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Planning on getting a portable or home generator, but are not sure what you should get? The very first thing to determine is what you'll use the generator for. Portable generators are designed to power small appliances and equipment while at a remote location. Standby generators are designed to be permanent structures just outside of your home to act as an automatic backup when there is an electric outage. Both have unique purposes. A portable generator is not ideal to for a home once the power is out. They are noisy, don't run very long and are dangerous if used improperly. A standby generator, obviously, is not built to go on the road. You must first find out what sort of equipment you will run. Will you power up an RV, your home, or a small laptop?

Knowing how much power you will want determines what size and type of generator to have. Power is measured in watts used. A kilowatt is 1,000 watts. You can get this data by checking out each individual appliance and adding up the wattage, but this is unreliable because you most likely won't be running everything simultaneously. A better way would be to have an electrician measure your energy usage at both start up and running wattage. This is much more accurate. You should buy one with about 20 percent above you would need to ensure enough power. If you're only likely to power a couple of appliances, you may make use of the stated power on the label as a guide.

Generators have two components, an engine that burns fuel just like, gas or propane and a generator that turns the power into electricity. It performs this by rotating a coil inside of a magnetic field to create an electric current. Most portable units run on gas or propane. Gas isn't the greatest for the home unless you use it outdoors. You should never operate a portable gas unit indoors due to carbon monoxide fumes. Propane is better for at home use.

Standby generators are permanent structures made to power up your home if the main power is out. It's nice to have backup power to keep your refrigerator, air cooling, lights and the computer running. These units are designed to provide backup power automatically through a transfer switch that detects when the main power sources goes out. Standby generators often operate on propane, natural gas, or even a combination of fuels. They may be hooked right up to your gas lines, therefore you don't have to keep refueling. The standby generators can range from 7 kilowatts up to a few hundred kilowatts or power.

Portable generators are for powering up appliances or equipment at remote locations. Most portable generators range from 1 kilowatt up to 15 kilowatts. Some even provide 200 kilowatts for big construction projects. Good portable generators ought to have a sizable gas tank, a fuel indicator gauge and lots of receptacles so that you can run all of the appliances you need. The more appliances or power equipment you'll run, the larger the machine you should get. Also, check the quietness of the unit. Some units have built-in over sized mufflers which make the unit nice and quiet. You wouldn't desire to annoy the neighbors would you?