Decision guide
Portable vs Standby: Which Do You Need?
One question decides this, and it is not budget. Do you want the air conditioning running during an outage? In a Gulf Coast July that is the difference between staying home and leaving, and it is why this choice is usually made for you before you start shopping.
The deciding line
Central air, a heat pump, an electric water heater or an electric dryer on your must-run list means a home standby unit. Fridge, lights, fans, internet and phones means a portable will do it. Everything else is detail.
| Portable | Portable + switch | Home standby | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runs central air | No | Not practically | Yes, if sized for it |
| Starts itself | No | No | Yes, automatically |
| You must be home | Yes | Yes | No |
| Refueling | Every few hours | Every few hours | None on natural gas |
| Electrician needed | No | Yes, for the switch | Yes |
| Permit needed | No | Usually | Yes |
| CO risk to manage | High, yours | High, yours | Low, it is outside and fixed |
| Noise | Loud | Loud | Quieter, and only during outages |
| Typical spend | Hundreds to ~$2k | Add switch install | Thousands, see cost guide |
When a portable is genuinely the right call
Do not let anyone talk you out of a portable if it fits. If your outages are a few hours at a time, you are home when they happen, and your list is the refrigerator, some lights, fans and devices, a portable is the cheaper and completely reasonable answer. Add a transfer switch or interlock and it gets a lot more usable, because you are feeding real circuits instead of trailing cords through a window.
The honest downsides: you have to be there to start it, you have to refuel it every few hours, it is loud, and it is the version where carbon monoxide is your problem to manage. Those are real, and they are the reason the safety section below is not boilerplate.
When a standby unit is worth the money
It makes sense when any of these is true: you want air conditioning during an outage, you travel or are away from the house, someone in the home depends on powered medical equipment, you have a well or a sump pump you cannot lose, or your street has a history of multi-day outages. The unit starts on its own within seconds, runs on natural gas or propane, and on natural gas there is nothing to refuel.
The cost is the real objection, and it is a fair one. Published figures for a 22 kW unit installed run $8,000–$16,000Source: Generac, home standby installed cost (opens in new tab) on average. The cost guide breaks down what moves that.
Natural gas or propane
Natural gas is the better fuel when you can get it: no tank, nothing to refill, and it keeps running as long as the gas keeps flowing. Propane is the fallback and it is not a bad one — it stores for years without degrading, which is a genuine advantage on a coast where a storm can take fuel supply down for days. What it brings with it is a tank: a size decision, a placement decision, and a refill plan.
Availability is street by street and the provider differs by city. Each area page on this site names the gas utility we were able to verify and tells you to confirm service at your own address.
Let your own list decide
Check off what you want running. Watt figures come from the Homelite wattage worksheet Source: Homelite wattage worksheet (opens in new tab). The full result is right here, with no email required.
Before you run a portable: carbon monoxide kills people every storm season
- Outdoors only, at least 20 feet from the house, with the exhaust pointed away from windows, doors and vents. That is the CPSC’s guidance, not a suggestion of ours. CPSC (opens in new tab)
- Never in a garage, shed, basement, crawlspace or porch, even with the door open. Opening doors and windows does not provide enough ventilation to stop CO building to lethal levels. CPSC (opens in new tab)
- Working CO alarms on every level, outside sleeping areas, with battery backup. Test them before hurricane season, not during an outage.
- Never back-feed your panel. Plugging a generator into a dryer or range outlet to power the house is dangerous and illegal: it can electrocute a utility worker and start a fire. Have a licensed electrician install a transfer switch or an interlock kit.
- Let it cool before refueling, and keep gasoline away from the hot exhaust.
If a CO alarm sounds, get everyone outside into fresh air and call 911. CO symptoms look like the flu — headache, nausea, dizziness, confusion — without a fever.
Next
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Common questions
Can a portable generator run my central air conditioning?
Practically, no. Central air is a large motor load with a big starting surge, and carrying it with a portable means a very large, very loud unit plus a transfer switch and a dedicated circuit. On this coast, wanting air conditioning during an outage is the usual reason people choose a standby unit instead.
Do I need a transfer switch for a portable?
If you want to power things through your house wiring rather than running extension cords, yes. A licensed electrician installs a transfer switch or an interlock kit with an inlet. Plugging a generator into a dryer or range outlet to back-feed the panel is dangerous and illegal.
How long can a standby unit run?
On natural gas, as long as the gas keeps flowing, which is why it is the preferred fuel where a main is available. On propane, until the tank runs down, which is a function of tank size and load. Either way the unit needs periodic maintenance, not continuous unattended running for weeks.
Is a dual-fuel portable worth it on the Gulf Coast?
There is a real argument for it here. Propane stores for years without going bad, and after a storm the gas stations without power cannot pump. Having both options is genuine flexibility rather than a spec-sheet feature.
Where should a portable generator be placed?
Outdoors only, at least 20 feet from the house, with the exhaust directed away from windows, doors and vents, per the CPSC. Never in a garage, shed, basement, crawlspace or on a porch, even with the door open. Carbon monoxide kills people every storm season and ventilation is not a workaround.
Where these numbers come from
- Homelite wattage worksheet (opens in new tab) — link checked 2026-10-31
- Generac, home standby installed cost (opens in new tab) — link checked 2026-10-28
- U.S. CPSC generator and carbon monoxide warning (2026) (opens in new tab) — link checked 2026-10-30
- U.S. CPSC, generators and engine-driven tools (opens in new tab) — link checked 2026-10-30
Anything marked estimate is our own rough planning figure, not a sourced number and not a quote.
We don’t install, sell or service generators. We’re a local resource that connects homeowners with installers in their area. How we work.