Standby generator installation in Fairfield County

Unit, transfer switch, gas hookup and permits, priced for your house after a site visit.

Prefer to call? (203) 680-9825. Answered any time by our automated assistant, which takes your details; a person calls back Mon-Fri 8-4. Calls may be recorded.

Two ways to back up a house

Sequence that avoids a month of waiting

1. Gas first. SCG and CNG require a "Meter Upgrade Request for Emergency Generators" — the utilities state all fields are required and to allow thirty days. Eversource Gas customers: confirm meter and service-line sizing before buying the unit. Propane: the propane supplier sizes the tank and regulator instead.
2. Load calculation. Whole-house vs managed. A 20–24 kW unit with load-shedding modules covers most 200A homes, and the 26–32 kW tier is for whole-house coverage without shedding; a 100A home usually needs the smaller unit anyway. Load calc guide →
3. Placement. Manufacturer clearances. The general NFPA 37 rule is 5 feet from openings and from combustible walls; the commonly-quoted 18 inches to a wall is a reduced clearance that applies only where the specific unit is listed for it. Use the clearance in your unit's installation manual, not a rule of thumb, zoning setbacks, and the town noise ordinance. Ask the building department before the pad is poured.
4. Permits. Electrical permit for the transfer switch and feeder; gas or mechanical permit for the fuel line; some towns want a zoning sign-off. Fees by town →
5. Install and inspect. Electrical inspection, gas pressure test, then the utility upgrades the meter and the unit is commissioned.

Line items to expect on a Fairfield County estimate

• Generator unit and automatic transfer switch, by model and kW.
• Concrete or composite pad (~$1,000 nationally).
• Gas line from meter to unit, by length; meter upgrade coordinated with SCG/CNG/Eversource Gas.
• Feeder and control wiring from transfer switch to panel; load-shed modules if managed.
• Permits (national cost guide lists $50–$200; local value-based fees apply) and inspections.
• Startup, first maintenance interval, and the monitoring app setup.

For a natural-gas standby unit, a quote with no gas-utility line and no permit line is not a complete quote — the meter upgrade is usually the long pole. Propane and portable-with-interlock installs have no gas-utility step, so judge those on the tank or inlet work and the permit line instead.

If you run a portable generator: carbon monoxide kills people every storm

Run it outdoors only — never in a garage, breezeway, porch, basement or shed, even with the door open. CPSC guidance is to place it at least 20 feet from the house with the exhaust pointed away from doors, windows and vents. A generator produces carbon monoxide you cannot see or smell, and an attached garage with the door up is still indoors.

• Put working CO alarms on every level of the house before storm season, not during the storm.
• If anyone feels dizzy, sick or weak while a generator is running, get outside into fresh air first and call 911. Do not stop to investigate.
• Connect through a properly installed inlet box and interlock, using a generator cord rated for the load. An ordinary household extension cord is not that, and back-feeding a dryer or range outlet is both illegal and lethal to line workers.
• Let it cool before refuelling, and keep fuel outside the house.

Published 2026-09-10 · Updated 2026-09-28 · Fairfield County, CT · Every figure above is sourced in the list above, with a date where the source publishes one.