Backup Generators in Edmonton: Luxury or Necessity

Right. Well, thanks so much for having me back to interview you on the Halo Power YouTube channel, Kevin. Today we’re going to be talking about backup generators in Edmonton, Alberta are they a necessity or a luxury? So, if that is something that interests you and you’ve been thinking about that in the back of your mind, you know, what about all these brownouts and blackouts that we’ve been seeing in the winter times especially, is it a smart time to get a new generator? Well, we’re going to answer those questions today. Alberta’s power grid is reliable, one of the most stable in Canada. But reliability today doesn’t guarantee reliability tomorrow. With rising demand and growing dependence on imported electricity, families may be more vulnerable than they think.

Okay, Kevin. First question here. People in Alberta believe the grid is very stable. Why would anybody even consider a backup generator in Alberta?

Yeah, great question, Trevor. And—and that’s the thing, you know, we’re very comfortable. We’re very complacent here because, for the most part, the power is always on and, you know, we always look historically, “Well, we haven’t had any big outages here in Alberta. So, you know, generator, yeah, is it—is it a luxury or is it a necessity?” But I can tell you just my own experience, even in where I live in Sherwood Park, you know, we’ve had some odd things go on this summer and it was during some very hot days. Power went off, power flickers on maybe for a few minutes, some areas longer. My—my wife works out in a draw at the high school. They lost power last month out at the school for half an hour. So, you know, it’s kind of a sign that that it’s not as stable as people think. And, you know, we can’t just put our head in the sand and say, “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine,” you know, and—and just think power is always going to be there. You know, I really really feel that people need to be empowered to be able to look after themselves.

Yeah. No, I agree with that. And let’s talk about the outages that we’ve been having lately. Are they becoming more common or are we just being overcautious?

You know, I don’t know if there’s a solid answer as to yes, they’re becoming more common or why they’re actually happening. I’ve heard so many things about the fact that we rely on a certain amount of renewables. They actually forecast how much power they can draw on a given day based on renewables. Is the wind going to blow? Is the sun going to shine? And, you know, by knowing that number—or trying to forecast that number—you know, they try and figure out how much they can use from renewables and how much actually needs to be generated by burning fossil fuel. So, if this is actually the case and we’re counting on mother nature to provide us the sun and the wind, and mother nature changes her mind that day and now we’re running a a deficit on the amount of available power, then you know now we’re going to see things happening here. So, and it wasn’t like that in the past. We always knew the generators were running and power was on. So, I think as we become more and more dependent on renewables and try to integrate that into our day-to-day lives, there’s going to be some fluctuations, there’s going to be some instability to it.

So, what—what are you going to do to look after yourself if this is the case? Well, you know, anybody that that’s watching this is can be pretty aware that when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, there’s actually a website you can visit and see how much actual energy the—the renewables in Alberta have put into the grid. And it’s—it’s minuscule at best on a good day. And, you know, with more and more people that are coming into the province, more and more poor people living here and needing air conditioners and needing, you know, heat in the wintertime, it’s only putting more pressure on our grid that we haven’t built a new power station in quite a long time.

That’s right.

So, we’re going to have more and more of these issues coming up in my opinion.

I agree with you. And, you know, in our business with Halo Power Solutions, I mean, generators are a big part of what we do, but we’ve never seen so much interest and so many requests for service upgrades and it’s because of electric vehicle charging, you know, air conditioners. Now—now we’re seeing so many heat pumps and, you know, depending on what type of upgrades you’re going to do to your home. That 100 amp service that served us very well for—for many many years is actually not enough to give us all the power we need for our toys, for our appliances, and our devices. So, you know, it’s going to get to a point here where utility companies are going to say, “No, I’m sorry. There’s no more power left to give you an upgrade.” And we’ve seen it a couple of times, some neighborhoods where we—we applied or the customers applied for a 200 amp upgrade and either Fordus or Epcore came back and said no, at this point we cannot provide you that power without a substantial infrastructure upgrade. So it’s a sign when I hear of linemen for the utility companies putting in home backup generators. I mean, those guys know what’s going on. So, you know, if there’s not a tell right there, I don’t know what is.

