How a home generator gets installed here

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, and the National Hurricane Center puts the peak at September 10, with most activity between mid-August and mid-October. That calendar matters more than any brochure, because a standby generator is not a box you pick up at a store. It is a small construction project with an approval, a permit and an inspection built into it.

In The Villages the order of operations adds a step most Florida homeowners never see. Your district Architectural Review Committee (ARC) reviews the plan before any work starts. The county or city building department issues the permit. If you choose natural gas, the gas utility may need to confirm that your meter and regulator can carry the extra load. Each of those has its own queue, and every queue gets longer after a storm makes the news.

Installer lead times change from month to month, so ask for a current one at your estimate rather than trusting a number you read online. The safe plan is simple: get your estimate in winter or early spring, and let the paperwork run while the weather is quiet.

The stakes are real here. At 6 AM on October 10, 2024, the morning after Hurricane Milton came through, SECO Energy reported 10,463 of its 75,252 Sumter County accounts without power, about 13.9%, according to the Florida Public Service Commission. Underground lines help with everyday storms. They do not stop a hurricane from taking down the feeders and substations that serve them.

Starting early is the calm, prepared choice. It is the pantry stocked in May, not the bread aisle in September.

Request your free estimate while the season is quiet

Everything starts with a visit. One request matches you with an independent, Florida-licensed installer who works in The Villages. You can pick a time on the calendar, call (352) 780-1430, or use the form on this page. Expect questions and a tape measure, not a pressure pitch.

Here is what the installer looks at, and why each item moves the size and the price:

• Your electrical panel and service size. This decides the transfer switch and whether it must be service-entrance rated. See how the transfer switch works.
• Your air conditioner nameplate. A 3-ton compressor in a Goodman spec sheet lists 83.3 locked-rotor amps, about 20 kVA at the moment it starts. Motors, not square footage, drive sizing. The sizing guide explains it.
• Your fuel. Whether a natural gas meter is on the house, or where a propane tank could go under your district's rules.
• Placement. Generac's guidance, citing the NFPA 37 fire code, calls for 5 feet from operable windows, doors and vents, 5 feet of open space above, and 3 feet at the front and both ends. Local code takes precedence, and your installer confirms what applies.
• Distance. How far the pad sits from the panel and the fuel source. Every foot is wire, pipe and labor.

It helps to have a recent electric bill on hand, a list of the things you cannot go without (oxygen, a refrigerator for insulin, the AC in August), and any ARC approvals already on file for your home. If you are in a courtyard or patio villa, mention it up front. Side yards are narrow, and the installer will want to measure both sides of the house. Our villa page covers the common layouts.

Book the visit and have the installer measure your lot

In The Villages, a permanently installed generator is an exterior change, and exterior changes go through your district's Architectural Review Committee. Several district ARC manuals on districtgov.org, including those for District 1, District 8, District 11 and CDD No. 4, have a section written just for generators. In those manuals the rules read like this:

• An ARC application is required for a generator permanently affixed to the property.
• The generator goes at the rear or side of the home, not visible from the street.
• It sits at least 2 feet from all property lines, and the pad is no larger than necessary.
• Screening, such as a fence, can be no taller than the generator.
• Exhaust points away from neighboring homes.
• Approval comes before work starts.

The district ARC manuals also allow propane tanks, above ground or buried. An above-ground tank needs approval and is limited to one tank of no more than 120 gallons, and tanks stay out of view and out of easements. Tank size shapes how long a propane system can run, so it is worth reading our propane tank limits page before you decide on fuel.

Not every district manual was checked for this page, and manuals get revised. Your installer pulls the current manual for your district, draws the site plan and prepares the application with you. You sign it as the homeowner. Portable generators that are not permanently affixed fall outside the generator section in those manuals, though the cords, fuel and noise still deserve care.

A good application answers the committee's questions before they are asked: a plan showing the setbacks, the unit's height next to the screening, the exhaust direction and photos of the spot. Our ARC approval guide walks through it in more detail.

