Natural gas or propane for a long outage?

For a short outage, fuel choice barely matters. Any standby generator on either fuel will carry a home through an evening thunderstorm. The difference shows up when the outage stretches past a day, which is exactly the outage this site is about.

Hurricane Milton is the local reminder. At 6 AM on October 10, 2024, the Florida PSC's report showed SECO Energy with 10,463 of its 75,252 Sumter County accounts out, about 13.9%. The same report showed 23.1% of SECO's Lake County accounts and 14.09% of its Marion County accounts out. Most came back within days. A household planning for self-reliance plans for the ones that do not.

Here is the core trade-off in one line each:

• Natural gas has no tank on your lot. Runtime is limited by the utility's supply and by engine maintenance, not by a tank size.
• Propane is stored at your home. Runtime is set by the size of the tank. The district ARC manuals cap an above-ground tank at 120 gallons; a larger buried tank is allowed where setbacks and easements permit, though many lots cannot fit one.

Neither is magic. Gas depends on a pipeline system you do not control. Propane depends on a delivery you have to schedule. The rest of this page lays out the numbers so you can choose with your eyes open.

If you want the short version: where a natural gas main reaches your home, gas plus load management is usually the long-outage choice. Where it does not, propane works well with right-sizing, load management and a refill plan.

Find out which fuels reach your address

The district ARC manuals on districtgov.org 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; the manuals state no size limit for a buried tank. Tanks must not be visible from the road or neighbors and cannot sit in utility or use easements.

A tank is never filled to the top. Ferrellgas explains that tanks are filled to about 80% because liquid propane expands as it warms, so a 120-gallon tank holds about 96 gallons. On spec-sheet burn rates, that gives:

• Generac 26 kW at half load (2.06 gallons an hour): about 47 hours, roughly 1.9 days.
• Generac 22 or 24 kW at half load (2.53 gallons an hour): about 38 hours.
• Generac 26 kW at full load (3.63 gallons an hour, about 87 gallons a day): about 26 hours.

A larger buried tank changes the math: the same 26 kW unit at half load runs about 4.0 days on a 250-gallon tank and about 8.1 days on a 500-gallon tank. The manuals allow it, but NFPA 58 setbacks (a buried tank about 10 feet from the building and a buildable property line) and utility easements rule it out on many small lots. The installer and the ARC confirm what fits your address.

So long-outage endurance on propane here comes from four things: a right-sized generator, load management that keeps the house near half load, a full tank going into storm season, and a refill arrangement with a licensed propane company. Generac sells an LTE tank level monitor that sends refill alerts to your phone.

Our propane tank limits page goes deeper on placement and tank size.

Ask your installer for propane runtime at your home's load

Natural gas is not available everywhere in The Villages, and where it is, two different utilities may be involved.

Peoples Gas. WKMG News 6 reported on January 24, 2019 that Peoples Gas served about 25,000 Villages customers. Peoples Gas asks customers and installers to report permanent natural gas generators through a form on its website, and asks whether a Peoples Gas technician has checked the meter and regulator size.

City of Leesburg. A 2020 joint petition filed at the Florida PSC, Docket 20200085-GU, says The Villages and the City of Leesburg want Leesburg to serve future Villages developments in Sumter County, and that the Bigham North, East and West areas were already served by Leesburg. Leesburg's gas page says it serves about 12,790 customers over 276 miles of pipe. Generator hookup rules for those homes would come from Leesburg, not Peoples Gas.

Your gas bill shows which utility serves your village, and your installer checks your meter and address.

If gas is on your street, the next question is capacity. A Generac 26 kW unit draws 188 cubic feet an hour at half load and up to 333 at full load, about 4,512 cubic feet a day at half load. That is on top of your water heater, range and dryer. The utility decides whether the meter, regulator and service line can deliver it, and an upgrade may be needed. Generac asks for 3.5 to 7 inches of water column at the generator inlet and says the pipe must be sized for full load.

Our natural gas in The Villages page has more on the two utilities.

Have your installer confirm your gas utility and meter size

Natural gas is the long-outage favorite because there is no tank to run dry. It is fair to ask how it holds up in a storm, and to answer only with what the sources say.

