Latest / Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast / Why Install A Standby Generator? - The Critical Role of Generators

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Why Install A Standby Generator? - The Critical Role of Generators · Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast

• 0:01
  We get storms all the time, all over the country, whether, you know,
• 0:10
  it's a fire or landslides in California, or there's, you know,
• 0:16
  hurricanes that go up deep into the country now, to ice, to snow,
• 0:22
  to maybe the grid failing.
• 0:25
  So generators are more and more important today than ever.
• 0:29
  And I have brought an expert on to talk about generators and why they may be
• 0:34
  critical to your home, to your family, and to your life going forward.
• 0:40
  Nathan Shafer, how are you doing?
• 0:42
  Good, Jim. How are you? I am doing very well. Thank you for joining me today.
• 0:46
  This has become something that's become very popular.
• 0:49
  When I was young, whole house generators existed, but they were for the rich,
• 0:58
  like the rich had them and they were big and they were noisy and they were clunky.
• 1:02
  Some of them ran on diesel. No joke.
• 1:04
  Things have changed a lot. It's almost a common appliance for the home,
• 1:11
  outside the home, to bring full generation, full power in many instances to
• 1:17
  all utilities within the house for your air conditioning system,
• 1:21
  your heating system, your refrigerator, your TV, your internet.
• 1:25
  Why is this becoming so important? Why are you guys so busy installing these?
• 1:29
  Yeah, it's become a hot topic for sure. And people are more and more aware.
• 1:32
  You know, we have so many things in the, I mean, we're dependent upon it,
• 1:35
  right? Without the power, it's like we're lost without it.
• 1:38
  I mean, you're losing the things in your freezer, your pipes are freezing,
• 1:40
  whatever the case may be, just the hassle of it. We don't have hot water.
• 1:44
  And so it's happening more and more. We're seeing it, whether it be,
• 1:48
  you know, the grid is overloaded.
• 1:50
  We're having more outages than we used to have. and or yes, all these storms
• 1:54
  and just different things, just the unpredictability.
• 1:56
  And so more and more people are putting in these whole house generators and
• 2:00
  the costs have, you know, have come down.
• 2:02
  Yes, sir. It's still, you know, it's still an investment.
• 2:04
  There's not a couple hundred bucks, right? To go put in a whole home generator, it's automatic.
• 2:09
  However, the peace of mind that it gives way outweighs, I think the cost of
• 2:13
  people, more and more people are seeing that and they don't have to worry about it.
• 2:16
  They can be gone or they can be at work or heck they could be in the house.
• 2:18
  If it's storming, the last thing I want to do is have to go outside and figure out, well, now what?
• 2:22
  You know, or be worrying. And so, uh, within minutes when something happens.
• 2:27
  Boom, that whole house generator flips on and powers everything in the, in the home.
• 2:30
  And so, uh, the peace of mind, I think is why so many people are doing that.
• 2:34
  Now we've seen a huge increase, uh, in the number of people that are,
• 2:38
  that are wanting to do that. And the ones that have it, they, they love it now.
• 2:40
  Uh, whether it goes out once a year or once every other year or five times a
• 2:44
  year, they're like, man, I just, I don't have to worry about it.
• 2:46
  When it goes out, I'm like, no big deal. give us 60 seconds and
• 2:49
  boom their power's back on some people
• 2:52
  don't even know the power went off yeah yeah it's automatic you don't have to
• 2:57
  go outside and put gasoline in it and crank it up right it's going to run off
• 3:03
  of natural gas propane um which usually doesn't fail meaning.
• 3:11
  Especially if you have propane um but your your natural gas supply if you have
• 3:15
  it a lot of people on propane.
• 3:17
  I get it. But either way, it's going to run off of the gas that you have,
• 3:21
  not gasoline, more of a natural product that's, like I said, propane or natural gas.
• 3:27
  And it has its own brain. It knows the power has gone off. So it starts up.
• 3:33
  And these can power your entire home versus if you go to the big box store and
• 3:41
  buy a generator and put gasoline in it and crank it up,
• 3:45
  That's limited to certain things in your home, like maybe your refrigerator
• 3:49
  or some other appliances, your television and so forth.
• 3:51
  But it's not going to power your whole home. And there's all kinds of dangers to that.
• 3:54
  And you have to put gas in it and it's noisy. And you go down the list of reasons
• 3:58
  why that's not the way to go.
