Best Home Standby Generators From Consumer Reports' Tests

You'll pay a premium, but a whole-house generator can provide endless power for your home's needs

By Paul Home and Tobie Stanger

A home standby generator is a luxury, and for some people a necessity. Also known as whole-house generators or stationary generators, these units cost about $2,000 to $5,000. And the professional installation they require can set you back thousands more.

Nonetheless, the peace of mind a home standby generator can give may justify the expenditure, especially if the power goes out often where you live. The largest home standby generators in Consumer Reports’ tests are rated to deliver at least 10,000 watts of electricity, enough to power everything under the average roof. Smaller standby models provide at least 5,000 watts, enough to power most key household appliances, electronics, and systems in your home—for instance, the refrigerator, air conditioning system, and well pump.

Among the benefits of home standby generators: They start automatically, so there’s no futzing in the dark with flashlights to get things going. They run a self-diagnosis and let you know when maintenance is needed. You have your choice of fuel—propane, which is less risky to store than the gasoline required for portable generators, or natural gas, which provides an unlimited supply of power. Because they’re professionally installed—outdoors, with the exhaust properly diverted away from your home—they don’t present the same potential safety issues posed by portable generators.

"A home standby generator is the single best tool available to use as a source of backup power," says Misha Kollontai, CR’s test engineer who oversees generator testing. "But because of the costs, including installation, it’s also important to get a model that delivers steady, reliable power."

Our tests find crucial differences among models, even within a single brand. Start with our generator buying guide to zero in on the style that’s right for you. And browse our generator ratings, which include portable and inverter models in addition to home standby generators.

To test how a generator will perform when you need it most, our engineers load up every model with a variety of essentials you might want to power during an outage, such as a space heater, refrigerator, or window air conditioner.

We make sure the generator can handle the load it promises, and we also determine what happens when a sudden spike in voltage hits, like if your fridge’s compressor kicks on when the generator is already close to capacity. The best models take that in stride, while others bog down or even stall. We also look at how efficiently a generator uses fuel and how long it runs on a single tank of propane gas.

CR members can read on for ratings and reviews of the best home standby generators in our ratings.

Damaging storms can happen at any time. On the "Consumer 101" TV show, host Jack Rico learns from Consumer Reports’ expert Paul Hope how to avoid being left in the dark during a power outage.

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