How the numbers are kept

Outage Geek covers 116 units from 32 brands across 5 categories, from $280 suitcase power stations to $26,770 whole-home battery systems. Backup power is something most households buy exactly once, usually two days before a forecast, using wattage figures that are quoted on incompatible bases. Getting those onto one basis is the job this catalog exists to do.

The kilowatts on a standby generator are a propane number

A home standby generator wears its rating on the box — 22 kW, 24 kW — and that rating is measured on liquid propane. Run the same machine on a natural gas line, which is what most houses connect to, and it makes meaningfully less, because natural gas carries less energy per unit of volume. 17 of the 17 standby units here publish both figures, and the catalog records them separately and derives the gap. Applying it reorders the category: units that look like peers on a showroom placard are not peers once the fuel is settled, and the cost per kilowatt a gas-fed house receives is a different ranking from the cost per kilowatt on the sticker.

Running watts, starting watts, and what a well pump does

Running watts is what a unit sustains. Starting watts is the brief surge it can supply while a motor spins up, and a well pump, a compressor or a submersible can demand several times its running draw for a second or two. A generator sized on running watts alone will trip the moment the pump calls, which is the failure people discover at 2am. Both figures are recorded for every unit, and the sizing guide works through the arithmetic of adding them up rather than leaving it as a warning.

Where the specifications come from, and what is conditional

Wattage, battery capacity, tank size, decibel ratings, weight and warranty terms are taken from manufacturer specification sheets and owner's manuals. Several of those are meaningless without the condition they were measured under: a decibel figure needs a distance and a load, and a runtime needs a stated percentage of rated output. Where a marketing page omits the condition, the catalog carries the manufacturer's figure and notes the condition beside it rather than normalising it into a number nobody published. 76 of the 116 units have a decibel rating at all; the rest show nothing, which is more honest than a figure inferred from a neighbouring model. 52 units state a battery capacity in watt-hours and 39 of those can take additional packs, which is the spec that decides whether a power station grows with you.

The sticker is not the project

Prices here are typical list prices for the bare unit, and they move in two predictable directions: retailers discount portables and power stations year-round, and prices for standby generators and home batteries harden for months after a regional outage. Nothing on this site includes installation. 58 units are transfer switch ready, and a transfer switch is the cheapest part of that job — a standby install means a pad, a gas or conduit run, permits, an electrician, and a commissioning visit, which together routinely match or exceed the equipment. The catalog carries an installed range for that reason, derived from the size of the job rather than copied from a brochure that does not mention it.

No scores; complaints come from owners

There is no review source we could cite unit by unit, so the pages carry no star scores or review tallies. Retail stars would mislead in this category anyway: backup power rates well on arrival and badly in year three, once the first real outage has tested it. There is no test lab here and nothing installed anywhere to report on. The pros and cons on each unit page come out of what owners write publicly — people who have run a unit through a real outage, long-term write-ups, and the complaints that keep recurring on retailer listings — and are labelled as owner sentiment. A complaint earns a line when it recurs from unconnected owners: a portable that will not pull-start below freezing, an inverter that cannot carry a well pump it is rated for on paper, a standby unit whose exercise cycle nobody warned the neighbours about.

What this catalog cannot decide for you

Sizing is the part that determines whether you are happy, and it depends on your panel, your well, your furnace and your local code — none of which are visible from here. The sizing guide walks the arithmetic, and anything that ties into house wiring needs a licensed electrician. Carbon monoxide from a fuel-burning generator kills people every storm season, and backfeeding a panel through a dryer outlet kills line workers; the safety guide is not optional reading and this site will not soften it.

Two people, no dealer money, and what the site does earn

Two people maintain this, and neither of them sells or installs generators. No office, no generator on a pad out back, nobody on a payroll. No manufacturer, dealer or installer pays for inclusion, for a position, or for a gentler write-up, and none of them reads a page ahead of publication. Brand and type pages list cheapest first, the whole-house page ranks on natural-gas output, and each guide links the units its text discusses, so position follows from the data. Every unit here was last re-read on October 7, 2026; units get added, prices re-checked and withdrawn models cleared as they surface, and a figure that disagrees with the manual in front of you is an error here worth reporting.

The site's income is the Amazon link on a unit's page. Where a unit is sold on Amazon, its page carries a “Check price on Amazon” link, and if you buy something after following it, Amazon pays a small commission at no cost to you. 73 of the 116 units carry that link; the rest — every installed home battery,9 of the 17 standby units, and the portables Amazon does not stock — carry none, and nothing about their position changes for it. The commission is the same whichever unit you choose, so it has no bearing on which units are listed, how any list is ordered, or what the complaints say. Prices on this site are the list price at the last catalog refresh, not a quote; the retailer's page is the price. The full text is on the privacy page.