Generac Home Generators

The Story of Generac and the Rise of Home Standby Generators

Standby Generator, 10kVA | 50Hz | WiFi Enabled

Provides essential circuit power protection for your home, ensuring the necessities remain powered during an outage. The most affordable automatic standby generator on the market offers protection for half the cost of central air conditioning.

VIEW

A Flicker in the Dark

There’s a moment anyone who’s lived through a storm knows too well—the house sighs, the hum of appliances stops, and darkness swallows the familiar. For most of the last century, that silence meant waiting: for utility crews, for weather to pass, for luck. But in a Wisconsin workshop in 1959, an engineer named Robert Kern imagined a different kind of waiting—one where the lights never truly left, where homes could hold onto warmth, medicine stayed cold, and life carried on as usual. From that spark, Generac was born.

From Workshop to Neighborhoods

Generac began small, building portable generators for Sears’ Craftsman brand. Back then, backup power was a tool for construction sites or remote cabins, not suburban streets. By the late 1980s, though, Generac saw a shift: storms were growing more disruptive, and families were searching for affordable, automatic solutions. Their answer was revolutionary—the first home standby generator designed for everyday households, fueled by natural gas or propane.

Suddenly, reliability wasn’t just for hospitals and factories. It was for the Cape Cod on the cul-de-sac, the farmhouse on the prairie, the cottage on the lake.

Design and Innovation

A home standby generator is more than a box with an engine. It’s a quiet sentinel. Installed permanently outside the home, wired into the main electrical panel, and paired with an automatic transfer switch, it awakens within seconds of an outage. No fumbling with cords in the rain. No worries about gas cans or refueling.

Generac fine-tuned the concept:

• Automatic operation that requires no one at home.

• Natural gas and propane fueling for nearly endless runtime.

• Self-testing exercise cycles to ensure readiness.

• Wi-Fi monitoring so homeowners could check status from anywhere.

Today’s models stretch from modest 7kW units powering essentials, to brawny 24kW systems running entire estates—quiet, efficient, and smart.

---

Standby Generator, 10kVA | 50Hz | WiFi Enabled

True Power™ Technology delivers best-in-class power quality with less than 5 percent total harmonic distortion for clean, smooth operation of sensitive electronics and appliances.

Generac G-Force Engine
Generac's G-Force Engine is a purpose-built, pressure-lubricated engine capable of handling the rigors of generator use, resulting in power that’s more reliable and requires less routine maintenance than any competitive engine. 

Generac's Evolution Controller
The most comprehensive available. The dual-line, tri-lingual LCD display allows for easy monitoring and management of generator functions.

5-Year Limited Warranty for automatic standby generators.

24/7/365 Customer Support
Power outages don’t always occur during normal working hours. That’s why 
Generac’s customer care call center—right here in Wisconsin—provides support any time of day or night, all year long. Generac is standing by 24/7, every minute of every day, to answer your questions.

All-Weather Aluminum Enclosure
Our durable powder-coat finish helps make the sturdy, all-weather aluminum enclosure corrosion resistant, making it ideal for coastal, salt-air climates. It’s also able to withstand 150 mph winds.

Easy Installation 
With re-engineered connection points, and composite mounting pad that eliminates the need for a poured concrete base (unless specified by local codes), the Guardian Series 8kVA generator is easy to install.

Certified for 18" Installation to the Home
Third-party certified to NFPA standards to be installed as close as 18” from the home’s exterior wall, provided it is located away from doors, windows, and fresh-air intakes, and unless otherwise directed by local codes.

Tool-less Fuel Conversion
Switch between natural gas and LP fuel in the field in a few seconds, without the need for any tools.

Rated for Operation in Areas with Low Natural Gas Pressure
In areas with low natural gas pressure, the Guardian Series 13kVA generator can operate on natural gas pressures of only 3.5” of water column—significantly lower than published numbers for competitive standby generator systems.

---

Why It Matters Today

The demand for resilience has only grown. The 2003 Northeast blackout, Hurricane Katrina, and Superstorm Sandy each pushed standby systems into the national conversation. In wildfire-prone California, ice-battered Texas, and hurricane belts along the Gulf, they’ve become almost a household standard.

And yet, they are more than machines. They offer peace of mind: the hum of a furnace when the grid falters, the glow of a lamp when neighbors sit in darkness, the steady running of a sump pump that keeps a basement dry. In a world of climate uncertainty and fragile infrastructure, these generators whisper a promise: continuity.

Beyond Generac: A Broader Movement

Generac dominates the residential market—holding a lion’s share that rivals any consumer brand—but it’s not alone. Kohler, Briggs & Stratton, Cummins and newer hybrid systems join the chorus. Increasingly, home standby isn’t competing with solar and battery storage, but working alongside it, bridging the gap between clean energy dreams and real-world reliability.

Think of it less as a noisy relic, and more as a companion to the modern energy ecosystem: solar panels by day, batteries for the twilight, generators when storms stretch on too long.

A C&C Reflection

Standby power is rarely poetic. It’s mechanical, practical, utilitarian. And yet, anyone who has heard the low purr of a generator on a storm-lashed night knows its comfort. It is the sound of medicine staying safe in the fridge, of pipes kept from freezing, of children sleeping undisturbed.

Generac’s story is less about engines and fuel than it is about holding the thread of ordinary life intact when nature tugs hard at its seams. In that sense, it belongs not just to the engineers who built it, but to every household that has ever faced the dark and chosen to keep its light.