There's nothing like a power outage to make us realize how much we rely on electricity. Electricity powers the furnace, the refrigerator, the TV, the computers, the lighting circuits, the sump pump and, in many homes, the water well, which supplies the showers and the toilets. A prolonged power outage can leave us cold, hungry, bored, unwashed, uncomfortable and largely in the dark. And if you happen to work at home, the financial losses can quickly add up.
While an inexpensive portable generator will power the TV and a lamp or two, what's really needed is a unit that's large enough to keep a few important circuits running. The trick, though, is to connect the generator to the household wiring in a way that's safe and convenient. To do the job, we install a manual transfer switch that routes electricity from either the municipal power supply or the generator to the vital circuits.