We are a Briggs & Stratton dealer alongside our Kohler work. Carrying two lines is deliberate: it means we can match the unit to the house and the budget rather than pushing whatever we happen to stock.
Briggs & Stratton has been building engines since 1908, and their Energy Solutions line brings that to home standby power. For a lot of homes it lands at a slightly different price and specification point than the equivalent Kohler, and occasionally it is simply the better fit. We will tell you which we think is right for your house and why.
The generator sits outside on a pad, wired into your electrical service through an automatic transfer switch. When the utility power fails, the generator starts, the transfer switch moves your circuits over, and the house comes back up - typically within seconds, with nobody home to do anything about it.
It runs on natural gas or propane, so it does not need refueling during an outage. It runs a self-test on a schedule, so you find out about a problem on a Tuesday afternoon rather than during a February storm.
Whole-home coverage runs everything. Essential-circuits coverage runs the things that actually matter when the power is out: heat, the refrigerator and freezer, water, sump pump, some lighting and outlets.
Essential-circuits systems cost less and are the right answer for plenty of homes. The way to know which you want is to sit down and list what you would miss, which is exactly what the free assessment is for.
Installations are currently running six to twelve weeks out from a signed contract. Demand tracks the weather, so we give you the real timeline when we quote rather than a number that sounds good.
The install itself is handled end to end: the pad, the gas connection, the electrical work, the transfer switch, the permits and the inspection. When it is done, a technician walks you through the unit, sets the exercise schedule, and makes sure you know what the indicator lights mean before we leave.
A standby generator is an engine, and engines need looking after. We offer maintenance agreements to keep yours serviced on schedule, and we service what we sell - you are not handed off to a call center in another state when something needs attention.
The case for a standby generator is easier to see once you price out a single bad night. A full refrigerator and freezer is a few hundred dollars of food. A furnace that stops in January lets the house cool immediately, and in an empty house that ends with frozen pipes. If you are on a well, the taps stop; if you have a sump pump, it stops during exactly the storm that needed it running.
Then there is the tail end. Power rarely comes back cleanly - it returns with surges that take out televisions, computers and the control boards inside appliances. A standby system carries you through the outage and shields you from the restoration.
We work with EnergyPlus through the National Energy Improvement Fund, so a standby system does not have to be paid for all at once. You can check whether you prequalify in a few seconds, and checking does not affect your credit score.
Our shop is in Mishawaka and we cover roughly ninety minutes around it: St. Joseph, Marshall, Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaPorte, Starke and Fulton counties in Indiana, plus New Buffalo, Stevensville, Cassopolis, Edwardsburg and Three Rivers in Michigan.
Call (574) 252-0660 or request a free assessment and we will come out and look at your home.
Our team is standing by to discuss your project and provide a no-obligation estimate.
