Power Stays On. You Don't Notice A Thing.

No, and this is one of the most important things to understand before you hire anyone. A general electrical contractor can be highly skilled and still lack the specific training that standby generator installation requires. Connecting an automatic transfer switch, integrating with a gas line, sizing the system correctly through a load calculation, and registering the unit with the manufacturer are all generator-specific competencies. Andy Helton has held his NC electrical contractor license since 1989, and we are factory-authorized by Kohler specifically for generator installation and service. That's a meaningful distinction. Not every company claiming to install Kohler generators in Alamance, Durham, or Guilford County has gone through that process.

That depends on what you want to power. Some homeowners want essential circuits only: lights, refrigerator, a few outlets, and maybe the well pump. Others want the whole house running normally, including central air conditioning, which is the biggest draw. Kohler's air-cooled RCA line handles essential and partial-home coverage well. For whole-home coverage that includes HVAC, the liquid-cooled RCL line is typically the better fit. We determine the right size through a proper load calculation during your on-site consultation. Oversizing wastes money on fuel and equipment. Undersizing means your generator shuts down under load, which is the worst time to find out it wasn't big enough.

Most residential standby generator installations are completed in one to two days once permits are pulled and equipment is on-site. The timeline from your initial consultation to a running system depends on equipment lead times, permit processing in your county, and scheduling. In Chatham County and rural parts of Alamance, permit timelines can vary from what you'd see in a more urban area like Durham or Greensboro. We manage all of that for you and give you a realistic schedule upfront. One thing that can extend the timeline significantly: waiting until after a major storm to call. Post-storm demand creates backlogs that can stretch weeks or months. The homeowners who get scheduled quickly are the ones who called before the next storm hit.

Absolutely, and in the NC Piedmont, ice storms are often more damaging than hurricanes. The five-county area we serve sits at a geographic intersection that makes it a consistent target for winter ice events. Ice accumulation snaps trees and brings down lines across Alamance, Orange, and Guilford counties in ways that take days to restore, especially in rural areas where utility crews prioritize urban restoration first. Tropical Storm Chantal in 2025 dropped over ten inches of rain across Alamance, Chatham, and Orange counties. A single storm in August 2023 left over 52,000 Durham County customers without power in one night. A Kohler standby generator doesn't care whether it's July or January, it responds the same way every time.

Kohler offers a five-year limited warranty on residential standby generators. But the warranty is only as good as the installation behind it. An unauthorized installer may not properly register the unit with the manufacturer, which can create problems when you try to make a warranty claim. Genuine Kohler parts are required for covered repairs, aftermarket substitutes can void coverage. As an Authorized Kohler Dealer, we register every unit we install, use genuine parts for any service work, and maintain the manufacturer relationship that backs up your warranty. If something goes wrong two years after installation, you want a company that has that direct line to the manufacturer, not one that's figuring it out as they go.

Most homeowners who've relied on a portable generator through a multi-day outage already know the answer. Portable generators require manual setup, fuel storage, and extension cords, and they can't safely power HVAC systems, sump pumps, or medical equipment that needs a clean, stable power source. There's also the carbon monoxide risk when people run them too close to the house. A Kohler standby generator is a permanently installed system that turns on automatically, runs on your existing natural gas or propane supply, and powers your home the way it's supposed to run. For households in Durham, Chapel Hill, or Pittsboro where remote work means an outage is a direct income loss, or for any home where someone depends on powered medical equipment, the comparison isn't really close.