The Atlantic hurricane season peaks between late August and early October, and southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island sit squarely in the track that remnants take up the coast. Most homes here won’t face a direct hit. What they’ll face is the ordinary aftermath: a day or three without power, wind-driven rain, and a basement that suddenly matters a lot. We have been taking storm calls from Fall River to Westport to Tiverton since 1970, and we can tell you exactly what fails first.
The sump pump goes down with the power
That’s the call we get most in the first hours of an outage. The storm delivers the rain and kills the pump in the same night, and a finished basement in Somerset, Rehoboth, or Barrington takes on water while the homeowner watches.
If your basement depends on a sump pump, it needs a backup plan: a battery backup unit, a water-powered backup, or a standby generator that keeps the primary running. Any of the three beats a wet basement. We install all of them.
The refrigerator gets quiet, then expensive
Food safety guidance is blunt: a closed refrigerator holds safe temperatures for about four hours, a full freezer for about 48. A three-day outage costs most families a few hundred dollars in spoiled food, and it costs a restaurant far more. It’s a big part of why standby generators stopped being a luxury purchase around here.
Heat pumps and boilers don’t care how mild the night is
No power means no heat and no hot water, whatever you heat with. In August that’s an inconvenience. The same outage in a late-October storm is a genuinely cold house, and October storms have been the pattern lately.
So the real question is the generator question
A whole-home standby generator starts automatically, runs on natural gas or propane, and carries the house until the utility catches up.
Sizing is the part people get wrong. The unit has to match your actual load, including the well pump, the sump, and any heat pump backup strips, or it trips exactly when you need it. We run the load calculation first, then quote the machine. Our own electricians install it, our gas fitters run the fuel line, and the permits get filed and closed by us, not left open. One company, start to finish.
We install Generac, Kohler, Briggs & Stratton, and Champion, and we service what we install.
If a standby unit isn’t in the budget this year, a portable generator with a properly installed transfer switch is the honest middle step. The transfer switch is not optional. Backfeeding a house through a dryer outlet endangers the line crews working your street. The switch install is a small electrical job we can usually do in a morning.
Three things to do this week
Before the first named storm gets a track map:
- Run your generator under load for twenty minutes and let it fail now, when it’s fixable.
- Find your electrical panel’s main shutoff, because in a flooding basement you want that knowledge already in your hands.
- Check the age on your sump pump. They average about ten years, and nobody replaces them in July.
When the storm hits
Our phones stay answered at 2 AM, and the crews roll across Fall River, Swansea, Somerset, New Bedford, and Tiverton through the night. Save the number before the forecast turns: (508) 501-7424.
If the generator conversation is overdue at your house, the details and the process are on our generator installation page, and quotes are free.
Frequently Asked Questions
What size generator do I need for my house?
It depends on your actual load, not your square footage. A well pump, a sump pump, and heat pump backup strips all draw hard at startup, and an undersized unit trips exactly when you need it. We run the load calculation before quoting equipment. Call (508) 501-7424 and we will size it properly.
Can I use a portable generator instead?
Yes, with a properly installed transfer switch. Never backfeed through a dryer outlet, which sends power back onto the line and endangers utility crews working your street. The transfer switch install is a small electrical job, usually a morning’s work in Fall River, Swansea, or Tiverton.
How long will my food last in an outage?
About four hours in a closed refrigerator and roughly 48 hours in a full freezer. Keep the doors shut. A three-day outage typically costs a family a few hundred dollars in spoiled food, which is why standby generators have stopped being a luxury purchase in this area.