasoline or propane, and feeds a few circuits through a cord or an inlet box. A standby unit is bolted to a pad, plumbed into natural gas, starts itself about ten seconds into an outage with nobody home, and feeds whatever the transfer switch is wired to. The deciding question is usually whether somebody will reliably be there to operate it.

For a home in San Francisco, natural gas, almost always: the main is already there, nothing is stored, nothing goes stale and runtime is unlimited. Propane is the answer where gas service is genuinely absent, at roughly a ten percent power penalty and with a tank to refill. Diesel belongs on commercial and industrial sites, where its power density and on-site fuel are worth the storage, noise and emissions obligations.

We install and warranty Generac, Kohler, Cummins and Champion generators, and we service those plus Honda, Briggs and Stratton, Onan and most older equipment still running behind Bay Area buildings. Generac has the deepest parts network locally, Kohler runs quieter for the same output, Cummins suits commercial and larger loads, and Champion is the value option for a modest house.

Between about $5,000 and $15,000 in this market, permitted and commissioned. The low end is a 14kW air-cooled unit with a critical-loads transfer switch, a short gas run and an easy pad. The high end is a 26kW unit with a 200-amp service switch, a long upsized gas line and a service upgrade first. Our number includes permits, commissioning and the first year of maintenance.

Three to six weeks from order to running. Equipment lead time on common air-cooled sizes is one to three weeks and the permit runs alongside it. The install itself is one long day for a straightforward job, two if a service upgrade or an awkward gas run is involved, and inspection follows within a week or two depending on the jurisdiction.

Yes, everywhere we work. A standby install needs an electrical permit and a mechanical or plumbing permit for the gas connection, and the finished work is inspected. Several jurisdictions also check placement against setback and noise rules. We pull the permits and meet the inspector, because an unpermitted generator turns into an expensive discovery during escrow.

It watches utility voltage, and when the grid drops it disconnects your building from the utility, starts the generator and connects the building to it — usually within ten seconds. When utility power returns and holds, it transfers back and runs the engine down on a cooldown cycle. The utility disconnect is the critical part: it is what stops your generator energizing the line outside and injuring somebody working on it.

Outside, on level ground, away from openable windows, doors and vents, clear of the property line, with the manufacturer’s clearance on every side for airflow and service access. Five feet from openings and eighteen inches from the wall is the common rule of thumb, but the binding numbers come from the equipment listing and local code — and on tight city lots that combination often rules out the obvious spot next to the meter.

Roughly 60 to 70 decibels at seven metres for a modern air-cooled unit, which sits between a normal conversation and a window air conditioner. Kohler units and enclosed liquid-cooled sets are at the quieter end, and sound-attenuated enclosures exist for commercial machines in mixed-use blocks. The weekly exercise run lasts about twelve minutes and can be scheduled for a reasonable hour.

A home standby unit wants a full service once a year — oil and filter, air filter, plugs, belts, hoses, battery test, coolant, and a run under load — plus the weekly exercise cycle the controller does by itself. Commercial sets want a minor service twice a year and a major service annually, and anything on a critical load should also get a load-bank test each year.

A natural gas standby unit runs indefinitely while the gas main is live, which is why it is the default in this city. A diesel set runs as long as its tank lasts, typically a day or two on a sub-base tank before refuelling. A propane unit depends on tank size. A gasoline portable manages eight to twelve hours per tank and has to be refuelled by hand.

Generally yes, and in outage-prone parts of the Bay Area it is one of the improvements buyers actively look for. Industry surveys put the effect at around three to five percent of home value, and appraisers treat a permitted, professionally installed unit as a permanent improvement rather than a maintenance liability. The permitted part is what makes the difference.

Yes. Most customers use manufacturer-backed financing through the Generac or Kohler programs, a home improvement loan, or a HELOC, and the monthly figure on a typical whole-house install lands in the same range as a phone bill. We will break the quote into equipment, electrical and permit lines so a lender can see precisely what is being financed.