Ask your installer to draft the ARC site plan with you

The building permit comes from the government office that covers your address, not from the ARC. The Villages spreads across Sumter, Lake and Marion counties, and parts sit inside city limits, so the office may be Sumter County, the City of Wildwood, Lake County or the Town of Lady Lake, or Marion County. Your installer confirms the right office for your street and pulls the permit under their own license. Our permit page lays out the offices.

If your home has natural gas, the utility is part of the job too. Peoples Gas asks customers and installers to report permanent natural gas generators through a form on its website, and that form asks whether a Peoples Gas technician has checked the size of the meter and regulator. That check matters: a Generac 26 kW unit draws up to 333 cubic feet of gas an hour at full load, on top of your range, water heater and dryer.

Not every Villages street is on Peoples Gas. A 2020 joint petition filed at the Florida PSC says The Villages and the City of Leesburg want Leesburg to serve future Villages developments in Sumter County. Your installer finds out which utility serves your meter. Our natural gas page explains the split.

How long a utility review takes is up to the utility. Peoples Gas does not publish a timeline on its generator page. As one example from elsewhere, New Jersey Natural Gas says it answers generator requests within 15 business days and suggests allowing about six weeks if an upgrade is needed. Build that kind of buffer into your plan.

The gas line itself is sized for the generator at 100% load. Generac says pipe size depends on the length of the run and the number of elbows and tees, and its installation manuals carry the tables.

Have your installer check permits and gas service for your address

Once the ARC approval and the permit are in hand, the physical work begins. On a typical whole-home job the installer:

1. Sets the pad in the approved spot, keeping the 2-foot property line setback and the manufacturer's clearances.
2. Places the generator with its exhaust side facing away from the neighbors, as the ARC manuals ask.
3. Installs the automatic transfer switch at or near your meter or panel. On the Generac 26 kW package that is a 200-amp, service-rated switch in an outdoor-rated aluminum enclosure.
4. Runs the fuel line from your gas meter, or from a propane tank set by a licensed propane company.
5. Wires the control and load management, so the system can hold back big loads like a second air conditioner.

If you are on propane, tank placement has its own rules. A fire marshal summary of NFPA 58 lists 10 feet from a building or buildable property line for buried tanks of any residential size, and no separation for above-ground tanks under 125 gallons. The edition Florida enforces and any local amendments are for your installer and propane supplier to confirm. A 120-gallon tank is roughly 24 inches across and 5 feet 6 inches long, per the Propane Education and Research Council.

After the work, the building department inspects it. Inspectors look at the electrical connections, the transfer switch, grounding and the fuel connection against the codes they enforce. If your district or utility needs a final look, your installer coordinates it.

Your part on install day is small: keep pets inside, clear a path to the panel, and plan for the power to be off for part of the day while the switch is connected.

Get a written scope that lists every install step

Before the installer leaves, they should switch off utility power on purpose so you can watch the system work. On a Generac 26 kW unit, the controller waits 5 seconds by default before starting, which avoids nuisance starts on a flicker. The dealer can adjust that delay from 2 to 1,500 seconds. The engine then warms up for about 5 seconds, the switch moves your home to generator power, and when the utility returns it moves you back.

Ask for three things at startup:

• The exercise schedule. Generac units run a 5-minute exercise weekly, every other week or monthly. Pick a time that is courteous to the neighbors.
• Monitoring. Many units can send status and maintenance alerts to your phone. Propane owners can add a tank level monitor.
• The long-outage routine. This is where preparedness lives.

Generac's continuous-use guidance says to shut the unit down for at least 30 minutes after every 24 hours of running, check and top off the oil, look for fuel leaks and clear the louvers. Its owner's manual calls for an oil and filter change every 100 hours when running continuously above 85 F. A three-week outage is about 494 run hours, which is roughly five oil changes. On 20 to 26 kW units each change takes about 1.9 quarts of 5W-20. Keep that oil, the filters and a funnel on a shelf in the garage.

Then read our guides on maintenance during long outages and fuel runtime. A generator gives your home its own power. A plan for oil and fuel is what keeps it running into week two and three.

Book your estimate and ask for a long-outage startup walk-through