Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on what stops in your home when the power does.
Medical backup is job specific, so the team reviews it with you at the assessment.
Past outages at your address are the best guide to the next one.
Working from home, or running a business from the house, turns an outage into lost hours.
Losing heat and risking pipes matters most for older family members and for homes that sit empty for stretches.
Without power, water and drainage stop with it.
A closed refrigerator holds for about 4 hours (Ready.gov).
If two or more of these sound like your home, a standby generator is worth a closer look, and the next step is sizing one. If none do, see when you probably do not need one.
Size my generatorWhether a backup generator for home is worth it comes down to one question: what stops in your house when the power does. This page is for homeowners in Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco, Southlake, Colleyville, Keller and across North Texas who are still deciding. If you have already decided, the sizing planner is the next step.
For most DFW homes, a whole house generator is worth it when an outage would cause a real problem rather than an inconvenience. That usually means powered medical equipment, work that stops without power, medication or a full freezer that must stay cold, or a home that would lose its heat in a hard freeze. A standby generator is built for those long outages, because it starts on its own and runs on natural gas or propane. The honest exception: if your outages have been short and rare and nothing critical depends on power, a portable unit or a battery kit may be all you need.
DFW adds its own factors: a state grid of its own, spring storms, the occasional ice storm and long summers of central air. None of that means every home in Tarrant, Dallas, Collin or Denton County needs a generator. The DFW section below covers each one.
Without power: devices such as oxygen concentrators and CPAP machines stop once any built-in battery runs down.
With a standby: power comes back on its own, even if nobody is home.
Good to know: medical backup is job specific, so HomeSafe reviews your setup before anything is designed.
Without power: the router, computer and lights go off.
With a standby: your office stays on for the whole outage.
Good to know: for a few hours, a battery pack for the laptop and router may be enough.
Without power: a closed refrigerator keeps food cold for about 4 hours, and a full, closed freezer for about 48 hours (Ready.gov).
With a standby: both keep running for the length of the outage.
Good to know: ask your pharmacist how long your medication can go without refrigeration.
Without power: a heat pump stops, and so does a gas furnace, because its blower and controls need electricity.
With a standby: the heating keeps running, so the house and the pipes inside it stay warm.
Good to know: in North Texas the winter risk is ice and hard freezes, and electric heat is a large load that changes the size you need.
Without power: central air stops, often in the hottest weeks of the year. DFW had 55 days at or above 100 degrees in 2023 (NWS Fort Worth).
With a standby: a unit sized for it keeps the air conditioning running.
Good to know: most DFW homes run central air, and it is the main thing that sets the size.
Without power: a portable needs refueling by hand, and a battery runs down unless solar recharges it.
With a standby: it runs as long as the natural gas flows or the propane lasts.
Good to know: in DFW the long outages tend to follow severe storms or ice on lines and limbs.
There are three main home backup power options, and each is right for some homes.
| Feature | Standby generator | Portable generator | Home battery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starts on its own | Yes. A transfer switch, the device that moves your home from utility power to the generator and back, does it automatically. | No. You start, fuel and connect it. | Yes, on systems set up for backup. |
| Runs for | As long as natural gas flows or the propane lasts. | Until the tank needs refilling. | Until its stored energy is used, unless solar recharges it. |
| Can power | Essentials up to the whole home, including central air when sized for it. | A few chosen circuits or appliances. | Depends on its capacity. Central air shortens the runtime. |
| Where it goes | Outside on a pad, with clearances, a permit and any HOA approval. | Run outdoors at least 20 feet from windows, doors and attached garages (Ready.gov). | Mounted at the home by an installer. |
| Strongest when | Outages run long, or someone depends on power. | Outages are short and rare, and you are home to run it. | Outages are short, or you already have solar. |
More detail: standby generator vs portable generator and generator vs battery backup in DFW. HomeSafe installs standby generators. For batteries, ask a licensed electrician or a battery installer.
In DFW the choice often turns on three local things: whether your street has natural gas or a standby would run on propane, what your HOA allows, and your city's permit process. A portable unit avoids most of that, a fair point in its favor if your outages are short.
Most of Texas runs on its own grid, managed by ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates largely apart from the rest of the country. The poles and wires on your street belong to your local utility, which in much of DFW is Oncor, with other utilities and co-ops serving parts of the metro. An ERCOT conservation appeal is a request to use less power at busy times. It is not an outage, and on its own it is not a reason to buy a generator.
