- 511 E Spring St, Monroe, GA 30655
- Mon–Fri 8AM–5PM
- Residential · Commercial · Industrial
A standby generator is permanently installed outside your home and starts automatically within seconds of an outage, powered by natural gas or propane rather than jerry cans.
Next Gen Electric Co. sizes the unit against your actual load, installs the pad, the automatic transfer switch and the electrical connections, coordinates the fuel work, and pulls the Walton County permit. Every quote is itemised — including the transfer switch.
What a typical Monroe project looks like.
Cost
This is one of the most quoted-in-ranges jobs in the trade, and the published national figures vary enormously — from around $6,000 to over $20,000 installed. That spread isn't dishonesty. It's because "whole house generator" describes anything from a 13 kW unit covering essentials to a 26 kW unit running a large all-electric home with a pool pump.
13–26 kW air-cooled standby unit
Matched to your panel amperage
Feeders, panel work, bonding, testing
Level, drained base rated for the unit
Gas line sizing, run and connection
500–1,000 gallon tank, set and connected
Walton County electrical and gas permits
This is the part worth reading carefully, because it's where generator quotes most often mislead — usually without anyone intending to.
Big-box retailers and some dealers advertise the generator price only. The automatic transfer switch is quoted separately, or not at all. Since a matched ATS runs several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars, that's how a quote that looked like $7,000 becomes an invoice closer to $10,000.
Before you compare two generator quotes, check both contain all seven of these:
If a quote is missing two of these, it isn't cheaper — it's incomplete. Ours lists all seven as separate lines, so you can put it next to anyone else's and compare like with like.
⚠ Placeholder figures — replace before publishing. Nationally, complete standby installations cluster at $7,000–$20,000, with mid-size homes commonly at $10,000–$15,000. Unit-only pricing runs roughly $2,000–$5,000 for a 7–24 kW Generac and up to $16,000 for larger Kohler units. Supply NGEC's confirmed figures by kW band, or remove the table.
Sizing
Generator capacity is measured in kilowatts, and it's the single biggest driver of what you'll pay. The right answer comes from a load calculation on your actual house — but these bands will tell you roughly where you're likely to land.
Smaller home with gas heating and cooking
Essential circuits — fridge, lights, well pump, a window unit
Mid-size Monroe home, mixed gas and electric
Most of the house including one central air unit
Larger home, central air, electric range or dryer
Whole-home coverage for most households
Large or all-electric home, pool pump, two HVAC units
Whole home with high continuous loads
These bands are a starting point, not a specification. Two 2,500 sq ft homes in Monroe can need different units depending on whether the heat, water heater and range are gas or electric.
Buying a smaller unit to save money is the most common regret in this category, and it's a particularly frustrating one because you don't discover it until the outage.
A generator that can't carry your load does one of two things. It trips — leaving you with no power from a machine you paid five figures for. Or it forces you into manual load shedding, walking to the panel in the dark to switch off circuits until the thing stabilises. Both defeat the purpose of an automatic system.
Oversizing has a cost too — you pay for capacity you'll never use, and a lightly loaded generator isn't running at its most efficient. The point of the load calculation is to land between the two rather than guessing in either direction.
You don't have to back up everything. An essential-circuits system covers a chosen set — heating, refrigeration, well pump, some lighting, a few outlets — and costs considerably less because the unit is smaller.
The decision usually comes down to how long your outages last. For a few hours, essentials are fine. For the multi-day outages that follow ice storms and severe weather in this part of Georgia, most people find they wanted the whole house.
We do this before quoting, not after. A number produced without it is a guess wearing a decimal point.
Choosing
A permanently installed standby unit isn't automatically the right answer. For some Monroe households a properly wired portable setup does the job at a fraction of the cost.
Sits on a pad outside, wired into the panel through an automatic transfer switch. Detects the outage and starts within seconds, whether you're home or not. Runs on natural gas or propane, so there's nothing to refuel.
A portable unit connected through a properly installed inlet and interlock kit. You start it and switch over manually, but the connection is safe and code-compliant rather than improvised with extension leads.
Running a lead from a generator into a dryer or range outlet to energise the house. It sends live voltage back onto the utility lines, endangers line crews, and is illegal. If someone has suggested this to you, it is not a shortcut — it is a serious hazard.
If a portable is where your budget lands, we'll happily fit the inlet and interlock properly — it's a small job and it turns an unsafe arrangement into a safe one. We'd much rather do that than sell you a standby unit you didn't need.