Locally, the pipes are buried. In a May 30, 2025 release, Peoples Gas said its underground infrastructure is typically resilient in severe weather, that fewer than 1% of its more than 500,000 customers had a gas service interruption in the 2024 storms, and that its system fueled emergency backup generation. That is the utility's own figure for its whole system. Peoples Gas also asks customers to leave gas service on even when evacuating, which keeps line pressure up.

Upstream supply can still be hit. In its Hurricane Ida update of September 5, 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy reported about 86% of federal Gulf of Mexico natural gas production still shut in. Production is one link in a long chain, and pipelines and storage sit between it and your meter.

Extreme cold is a different kind of event. The FERC and NERC staff report on the February 2021 cold weather event in Texas and the South Central United States found that U.S. Lower 48 natural gas production fell 28% between February 8 and 17, 2021, as wellheads and gathering systems froze or lost power. That was a winter freeze in another region. It is not a forecast for Florida, but it shows that gas supply depends on the wider system.

The calm takeaway: natural gas gives you endurance without a delivery truck, and the local system reported very few interruptions in 2024. Pair it with load management and a supply of oil and filters, and it is the strongest long-outage setup available to most homes that have it.

Ask your installer whether gas reaches your meter

Two technical details decide whether a fuel system works at full load. Your installer handles both, but it helps to know what to ask.

Propane vaporization. A generator burns propane as vapor, and the tank turns liquid into vapor using heat from the air or soil around it. The Propane Education and Research Council says vapor output depends on the tank's wetted surface, the liquid level, air temperature and humidity, and whether the tank is buried. Less liquid or colder air means less vapor. PERC's conservative continuous-use rule, worked at 40 F, shows only a 1,000-gallon tank coming close to the vapor a 22 to 26 kW unit uses at half load. Villages air in hurricane season is far warmer than 40 F, which helps, but PERC gives no figure above 40 F. The practical point: as a small tank runs low, vapor output drops. Ask your installer to size the system for vapor delivery, not just storage.

Pressure. Each brand needs a specific pressure at the generator. On propane, Generac lists 10 to 12 inches of water column, Kohler 7 to 11, Briggs & Stratton 11 to 14, and Cummins 6 to 12. A secondary regulator near the generator brings tank pressure down to that range. On natural gas, Generac and Briggs list 3.5 to 7 inches.

Pipe. Generac says fuel pipe must be sized for full load, based on run length and the number of elbows and tees, using the tables in its installation manuals. Kohler's 26 kW sheet calls for 1-1/4 inch pipe for natural gas runs of 50 to 150 feet.

Output. Most units are rated lower on natural gas. Generac's 26 kW is 26 kW on propane and 22.5 on natural gas.

Ask for the fuel line and regulator details in your quote

Put it all together and the choice usually follows your address.

If a natural gas main reaches your home:

• Natural gas is usually the long-outage choice, because there is no tank to refill.
• Have the utility confirm the meter and regulator can carry the generator plus your appliances.
• Size against the natural gas rating, which is lower than propane on most units.
• Add load management to keep demand in line with the meter.
• Stock oil and filters for long runs. On a Generac in Florida heat, that is roughly one change every 100 hours.

If your home is propane only:

• Plan around the tank rule. An above-ground tank is limited to 120 gallons; a larger buried tank is allowed where setbacks and easements permit, and many lots cannot fit one.
• Right-size the generator and add load management to stay near half load.
• Start storm season with a full tank and an agreement with a licensed propane company for refills.
• Add a tank level monitor.
• Treat about a day and a half between refills at half load on a 26 kW unit as your planning number.

If someone in the home relies on medical equipment: make sure the plan covers the gap. SECO Energy's Medically Necessary Service does not give priority during named-storm restoration. In Sumter County, 2,478 Medicare beneficiaries rely on power-dependent equipment, per October 2026 HHS emPOWER data. Our medical backup power guide helps.

Your installer can price both fuels where both are possible. Our fuel runtime guide has the full numbers.

Book a free estimate and compare both fuels for your home