• 4:03
  These systems...
• 4:05
  These standby generators really have become like a permanent appliance.
• 4:11
  They're outside the home. There's all kinds of codes where they can be or can't
• 4:17
  be as far as close proximity to the house and windows and so forth.
• 4:20
  But you guys know all that and you do the right thing. You set it up right.
• 4:25
  They need some maintenance. They often will crank up once a week,
• 4:30
  once a month, whatever, to automatically test itself.
• 4:33
  And you guys keep an eye on it. So when the power goes out on those real hot
• 4:38
  days or those really cold days, or just because you and your neighborhood have
• 4:44
  power and your neighbors are going to be envious of you, right?
• 4:48
  Absolutely. Yeah. And just like anything else with your HVAC system,
• 4:51
  you know, or anything else, we have maintenance plans in place for the generators as well.
• 4:55
  So once again, once it's there, you just kind of set it and forget it.
• 4:58
  Like you said, it goes through its schedule.
• 5:00
  It automatically starts every so often. and we'll set it for program for a time
• 5:03
  of day that fits your schedule, you know, so it's not waking you up in the middle
• 5:07
  of the night when it runs this couple minute test cycle.
• 5:09
  And so it's constantly monitoring itself, checking itself. You get it on a maintenance
• 5:13
  plan with us. We take care of all the maintenance.
• 5:15
  So it's really, once it's in, you're good to go. You don't have to worry about it anymore.
• 5:19
  You just know and have the peace of mind knowing that, hey, if something happens,
• 5:22
  I've got power and I can still function as normal here in my safe place at home.
• 5:27
  So definitely a great option.
• 5:28
  I think you're going to continue to see more and more of them, for sure.
• 5:33
  There's no question. We see it all the time.
• 5:36
  More and more people are looking for it, and there are more and more companies
• 5:41
  such as yourself who are promoting it and needing qualified technicians to install them.
• 5:48
  Today, I find with the uncertainty in the world, and there is some uncertainty.
• 5:55
  Many people want to be self-sufficient.
• 5:59
  Some people have their own chickens so they can have eggs in case they can't get eggs.
• 6:04
  And right now, egg prices are pretty high because of bird flu. Interesting.
• 6:09
  People are growing their own fruits and vegetables. Yeah.
• 6:12
  Not as much as they did 200 years ago, but relative to recent times,
• 6:16
  people are kind of thinking about, well, what happens if we can't get groceries?
• 6:21
  What happens if we can't get power? We can have our own power plant.
• 6:25
  And that wasn't available because of cost and lack of technology 20, 30, 40 years ago.
• 6:32
  Today, anyone can really get it because they're not that expensive.
• 6:38
  Technology has come down. They're mass produced as well.
• 6:41
  And in many cases, they can be financed, right? Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:46
  That's, once again, probably the most common thing that our clients do is they
• 6:50
  finance them and we offer all the financing options, affordable payment plans,
• 6:53
  whether it be 0%, whether it be low monthly payments, no money down.
• 6:56
  And so they're getting them put in for pennies on the dollar a month and not
• 7:01
  making the first payment for 30 days.
• 7:03
  And so it just makes it really simple, easy, low cost as far as that goes from
• 7:08
  a cash flow standpoint with the payment plans. and once again,
• 7:11
  just making it simple, easy and peace of mind.
• 7:13
  Yeah, it's easy peasy and it needs to be.
• 7:17
  And if it weren't, you wouldn't offer it because it would be challenging for
• 7:21
  your team and for your customer.
• 7:23
  This is the perfect time.
• 7:26
  If you as a homeowner have been thinking about it, you really need to get ahold
• 7:30
  of Schaefer and talk to them about this because this is the time.
• 7:34
  It has never been more affordable. The technology has never been better and
• 7:38
  times have never been as uncertain.
• 7:42
  The power goes off for many different reasons.
• 7:46
  And it's very uncomfortable now because we depend upon power much more than
• 7:50
  we used to for everything. When it goes off for an hour, it's really disturbing.
• 7:56
  When it goes off for a day, we want to check into a hotel.
• 8:00
  Come on. So it doesn't have to be off for more than a minute.
• 8:05
  Automatically comes on, I love this product.
• 8:08
  Absolutely. Yeah. As always, Nathan, thank you for joining me today on the program.
• 8:12
  Much appreciated. My pleasure. Thank you, Jim.