Fuel
Most convenient
Connects to the utility line, so there's no tank and no refuelling. The supply keeps running during most outages. Available in and around Monroe, but not everywhere in the county.
Most common rurally
Needs a tank — typically 500 to 1,000 gallons for a standby unit. This is the usual answer around Good Hope, Lake Oconee and the rural stretches where there's no gas main.
Larger loads
More fuel-efficient and common on commercial and larger residential installations, but requires on-site storage and regular fuel management to avoid degradation.
Worth checking
An existing gas line often isn't sized for a generator on top of the furnace and water heater. The meter or the run may need upgrading — we check before quoting.
A note for rural properties. If your house is on a well and a septic pump, an outage means no water and no drainage — not just no lights. That changes the calculation considerably compared with a home on municipal services, and it's why standby generators are far more common out toward Good Hope and Lake Oconee than the price alone would suggest.
The critical component
The automatic transfer switch is what makes a standby generator automatic. It sits between the utility supply and your panel, watching the incoming power.
When it detects an outage it does two things in sequence: disconnects your home from the utility, then signals the generator to start and connects it to your circuits. When utility power returns, it switches back and shuts the generator down. The whole sequence takes seconds and needs nobody at home.
That first step — disconnecting from the utility — is the safety-critical part. It's what prevents your generator sending voltage back down the lines toward crews working to restore the supply.
The switch has to be rated for your main panel's amperage. A 200-amp panel needs a 200-amp transfer switch; a 100-amp panel needs a 100-amp one. Undersizing it isn't an option, and it's part of why the ATS price varies.
Homes with more than one main panel need either a transfer switch for each, or the essential circuits consolidated into a single panel first. That second option is often cheaper, but it's electrical work in its own right and it belongs in the quote rather than appearing later as a surprise.
This is also why a panel change out and a generator install are worth planning together if both are on your list
Whichever you choose, the transfer switch is not optional. It is the device that keeps your generator from backfeeding the utility.
Scope of work
Every one of these appears as a line on the quote. Nothing is assumed, and nothing arrives later as an extra.
Sizing against your real loads, and choosing a location that meets clearance requirements from windows, doors and vents.
A level, drained concrete or composite base rated for the unit, positioned to keep exhaust away from the house.
An automatic transfer switch matched to your panel's amperage, installed and tested — always itemised, never assumed.
Feeders between the generator, the switch and the panel, with bonding and grounding to National Electrical Code.
Gas line sized and run, or propane tank connection coordinated, with the supply verified as adequate for the unit.
Walton County permits pulled and closed, a full test under load, and a walkthrough of the controls and exercise cycle.
Timeline
The work itself is usually one to three days on site. The full project runs two to six weeks, and as with a service upgrade, most of that is waiting on other people rather than on us.
The variables are unit availability, the Walton County permit, and any gas utility or propane supplier scheduling. Larger units are frequently on order rather than in stock, and that's the item most likely to set the date.
We start the permit and the fuel coordination as soon as you approve the quote, so those clocks run in parallel with the unit arriving rather than after it.
Yes. A standby generator needs an electrical permit, and usually a gas permit for the fuel connection as well. We pull both, schedule the inspections and meet the inspectors.
Keep the closed permits. Insurers ask about permanently installed generators, and an unpermitted installation is exactly the kind of thing that surfaces at the worst moment during a claim or a sale.
Step 01
We measure the real loads, look at fuel availability and check where the unit can legally sit.
Step 02
All seven components priced separately, so you can compare it against anyone else's fairly.
Step 03
Unit ordered, permits filed, gas or propane work coordinated — all running at the same time.
Step 04
Pad set, unit placed, transfer switch and feeders installed, fuel connected, everything tested under load.
Step 05
Inspectors sign off, we run a full simulated outage with you watching, and explain the exercise cycle.
Ownership
A standby generator isn't a fit-and-forget appliance. It's a small engine that sits outdoors for months and then has to start reliably on the worst night of the year.
Fuel while it's running
Published national figures put continuous running cost somewhere between $30 and $170 a day, depending on the unit size, the fuel and how much of the house you're carrying. Natural gas is generally the cheapest to run because there's no delivery involved.
The weekly exercise cycle
Standby units self-test on a schedule — typically a short run once a week. It uses a small amount of fuel and it's what keeps the engine ready. Don't disable it, and do notice if it stops happening.
