Best Overall Home Backup
Westinghouse WGen9500DF 12,500W Dual Fuel
The default whole-house pick · scored 8.8/10
Keeping the lights on in an outage
What size generator
do you actually need?
Trusted, independent picks for keeping the lights on — sized to what you actually need to run. Start from your load, not the catalog, and the generator picks itself.
- 106
- Products priced live
- October 5
- Prices checked
- 103
- Pages
- 0
- Units we claim to have tested
That last figure is deliberate. We do not operate a test lab and never say we do — every specification here is the manufacturer’s published figure, cited. How we pick.
Outdoors, at least 20 feet from the house, exhaust pointed away. Every time.
Carbon monoxide safetyCategory winners
What wins, and what it costs today
Each one is the #1 pick of a different roundup, with a live price and a buy link right here — you should not have to dig through a review to find something to click.
Best Quiet Inverter
Westinghouse iGen5000DFc 5,000W Dual Fuel Inverter
Quietest dual fuel at 4,000 running watts · scored 8.6/10
Best Overall Power Station
Jackery Explorer 2000 v2
The default 2 kWh home backup battery · scored 8.9/10
Best Transfer Switch
Reliance Controls 310CRK 10-Circuit 30A Kit
The ten-circuit default · scored 8.6/10
Start anywhere
Eight places to start
Hub
Generator Sizing
An interactive load calculator plus the sizing guides behind it, built on published utility and manufacturer wattage charts.
Hub
Outage Prep
Problem-first outage guides: keeping the fridge cold, running the furnace, carbon monoxide safety, runtime planning and seasonal checklists.
Hub
Generators
Every generator roundup and guide on the site, split into portable, dual-fuel and inverter machines.
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Power Stations
Battery power station and solar kit roundups, plus the capacity and chemistry guides behind them.
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Transfer Switches & Connection
Transfer switches, interlock kits, inlet boxes and cords, with the panel compatibility and amp-rating detail most sites skip.
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Costs
Purchase and running cost guides, including a fuel cost calculator that uses your own fuel prices.
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Comparisons
Head-to-head comparisons of the decisions that actually block a backup power purchase.
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Model Reviews
Individual model reviews of the generators and power stations covered across the site.
Why trust this
Four things we do differently
No testing claims
We do not run a test lab
Competitors claim hands-on testing of a dozen 250 lb generators. We read published specifications carefully and say so. Every figure is attributed to whoever published it.
Live prices
Numbers expire on their own
Prices come from a daily feed with the check date attached. Past 48 hours every figure disappears rather than going stale, so the failure mode is silence.
Published rubric
Scores you can audit
Every pick carries per-criterion scores against criteria chosen for its category. They are page content, never published as structured review data — because a spec-sheet score is not a tested rating.
Named omissions
We say what is missing
Where a manufacturer declines to publish a propane running figure, a decibel rating with a distance, or a THD percentage, the page names the gap instead of filling it with an estimate.
Read these first
The four pages that carry the argument
Guide
What Size Generator Do I Need?
The core sizing method: total running watts, add the single biggest surge, derate for continuous running, then match a wattage class.
Guide
Appliance Wattage Chart
The site's reference wattage table, with each row's source named and both figures shown wherever the published charts disagree.
Battery vs Engine
Portable Power Station vs Generator
Battery against generator on surge capability, runtime, placement and cost, with the two facts that decide it.
Best Transfer Switch
The Best Generator Transfer Switches
Transfer switches ranked on circuit count, amp rating and kit completeness, from 6-circuit 30A to 10-circuit 50A.
Latest
Recently reviewed
Prices are re-checked daily and every page carries the date its figures were last verified. The full site index lists everything.
- Appliance Wattage Chart2026-10-05
- Are Generator Interlock Kits Legal?2026-10-05
- The Dangers of Back-Feeding a Generator2026-10-05
- Best 10,000 Watt Portable Generators2026-10-05
- The Best 50 Amp Transfer Switches2026-10-05
- Best Budget Power Stations2026-10-05
- Best Dual Fuel Generators for Home Backup2026-10-05
- Best Generator Brands2026-10-05
How this is funded
Plainly: Amazon commissions
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site, at no extra cost to you. No manufacturer pays for placement, provides product, or sees a page before it publishes. The commission has no bearing on what we recommend or on what a review says.
Prices come from a live data feed and carry the date they were checked. When that feed goes stale the number disappears rather than misleading you — the failure mode is silence, never an old figure. We publish no price in prose anywhere.