Generator Installation in Saco, Maine

Saco sees both kinds of storm damage, wind and water. Portland's tide gauge hit 14.57 feet on January 13, 2024, beating the 1978 record of 14.17, and in Saco that surge sent surf down Camp Ellis streets, wrecking the pier and floats and damaging roads, homes and vehicles; the mayor called it the worst damage she had seen there in her lifetime. Wind is the inland threat on the city's Central Maine Power lines. Maine counted over 400,000 outages from the October 2017 nor'easter, with some homes dark for more than a week, and about 300,000 more after the December 2023 storm.

A generator's job depends on the house. Oil is the fuel in about 60 percent of Saco homes, and an oil system is useless in an outage because its burner and pumps run on house current. In low-lying areas near the river and the beaches, sump pumps are the difference between a damp basement and a flooded one, and they are needed most during the storms most likely to cut power. Homes on a well lose their taps along with the lights. Roughly 14 percent of Saco households already have propane and about 8 percent have a gas main, and either can usually feed a standby unit. A house with neither needs a propane tank big enough to run the generator for several days, and where the tank goes is decided at the same time as where the generator goes.

Saco homeowners usually weigh two options. An installed standby unit paired with an automatic transfer switch carries the house within seconds and needs nobody to be home. A portable unit is cheaper; it plugs into an outdoor inlet, and an interlock on the panel keeps it from feeding current back toward line crews. Near the coast, placement is critical. The generator, transfer switch and any exterior disconnect should sit above expected flood levels, and Saco's Inspections Department keeps the city's FEMA flood map information, so the location is checked against it before the pad goes in. Salt spray also argues for corrosion-resistant enclosures and hardware. Goodnow Electric sizes the load, pulls the city electrical permit and handles the inspection.