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Power linemen are in the know. I’m sure they know exactly what our grid’s capable of and how many people are coming in, how many new homes are being built, and just the demand that’s increasing all the time.

Yeah.

Okay, Kevin, but isn’t a generator a luxury item? Like having a hot tub, it’s nice, but not necessary.

That is the perception of a lot of people. Yeah, it—it’s—it’s very true because, again, we’re complacent. Power’s on. “I don’t want to spend that kind of money on a generator. What if I never need it?” You know, and, you know, I think as homeowners and just as Albertans, we have to look at the big picture of what would happen if you were without power. And I’m not talking for 15, 20 minutes, or even a couple hours. What if you didn’t have power for 2, three days? Now, is that generator a luxury item? Absolutely not. It’s now become a necessity. Could be a matter of life and death depending on the situation.

You know, we have people that we’ve installed generators for with significant health problems. They rely on electricity, whether it’s keeping the oxygen generator flowing that keeps them alive. Maybe they sleep with a CPAP and they need that power on. Perhaps they have an elevator or a lift in their home. So many reasons and—and those people get it. But for most of us in our day-to-day lives, what would be the biggest panic right off the bat? “Oh my god, my Wi-Fi doesn’t work.” You know, “I can’t—I can’t scroll through my Facebook or TikTok or whatever.” Right? So, we don’t really think about how serious it would be. But let’s remember what happened in Ontario years ago with those ice storms. I mean, you basically had people that were without electricity and, you know, cold weather, anything could happen. Things start freezing up in your home.

Yeah, the furnace doesn’t work. That’s just one of many things. And then if you got pipes freezing up in your home, the damage—

Yeah. The aftermath of that—you know, when you really consider that you probably wish you would have spent 25 grand on a home backup system instead of your hot tub.

Yeah, actually would have saved money by doing that.

Absolutely you would. You know, and we were talking about that earlier, Trevor, about insurance. You know, I think about how many tens of thousands of dollars I’ve spent on insurance. Probably more. And I always hope, geez, I hope I don’t need to use it because what happens when I use my insurance goes up.

You betcha. It goes up and I pay more insurance.

Choose The Right Generator For Your Home

Let’s look at a gone backup system like a fully automatic Generac system. You know, you invested 20 $25,000 in this system and we have a significant power outage or maybe you have an event at your home. It doesn’t have to be a widespread end of the world zombie apocalypse that I’m talking about. You live out on an acreage and you’re, you know, you’re out in the middle of nowhere and tree falls and takes out the power line and depending on what’s happening, you know, maybe utility can’t get out there for a day or two to get power back on. You know, it’s an isolated incident, but you as an individual, all of a sudden, you’re going to be so grateful that you got that generator running and your home’s safe, pipes aren’t freezing up, and you don’t have to involve the insurance company with costly repairs. So, yeah, luxury, I don’t think so. But you almost have to live it or experience it to really appreciate the value and that peace of mind that having a home backup system gives you.

Yep. Well, you know, true story. Any big events that go on, let’s say a big concert happens at Rogers here, they don’t rely on the grid, they rely on generators, right? They’ve got trucks worth of generators that are running outside making sure that we don’t have a power outage for the—the sound and lighting system. You can’t rely on the grid in every place you go, right? So, using a generator is kind of a Must have.

Now, you did allude to the price there. So let’s get serious.

Okay.

So people are asking, how much does it cost to get a Generac system put in your home in Edmonton?