On an ordinary day, Texas power is about average. In 2025 the average Texas customer was without power for 128.7 minutes across the year, against 120.8 nationally, not counting major events. Counting them, the 2024 Texas average was 1,270.6 minutes against 611.3 nationally, while the ordinary-day Texas figure that year was 129.4. So about 90 percent of the time without power in 2024 came on major-event days (our calculation). These are EIA figures for Texas as a whole, not for DFW, Oncor or your street.
Spring storms. NWS Fort Worth tornado records cover North and Central Texas, an area larger than the metro. From 1950 to 2025 they count 555 tornadoes in April, 525 in May, 215 in March and 154 in June, with a smaller second peak of 145 in October. March to June holds 74 percent of the total, and April and May alone 55 percent (our calculation). Tornadoes have been recorded in every month, and the yearly count swings widely, from 12 in 2018 to 76 in 2015. The same storms bring wind and hail that bring down lines.
Ice. In early February 2023, ice on lines and tree limbs caused outages across the region. Reports at the time from S&P Global and The Dallas Morning News placed most of them in East Texas, with DFW seeing a smaller share, and the cause was ice on the lines, not a shortage of power. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 is the freeze many North Texas homeowners still plan around.
Heat. NWS Fort Worth counts DFW's 100 degree days each year. 2011 leads with 71, 2023 had 55 and 2022 had 47, and 2026 stood at 52 as of the September 22, 2026 update (provisional). Recent summers rank among the hottest, though the top ten also includes years from the 1950s, so this is not a clean trend.
Most DFW homes run central air, the biggest load a generator carries, which is why homes here size differently. The sizing planner starts with it.
A gas furnace needs electricity for its blower and controls. A heat pump with electric backup heat needs much more.
Natural gas reaches many streets in Tarrant, Dallas, Collin and Denton counties, but not all. Where it does not, propane is the usual fuel, and the tank needs space.
An HOA may need to approve placement. Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco, Keller and Southlake each run their own permit process. See permits by DFW city, HOA-compliant installation and where to put a standby generator.
Sources are listed at the end of this page.
If a standby generator looks right for you, the first step is a free in-home assessment, with no obligation. It takes 30 to 60 minutes. The team looks at your electrical panel, your gas supply and meter, and the places a unit could realistically go, including what your HOA will allow. Then you get a straight recommendation: which size, which brand and why. If a smaller system covers the need, HomeSafe says so. A written quote follows.
There is no firm number over the phone, because any installer who quotes before seeing your property is guessing. HomeSafe is a Generac PowerPro Premier dealer and a dealer and installer for Kohler and Champion, under Texas Electrical Contractor License #41809, with a 5.0 rating across 200+ Google reviews. See the six steps of an install.
It is worth it when an outage would cause a real problem: medical equipment, work that stops, medication that must stay cold, or a house that cannot go without heat or air. If outages are short and nothing critical depends on power, it often is not.
Maybe not. Portable units and battery kits handle rare, short outages well. A standby earns its place in long outages after major storms and freezes.
You need a plan for outages, and for many homes that plan is not a generator. It may be a portable unit, a battery kit, or a cooler and a flashlight. The signs listed near the top of this page help you tell which.
A standby makes sense when a long outage would cause a real problem and you want backup that starts on its own, even when nobody is home. If short outages are your main worry, it may be more than you need.
Not every Texas home does. Most of Texas runs on its own grid, ERCOT, and on an ordinary year Texas power is about as reliable as the national average (EIA). The case for a generator rests on major events such as spring storms and ice.
Ordinary outages are usually short. In 2025 the average Texas customer spent about 129 minutes without power across the whole year, not counting major events (EIA, statewide). Counting them, the 2024 average was about 21 hours.
No. A conservation appeal is a request to use less power at busy times, not an outage. Outages in DFW usually come from closer to home: storms, ice on lines and limbs, and the strain of summer heat.
For a short storm outage, a portable unit or battery may do. For a long outage in a freeze, or to keep central air on in the heat, a standby sized for your heating and cooling is the one built for it. A heat pump with electric backup heat needs a much larger unit than a gas furnace.
It can, but medical equipment backup is job specific, so HomeSafe reviews it with you before anything is designed. Ready.gov advises making a backup plan with your medical provider.
Some buyers may like having one, but resale is not a good reason to buy. Buy one for how your household gets through outages.
The sizing planner gives a starting range in a few minutes. A free in-home assessment confirms it, with no obligation.
Before you go
Free in-home assessment, one fixed price, no obligation.
See the holiday offerApplies to new installation contracts signed by 12/31/2026. Not combinable with other discount offers.
Before you go
Free in-home assessment, one fixed price, no obligation.
See the holiday offerApplies to new installation contracts signed by 12/31/2026. Not combinable with other discount offers.