Annual servicing
Oil, filters, plugs, battery and a load test. The battery is the single most common reason a standby generator fails to start when needed, and it's a cheap thing to stay ahead of.
Annual servicing
Properly maintained, standby units are commonly quoted at 15 to 30 years of service life. That's a long time for the installation quality to matter, which is a reasonable argument for not choosing purely on price.
Carbon monoxide from generators kills people every storm season, and almost always in the same way — a portable unit run somewhere sheltered. A permanently installed standby unit removes that risk entirely, which is a genuine safety argument alongside the convenience one.
It's the most commonly excluded item on a generator quote, and it's worth several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. A quote that shows only the unit price isn't cheaper than one that shows everything — it's just less complete. Ours lists all seven components separately so you can put it side by side with anyone else's and see exactly what you're comparing.
FAQ
Nationally, complete standby installations cluster between $7,000 and $20,000, with mid-size homes commonly landing at $10,000 to $15,000. The generator unit is roughly half of that; the transfer switch, pad, electrical work, fuel connection and permits make up the rest. Your figure depends mainly on the kW size you need, whether you're on natural gas or propane, and how far the unit sits from the panel and the gas supply. We quote every component separately after a load calculation.
It depends far more on whether your heating, water heating, range and dryer are gas or electric than on square footage. As a rough guide, 10–13 kW covers essentials in a smaller home with gas appliances, 16–18 kW suits a mid-size Monroe home with one central air unit, 20–22 kW gives most households whole-home coverage, and 24 kW and above is for large or all-electric homes with pool pumps or two HVAC units. A proper load calculation is what turns that range into a specification.
Yes, always, as its own line item with the amperage stated. This matters because it's the most commonly excluded component elsewhere — big-box retailers and some dealers advertise the generator price alone. Since a matched transfer switch runs several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars, its absence is how a quote that looked cheaper turns out not to be.
Yes, if it's sized for it and the transfer switch matches your panel. Many homeowners choose essential-circuits coverage instead — heating, refrigeration, well pump, some lighting and outlets — which needs a smaller and cheaper unit. The right choice usually comes down to how long your outages tend to last. For multi-day outages after severe weather, most people find they wanted the whole house.
Natural gas is more convenient where it's available: no tank, no deliveries, and the supply usually keeps running during an outage. Propane is the practical answer for most rural properties in Walton and Oconee County where there's no gas main, and needs a tank of typically 500 to 1,000 gallons. Worth checking either way: an existing gas line often isn't sized to carry a generator on top of the furnace and water heater.
One to three days of work on site, within a full project window of two to six weeks. Most of that window is unit availability, the Walton County permit and utility or propane supplier scheduling rather than work at your house. Larger units are frequently on order rather than in stock, and that's usually what sets the date.
Yes — an electrical permit, and usually a gas permit for the fuel connection. We pull both, schedule the inspections and meet the inspectors. Keep the closed permits, because insurers ask about permanently installed generators and an unpermitted installation causes problems during a claim or a sale.
Published national figures put continuous running cost between roughly $30 and $170 a day, depending on unit size, fuel type and how much of the house is being carried. Natural gas is generally cheapest since there's no delivery involved. The weekly exercise cycle uses only a small amount of fuel and shouldn't be disabled.
Properly maintained units are commonly quoted at 15 to 30 years of service life. Annual servicing — oil, filters, plugs, battery and a load test — is what gets you there. The battery is the single most common reason a standby generator fails to start when it's finally needed.
For a single appliance outdoors, with a correctly rated lead, yes. What you must never do is backfeed — running a lead from a generator into a dryer or range outlet to energise the house. That sends live voltage back onto the utility lines toward the crews restoring your power. It's illegal and genuinely dangerous. If a portable is what suits your budget, we'll fit a proper inlet and interlock so the connection is safe and code-compliant.
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100A → 200A
When the issue is capacity rather than the box itself — the bigger version of this job.
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When one circuit is the problem and the panel is otherwise sound.
Inspection
A written, photographed report — often what prompts a panel replacement in the first place.
SPD
Cheapest to add while the panel is already open and de-energised.
Circuits
The new panel's spare slots are what make added circuits possible afterwards.
Standby
Transfer switch work pairs naturally with a new panel.
Ready when you are
A real load calculation, all seven components priced as separate lines, and a straight answer on whether you need whole-home coverage or just the essentials.
