Buying guide
Is a standby generator worth it in Texas?
We sell these, so read this knowing that. There are households where a standby generator is one of the better purchases they will make, and households where it is an expensive answer to a problem they do not have. Here is how to tell which one you are.
Start with the real number
A complete, permitted, whole-house installation in Dallas–Fort Worth typically runs $13,500 to $17,000 for a 20kW system. Smaller homes on a single air conditioning system come in lower. Anyone quoting materially less than that has either not seen your property or is not quoting the same scope. The full breakdown is here.
That is real money. It deserves a real reason.
What Texas has actually done
February 2021 is the event everyone remembers, and it was not a normal winter. Millions lost power, many for days, in temperatures the housing stock was never built for. Winter Storm Fern in January 2026 was a reminder that it was not a one-off.
Summer is the quieter risk. Peak demand on the ERCOT grid has repeatedly produced conservation appeals, and severe thunderstorms and straight-line winds take down distribution lines across the Metroplex every spring.
The pattern worth noticing is not that outages are constant. It is that when they happen here, they tend to arrive at exactly the temperature where losing power stops being an inconvenience.
The honest case for buying
Someone in the house is medically dependent on power. Oxygen concentrators, home dialysis, refrigerated medication. This is not a comfort calculation and the arithmetic ends here.
You work from home. A few lost days a year against a fixed one-off cost is straightforward arithmetic for most people who bill by the day.
You have a well or a septic lift pump. No power means no water and no drainage, which makes a house genuinely uninhabitable far faster than heat or cold does.
You cannot easily leave. Young children, elderly parents, animals, mobility limits. The option to decamp to a hotel is what makes an outage tolerable, and not everyone has it.
The house cannot be left unheated or uncooled. Pipes freeze. Anything with a temperature-sensitive inventory — a home lab, a wine cellar, a workshop — has a real loss number attached.
The honest case against
Your outages are short and rare. If the power goes out twice a year for an hour, a generator is an expensive solution. A few battery lanterns and a plan will serve you better.
You can leave easily. If decamping to family or a hotel is genuinely no hardship, the value of staying put is lower than the price of guaranteeing it.
You are moving soon. A generator is generally viewed as a desirable feature here, but you will not recover the installed cost at sale. Buy it to use, not as an investment.
The budget would be better spent elsewhere. If the roof is failing or the panel is unsafe, fix that first. We will tell you so.
The middle options
It is not a binary choice. A portable generator starting under $700 covers refrigeration, lights, pumps and electronics through a short outage. It will not run central air conditioning and it needs someone home to start it, but for many households it is the proportionate answer.
A partial-house standby system is the other middle path — a smaller unit covering essential circuits and one air conditioning zone rather than the whole property. It costs meaningfully less than whole-house and covers the scenario most people actually fear.
What tips it either way
If you are on the fence, the question that usually settles it is not financial. It is: what happens in this house during a four-day outage in February, or a three-day outage in August?
For some households the honest answer is that it would be unpleasant. For others it is that someone would be in genuine danger, or that the house itself would be damaged. Those are different purchases.
We would rather talk you out of a system you do not need than sell you one you resent. If the survey suggests a portable or a partial-house system is the proportionate answer for your property, that is what we will tell you.
Questions
How much does a whole house generator cost in Texas?
Equipment for a 20kW unit is published on our product pages. Installed in Dallas–Fort Worth, a typical whole-house system runs $13,500 to $17,000 all in, including pad, gas work, transfer switch, permits and commissioning. The spread comes mostly from the gas line and the distance to your electrical panel.
Does a generator increase home value in Texas?
It is generally seen as a desirable feature, particularly since 2021, but you should not expect to recover the installed cost at sale. Buy it because you want the power, not as an investment. What does matter at closing is that the installation was permitted and inspected — an unpermitted generator causes problems, whatever it cost.
How often does the power actually go out in DFW?
For most addresses, several brief interruptions a year plus the occasional multi-day event tied to ice, wind or grid strain. Your own history is the best guide — if you have lost power for more than a day twice in five years, that is the pattern a generator is for.
Is a battery system a better option than a generator?
They solve different problems. Batteries are quiet, need no fuel and handle short outages elegantly, but capacity is limited and running central air conditioning for days is not what they are built for. A generator with a gas main behind it has no runtime limit. For multi-day Texas outages that difference is the whole argument.
Can I finance it?
Yes, and most customers do at this ticket size. A rate check does not affect your credit. <a href="/financing">See how financing works</a>.
Get a real number for your property
Equipment pricing is published on every model. The installation number takes about 45 minutes at your address, and it costs nothing.