Chicagoland Generator Pros

Free, and asks for nothing

What should I be asking a generator contractor for?

Five questions about what is at the property and what has to keep running. You get one thing to ask for, the sentence to say when you call, and the rule that decided it. No contact details are asked for and nothing is sent anywhere.

Nobody sets out to buy “a standby generator”. They set out to stop losing a freezer, keep a sump running, or stop worrying about the person in the house who depends on power. Getting from there to a useful phone call means settling five or six separate questions — whole house or a named list, standby or portable, which fuel, what transfer arrangement, and who pulls the permit.

Each of those has a page on this site, and each page is right. What none of them do is put the answers together, which is the only form the question actually takes when somebody picks up the phone.

Around here the constraint that most often decides where — or whether — a unit can go is the gas meter. Nicor requires three feet of clearance between the meter and any door or window opening, and on a typical Chicagoland side yard the meter is on the only wall a generator would fit against. That is measured standing in the yard, not on a form.

What this will not tell you

These are read before the questions rather than after the answer, because a limit read after a conclusion has formed is a disclaimer and changes nothing.

  • —A generator size, a capacity, or a kilowatt figure. That comes from a load calculation done at the property against your actual equipment.
  • —A price, a range, or an estimate of any kind.
  • —A brand, a model, or a recommendation between manufacturers.
  • —Any statement that this property can take a particular installation. Nobody has stood in the yard.
  • —Any suggestion that a contractor is waiting. This site is an information resource, not an installer and not a broker.
1.What is at the property right now?

This decides more than the rest combined. Four of the seven answers below are settled by it alone, because a house with a generator in it is a different job from a house without one.

2.What has to keep running?

This is the difference between two projects that share a name. Whole-house and named-circuit installations use different transfer equipment and are not the same quote at a different size.

3.What fuel is available at the property?

A standby generator runs on what is already there. No supply is not a blocker, but it changes the project from an installation into a tank-and-line project, and that is decided on site.

4.What is true about the property itself?

Clearance rules and who is allowed to authorise permanent work decide feasibility before anything else does. This is the question that most often turns an equipment conversation into an assessment.

5.What made this a decision now?

Not used to route you — it is recorded so the first conversation starts from your reason rather than from a script. What it changes is the urgency a contractor treats it with.

Five questions. Nothing is sent anywhere and no contact details are asked for — the answer appears on this page.

The logic, in full

These are the rules applied, in the order they are applied — not a summary of them. The first one that matches decides, and the result above names which. A decision tool whose reasoning you cannot inspect is a black box, and a black box is not worth trusting with a five-figure decision.

Note what the order encodes: every rule that ends in an assessment sits above every rule that ends in equipment. An unknown answer, a rented property, a tight lot or an absent fuel supply stops the equipment conversation, because those are exactly the conditions under which naming a product would be a guess.

  1. 01There is a standby generator here that has stopped working properly → service existing
  2. 02There is a working standby generator here already → site assessment first
  3. 03A generator has been bought but nothing is wired for it → transfer switch only
  4. 04There is a portable generator being run on extension cords → portable with interlock
  5. 05The property is rented, or the exterior is not yours to change → site assessment first
  6. 06What has to keep running is not settled yet → site assessment first
  7. 07The lot is tight, or an association reviews exterior work → site assessment first
  8. 08It is not known what is beside the house or who authorises the work → site assessment first
  9. 09There is no fuel supply, and the list of things to keep running is short → battery comparison
  10. 10There is no fuel supply, and the whole house has to stay on → site assessment first
  11. 11The fuel supply at the property is not known → site assessment first
  12. 12The whole house has to stay on, and there is a fuel supply and space for a unit → whole home standby
  13. 13A named list has to stay on, and there is a fuel supply and space for a unit → essential circuits standby

Whichever of these you end up asking for, the permit is municipal. An incorporated address goes to its own village or city — Naperville issues its own generator permit, and DuPage County Building covers only unincorporated land — so "do you pull the permit, and with whom" is a question with a different answer one town over.

Asking in your town

Whichever of these you end up asking for, it is a licensed job with an inspection attached. Before anyone starts, check the licence of whoever is doing the work and read how to compare what comes back — two prices for the same ask usually describe two different projects.

Generator installers by town

Permit fees, inspection steps and the utility you deal with change from one suburb to the next. These pages carry the local details.

Get Free Installer Quotes