I live out in rural Mission on a beautiful stretch of heavily wooded roadway. The road is an enticing blend of quick turns and narrow straight-aways hedged in by picturesque woodland through which a variety of deer and forest-dwelling creatures run about along the roadside…sometimes very close to the roadside. This Rockwellian scene is completed by the cascading rays of morning and evening light just begging the adventurous motorist to put their foot down and race about with reckless abandon through the beautiful, twisting, dimming, deer-infested forest.
The more intuitive reader will in no way be surprised that this scenic collaboration leads to many, as in bi-weekly, scenes of those self-same motorists careening about in maladroit fashion with gregarious screeching and blaring of horns narrowly avoiding Bambi and family to dive headlong into the wild roadside (with minimal personal injury) often as not taking down in their way one of the dozens of power lines straddling the verge. The result is that with almost ironic regularity my home is plunged into a powerless existence. No cold fridge, no hot water, no wifi, no (gasp) cell phone charging. Even the AC unit in my baby’s room is down for the count…or it would be. All the cascading drama is avoided due to the installation of my shiny new Home Backup generator.
What Does My Generator Provide?
Generators are a massively convenient (in many ways essential) part of my existence. My family and I utilize these machines to keep us warm or cool depending on the season. They provide us with light, heat, freezers that don’t thaw, water lines that don’t freeze, and phones that stay connected all while the power lines get reconnected and the aforementioned vehicles are pulled from the ditch.
What is even more convenient is to have a standby generator already wired into your home’s main panel. This way, when the power goes off the generator automatically kicks on and keeps your home running smoothly. No more having to wheel out the old clunky monster from the garage and run seemingly miles of extension cords to those appliances you still want operational. All the effort of shutting down non-essentials and keeping those key circuits running happens in the background. No more having to get up in the middle of the night to hook up your generator in the rain (did I mention we live in BC). No more coming home to find that while you were away the power was out and your summer stash of ice cream is now a soggy congealed mess at the bottom of your freezer. Having a stand-by generator means peace of mind and maintained comfort in the midst of what would otherwise be a very irritating scenario.
Here at Copper Mountain Electric we supply and install General standby generators in several sizes. Our most common unit is a Generac 24kw Guardian Air-cooled Home Backup generator capable of producing up to 80 amps of power. In more relevant terms that is power capable of running 2 -3 fridges/freezers, a microwave, plugs and lights throughout the house, your natural gas furnace, smaller AC unit, well pump, filtration system, septic system, sump pump, smoke detectors, wifi and coffee maker ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
How Much Will It Cost?
Now down to the serious details. The cost for one of these units, supplied, installed and commissioned is between $13,000 – $16,000 + GST. This price includes the generator itself, an automatic transfer switch, a sub panel with breakers, and electrical labour to install. These units generally take 2-6 weeks from ordering to arrive and are installed and functional in 2 – 3 days. We work with a local licensed gas fitter team to hook up your generator correctly to your home’s natural gas supply. These gas hookups come in between $1500-$3000 + GST. We offer a yearly maintenance/service visit for $350 + GST which includes a system overview, oil and filter change, and generator test.
So there you have it, the whys, whats, and most importantly the hows (as in how much does it cost) of generators. If you would like more information regarding these units please feel free to give us a call at 778 855 0408 or send us an email to office@copper-mountain.ca.