Generator Installation in Vancouver, WA
- Transfer switch or interlock installed
- Sized to what you want running
- Financing available
What Our Customers Say
What Has to Keep Running When Your Vancouver Home Loses Power?
Standby or portable, your home stays off Clark Public Utilities' line in an outage, and nothing feeds back onto it.
Start with the list, not the generator. Which loads must stay on in an outage — furnace or heat pump, fridge and freezer, a sump or well pump, a few lights, medical equipment? That list decides whether a portable you already own will do or a standby unit makes more sense, and whether the switch should carry every circuit in the panel or only the ones on your list. A standby generator installation puts a fixed unit on a pad with an automatic transfer switch, which separates the house from the Clark Public Utilities (CPU) line before the generator takes the load and switches back when the line returns. It usually takes 1 to 2 days, with the natural gas or propane line run by a licensed gas fitter.
For a portable, the safe hookup is an outside inlet feeding the panel through a transfer switch or interlock, so the generator breaker can only be on while the main is off. If the panel or service has to change first, CPU pulls the meter and sets it again only after the inspection passes, which puts part of the schedule on the utility's calendar. Inside Vancouver city limits or out in the county, a different office inspects the work, and we file with the right one.
How Generator Installation Runs Here
Choose the circuits
What stays on decides the unit and switch
Written estimate
Standby or portable hookup, in writing
Pad or inlet
Unit set, or an inlet on an outside wall
Switch and panel
Transfer switch or interlock wired in
Inspect and test
Sign-off, then a changeover with the main off
Vancouver's housing runs from 13,705 homes built 1970 to 1979 to the 27.0% built in 2000 or later. Age matters at the panel, not the pad: the switch lands in or beside the main panel, so on an older one we check condition and space first.
Signs It Is Time to Look at Backup Power
What Affects the Cost of Generator Installation in Vancouver
Your list of must-run loads decides the setup, and the setup decides most of the work.
Portable or standby
Hooking up a portable you own takes an inlet and interlock; a standby unit adds a pad, the unit and an automatic switch.
Whole panel or chosen circuits
Carrying every circuit takes a bigger unit and switch than carrying the furnace, fridge and sump pump.
Switch type
An interlock on the existing panel is simpler than a separate manual transfer switch beside it.
Distance from the panel
A pad or inlet far from the panel means a longer run of cable and conduit.
Panel condition
Older panels, like those in the city's 13,705 houses from the 1970s, are checked for space and condition before the switch lands.
Gas and CPU
A licensed gas fitter runs the fuel line, and if the service changes first, a CPU meter visit is added.
Inspecting agency
The city inspects inside its limits and Washington L&I outside them, so your address sets where the work is filed.
Every job gets a written estimate before any work starts.
Why Homeowners Here Call PWR Pro Electric
Licensed in Washington
Electrical contractor PWRPRPE749NP
We pull the electrical permit for you
Filed with the right office for your address
Written estimate before any work begins
Financing available — ask when you get it
Questions Homeowners Ask
Do you hold a Washington electrical license?
Where does Clark Public Utilities come into a generator installation?
Can my portable generator run the furnace through the panel?
From start to finish, how long does a generator installation take here?
Book Generator Installation in Vancouver, WA
Written estimate before any work begins.