Well, first of all, the—the equipment’s price is pretty straightforward. You know, depending on what size system you want, whether you want one that will run just the essentials in your home or you’re looking for a Cadillac Generac that’s going to power up your whole panel and—and basically run everything in your home. You’re going to spend anywhere between $7,000 and upwards of about 13 grand for just the equipment. But that’s just the beginning of it. The installation can be very straightforward or it can be really tricky. So, there’s no set cookie cutter price on the install. And I know there’s other contractors out there that are throwing out prices over the phone. I just dealt with it the other day. A customer that we ended up putting in a system for got a verbal quote over the phone from somebody. The guy didn’t even come out and have a look at what it was. He just said, “Ah, 10 grand. I don’t need to come out and see it.” I mean, that’s—that’s reckless. That is reckless because every install is different. The location of the generator, where your natural gas meter is, where your electrical is located in your room. There is no cut and dry answer on it.

So, I tell customers, you have to budget at least 8 to 10 grand on an install. And if we can do it for less, hey, bonus for you. But, you know, you don’t want to mislead people and think that they can get a whole system installed and—and the electrical in the natural gas is only going to be a few thousand. It’s not accurate at all. And so I—I think it’s really important to be upfront on that because the people that don’t balk at the price are the people that really do see the value in what this system gives you when the power does go out.

Nice. Now let’s talk about portable generators.

Sure.

Is a portable generator good enough?

You know, they are to a degree. And, you know, I talk about what I call the Cadillac fully automatic systems, but at the same time, we put in a number of manual generator systems that any homeowner can connect and operate at a much lower price point. You know, between the electrical with the generator panel and it depends on the wiring and, you know, having a good quality portable generator. You know, you might invest $5,000 in that type of project and it’ll keep you comfortable. It’ll keep the essentials running in your home, but you have to be home to set it up.

Yes.

So, if you’re fine with that, then it’s a great option because the power goes out, you’ve got the generator in your garage, you haul it out—hopefully not through 2 ft of snow, but let’s face it, that could be the case, right? You start it up, you plug it into a power outlet that we’ve provided on the outside of your home. And then you go downstairs and you throw a couple switches manually and you have now brought to life all those critical circuits in your home. The furnace, the sump pump, the fridge, the freezer, Wi-Fi, if you’re on an acreage, the sump—or I’m sorry, the septic system, your well—exactly the well pump or whatever you’ve got. You can live quite comfortably.

Yeah.

You’re not going to be able to go soak in your hot tub, but at least if it’s 30 below, you can drag a space heater out there and throw it in the skirting of your hot tub off an extension cord that is powered off your portable generator and keep the tub from freezing up. So, at—at a minimum, it’s a great option. If, you know, if we had a extended power outage for a few days, well, you’re going to be fueling up that portable generator probably every eight—eight to 10 hours, right? Which is, you know, the difference with a fully automatic system like Generac because it’s plumbed into your natural gas line, the fuel source is always there, so it could run for days and you’re not going to run out of fuel.

Nice. That’s great. So, because Alberta is pushing these renewables so much, couldn’t a solar and battery system completely cover this instead of a generator?

Well, first of all, let’s—let’s talk about the solar because I find there’s a bit of a misconception when I meet customers about putting in a backup system because they say, “Yeah, I’m considering either putting in a generator or just getting solar.” They—some customers think that if they have solar panels on the roof and the power goes out, your home’s just going to continue operating off the solar panels. And, you know, the majority of people that I know of are putting in a grid tied system. They’re designed that if utility power goes down, that solar array immediately disconnects from the grid and it—and it does you no good at all. So, the alternative is to have battery storage. How many batteries do you want to have in your home? You know, let’s say you were going to put in something like a Tesla Power Wall and maybe you’ve got, I don’t know, 10 kilowatt hours of power available to you with your battery system. Okay, that’s great. Power goes out, your batteries are fully charged, and all you need to do are run some LED lights in your home, you’d probably be good all week.

