Light Up Your Life in Your Hamptons Home

Whether you are a year-round East End resident or in the Hamptons for the summer, preparing your home to deal with power outages is an important step toward not only protecting your house but potentially saving millions of dollars. What type of generator would be best for your Hamptons home? Bill Shea of William J. Shea Electric shares his expert insights.

The Question: Bill, are generators worthwhile and cost effective?

The Answer from Bill Shea of William J. Shea Electric: ABSOLUTELY !!! Just a few years ago, the thought of owning an emergency standby generator seemed preposterous. Now, living without electricity is all too common.

Many homeowners simply cannot afford to ride out another power outage or come out to their summer homes to find broken frozen pipes, water pouring through sheetrock or no water at all because the well pump doesn’t work because of a power outage. I’ve seen millions of dollars in damages because the homeowner wasn’t aware of a power outage at their summer homes.

Instead, they are installing home standby generators in record numbers to protect their families and investments.

The first step in picking a home standby generator is to determine if you want to power your whole house, essential circuits or the bare minimum of protection.  Portable gas generators combined with a small manual transfer switch are great to supply enough power to power your furnace , refrigerator, well pump and a few lights. A system like this starts at $2000 complete.

Essential circuit generators are a cost-effective way to automatically back up the mission critical appliances in your home. They’re light years better than portable generators. However, they can only energize 8–16 circuits in your electrical panel. A system like this starts at $4000.

Whole house generators with automatic transfer are the most expensive but most beneficial of the generator systems. If you have the financial resources to power your whole house, go for it. These liquid-cooled giants can light up your entire home and make your neighbors extremely envious. These systems start at $10,000.

Have more questions about home generators or other electrical matters? You can call Bill Shea and William J. Shea Electric at 631-668-1600 or visit their website at www.williamjsheaelectric.com.