Florida’s hurricane season makes whole-home backup power less of a luxury and more of a necessity. This Orlando homeowner wanted a system that wouldn’t require dragging a portable generator out of the garage at midnight in a thunderstorm — they wanted something that handles the outage automatically, runs the entire house, and sits quietly in the backyard until the grid drops. Our team designed and installed a complete Generac whole-home standby package: an air-cooled standby unit on a freshly poured concrete pad, plus a Generac automatic transfer switch tied directly into the home’s main service panel.
The Install
We coordinated with the homeowner, the local jurisdiction, and the gas utility before pouring a single inch of concrete. The completed system includes:
- Generac air-cooled whole-home standby generator set on a poured concrete pad in the rear yard
- Bob Heinmiller-branded pad — engineered, level, code-set distance from the property line and the home
- Generac automatic transfer switch (ATS) mounted next to the existing meter, professionally weatherproofed, with the required Emergency / Service Disconnect labeling
- Liquid-tight flexible conduit for the load and control wiring between the unit and the house
- Whole-home surge protector installed at the service panel to protect the home from the surges that arrive when grid power comes back
- Buried natural-gas tie-in coordinated with the local utility, with all locates flagged before excavation
- Generac Mobile Link Wi-Fi module installed for 24/7 status alerts to the homeowner’s phone — they’re notified the moment the unit runs a self-test, picks up an outage, or needs service
Why Whole-Home, and Why Automatic
Portable generators are useful in a pinch, but they need to be hauled out, fueled, started, and connected — usually right in the middle of the storm you bought them for. A whole-home standby with an automatic transfer switch flips on within 8 to 12 seconds of a power loss, runs the entire panel (AC, refrigerator, well pump, medical equipment, the works), and shuts itself off when grid power returns. The homeowner doesn’t have to be home, awake, or even aware. The unit also runs a self-test every week, so any developing issue gets surfaced long before you actually need the generator to save the day.
Built for Florida’s Hurricane Season
Every standby install our team handles in the Orlando service area gets these non-negotiable details engineered for our climate:
- Pad poured to engineering spec, set above grade so the unit isn’t sitting in standing water during a storm
- Generac enclosure rated for high-wind exposure when properly anchored to the pad with the manufacturer’s hurricane kit
- Natural-gas connection eliminates fuel-storage concerns and removes the need to refuel during prolonged outages
- All electrical and gas connections in liquid-tight conduit and brass fittings — no exposed copper that can corrode in our humid, salt-tinged climate
- Permitted, inspected, and signed off with the local jurisdiction — we pull every permit and handle every inspection so the homeowner doesn’t have to chase paperwork
Generac Pro Elite Dealer
Bob Heinmiller is a Generac Pro Elite Dealer — the highest service tier Generac offers. That means our technicians are factory-trained on this exact equipment, our installations are eligible for Generac’s full warranty (5 years standard, with optional 7- and 10-year extensions), and we’re authorized to service the unit for as long as you own it. If anything ever goes wrong, you call us — not a national 800 number — and a local tech who knows your install pulls into your driveway.
The Result
A homeowner who can travel, sleep through tropical storms, and stop watching the weather radar with one eye open. The next time Central Florida loses power for 16 hours after a storm passes through — and it will happen — this house keeps the lights on, the AC running, and the food in the fridge cold. Quiet, automatic, monitored from a phone, and warrantied for the long haul.