But if you want to try and actually power up some more high-powered essentials or even run the furnace, well, let’s think about it. I mean, you’re electrician. Trevor, furnace fan, you know, maybe draws six, seven amps. So, you know, with a 10 kilowatt of electricity available from your batteries, you know, maybe you’ll get 15 hours of run time out of a furnace. Just throwing some numbers out there, right? Well, then what? You know, you’ve got no way of charging them. And I have seen systems that have battery backup, but the catchall is a generator.

Yeah.

They plug a generator in to recharge the batteries. So, at the end of the day, you’re going to burn some fossil fuel and you are going to keep the lights on. So, battery backup systems, yeah, they serve a purpose. You know, with the battery backup systems, Trevor, there’s—there’s some systems out there that we have put in manual transfer switches for, and I really like them. The EcoFlow is one, for example. Depending on what size of system you get, you could keep power on in your home at least, you know, 10, 12 hours, maybe longer, you’re not going to be able to run the clothes dryer or you’re not turning on air conditioning or anything like that, but to keep the essentials going in the furnace serves a good purpose for what I would call an outage of maybe under a day.

So, system like that, maybe it makes sense for you. But in the long term and that peace of mind, I don’t think there’s anything that compares to having a fossil fuel burning generator.

Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, you need the base load power. I mean, you even look at the windmills and the stations that are all solar, they have a natural gas generator to back them up with base load power when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. So, anyone who thinks we’re going to change our grid with renewables, it’s—it’s a fool’s errand. They’ve tried it in Germany, they’ve tried it in France, and now, they’ve just made electricity extremely expensive for the people who live there, when they shut down their nuclear power, which was cheap, abundant, and amazing. But, that’s just me, my opinion. If you have an opinion on that, put it in the comments below.

So now, what would you say to a homeowner who thinks the odds of an outage are so low, why should I bother?

Well, you know, I’m not there to try and convince you that this is absolutely a necessity for you. You need to really weigh how important it is to have electricity in your home. You know what? If you’re somebody that on the weekends go lives goes and lives in the bush in your cabin without electricity and you know lights it with candles and that then maybe you’re—you feel you’re going to be just fine. But I know in my situation family home, you know, to not have electricity for any amount of time is going to cause a very stressful situation.

Mhm.

So, what I tell homeowners is if you feel that this investment brings you value enough to warrant the cost, then it makes sense for you. But I’m not going to try and convince you. I’ll—I’ll give you the facts and, you know, let you know what the systems are capable of doing and then you can weigh the options. And some people have flat out said, “No, no, it’s too expensive,” and called back 2 days later because maybe they talked to their wife.

Sure.

And all of a sudden came to their senses and said, “You know what? This does make sense.” So, usually when I put them in and we fire it up and we test it and we run the home on the generator, that’s when the big smile comes on the customer’s face. This is the coolest thing ever.

Why should people in Alberta right now not sit on the fence until there is more outages?

Well, Trevor, think about what’s important to you. You know, if you’ve got some money to spend and you want to make your home more comfortable and you’re thinking, “Hey, that new hot tub, that’s going to be great to make me more comfortable.” Or you’re going to dump 25 grand in kitchen cabinets. Stand back and have a look at this and say, “Hey, what is really going to bring good value to me if we did actually experience an outage?” And if a backup power system for you is a no-brainer, well, then there’s, you know, what are you waiting for, right?

The other thing to consider is like anything, you know, prices are going up. We’ve seen about a 20% increase in the home backup power systems over the last year. Tariffs, big effect on the costs. So, if you’re waiting for the cost to come down, it’s never going to happen. So you know, if this is a time that you think putting in a home backup system makes sense, well, you might as well do it now because they’re not going to get any cheaper.

All right. Thanks so much, Kevin, for sharing with us today all about backup generators in Edmonton. If you are someone who is in need of a generator or at least you’re thinking about a possible backup generator solution, no better person to talk to than Kevin at Halo Power. At Halo Power Solutions, we make sure Alberta families are powered for life. Book a free consultation and let’s make sure your family is ready. Awesome.