A portable generator hookup is three pieces of work. A dedicated circuit from your main panel out to an exterior wall, a weatherproof inlet on that wall, and an interlock at the panel itself.
Once those three exist, backup power is a matter of rolling the generator out, plugging in one cord, and starting it. Everything below is what that install involves, what decides how big it needs to be, and what 50 amps will honestly carry.
The interlock is the part that matters
Start at the panel, because the interlock is the piece that makes the rest of it safe.
An interlock is a manual plate fitted at your main breaker panel. It makes it physically impossible for the generator and the utility to feed your panel at the same time. To switch the generator breaker on, you have to switch the main off. There is no position where both are live.
That protects two separate things. It protects your generator and your appliances from the moment utility power comes back on without warning. It also protects the line crews working outside to restore it, who have every right to assume a dead line stays dead.
It is also the reason this is not a job for an extension cord run through a window. A cord powers whatever you plug straight into it, one appliance at a time. A proper hookup powers circuits, which is the difference between running the furnace and the fridge, and running a lamp.
The work is always done by a licensed electrician.
30 or 50 amps, and what decides it
The circuit is either 30 or 50 amps. 50 amps is the ceiling for this kind of installation.
Which one you need is decided by load, meaning the list of what you actually want running during an outage. It is not decided by the square footage of the house. Tell us the list and we will tell you straight which circuit covers it.
Where the inlet goes gets decided in the same conversation, because the circuit runs from your panel to that inlet. The distance between those two points is the single biggest variable in the job. A panel on the same wall as the inlet is a short run. A panel in a back corner and an inlet on the far side of the house is not.
What 50 amps actually reaches
Here is the honest limit, and it is worth hearing before you buy anything.
Up to 50 amps usually reaches the basics in an average household. Most HVAC systems, the fridge, the freezer. The things that spoil, freeze, or make a house unlivable are the things this is for.
What it does not do is run the whole house at once the way a permanent standby unit does. Those are two different machines solving two different problems. Anyone telling you a portable is the same thing as a whole-home system is selling you something.
That is not a knock on the portable. It is the reason to be specific about your list up front, so nothing is a surprise on the first night the power goes out.
Fuel is usually where the decision gets made
A whole-home standby unit needs natural gas or propane already on site. If a house has neither, going that route means adding a gas line or setting a propane tank before you have bought a single watt of backup power. That is often the whole reason people land on a portable instead.
Portables come two ways, and we install both.
A dual-fuel model runs on gasoline or propane. A tri-fuel model runs on gasoline, propane, or natural gas.
Gasoline is the one everybody already has a can of. It is the same fuel as the lawnmower, with nothing to plumb and nothing to connect.
Propane runs off the same tank that runs your grill, again with no gas line and no plumber. It also does not go stale the way gasoline does, so a spare tank bought today is still good on the night you need it.
Natural gas requires the tri-fuel model and a gas connection. We handle that fuel line connection ourselves, quoted on top of the install. Most people do not need it.
The question worth asking yourself is not which fuel is best on paper. It is which fuel you can actually get your hands on during a long outage in your neighborhood.
Where the inlet goes, and why
The inlet can go almost anywhere on an exterior wall. We prefer a well-ventilated spot at least 20 feet from windows and doors.
That distance is about exhaust. A portable generator burns fuel, and burning fuel produces carbon monoxide. Never run one indoors, in a garage, in a basement, or near an open window or door. Not with the garage door up either. Outside, away from the structure, every time.
The unit we install has a carbon monoxide alert built in. Treat it as a backstop, not as permission.
What to have ready before the estimate
Every job starts with a free on-site visit, because distance and load cannot be worked out over the phone. Three things make that visit quick.
- Where your main electrical panel is, and roughly how far it sits from the wall where you would want the inlet.
- The list of what you want running. Be specific: the HVAC, the fridge, the freezer, a couple of outlets.
- Whether you want gasoline and propane, or natural gas as well. That is the dual-fuel or tri-fuel decision.
Bring those three and the walkthrough is mostly confirming what you already know.
Where to go next
Portable generator installation covers what we supply, what the install includes, what it costs, and how to book the on-site estimate.
Any work beyond the original quote gets approved by you, in writing, before we start.