Standby vs portable generators: what Irish homes actually need
Every household that lost power during Storm Éowyn faced the same fork in the road afterwards: buy something portable that plugs into a few appliances, or install a proper standby set wired into the house. Both are legitimate answers. Choosing wrong costs you either thousands you didn't need to spend, or a third bad outage. This guide sets out how the two classes really differ in Irish conditions.
The two classes, defined
| Portable generator | Standby generator (installed) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Wheeled or carry unit, run outdoors, feeding appliances by extension lead | Permanently installed weatherproof unit wired through a transfer switch |
| Starts | By hand, every time | Automatically within seconds of a grid failure (with an ATS) |
| Powers | Whatever you plug in: fridge, lamps, phone chargers, maybe a heater | Hardwired circuits: well pump, heating controls, sockets, lights - chosen at design time |
| Fuel | Usually petrol; short shelf life | LPG, diesel or HVO; stored in quantity |
| Indicative cost (ASSUMPTION) | EUR 300 - 1,200 retail | EUR 5,000 - 15,000+ installed |
| Works when you're not there | No | Yes, with an automatic transfer switch |
Where a portable generator is the right answer
Portables earn their keep in specific situations, and pretending otherwise sells people metal they don't need:
- Rare, short outages. If your grid spot loses power once or twice a winter for a couple of hours, a portable plus a torch and a extension reel is a rational, proportionate answer.
- Rental and occasional use. A portable that covers a caravan, a market stall, a site cabin and the house is one purchase doing four jobs.
- Budget reality. EUR 500 spent today on a portable is better than EUR 8,000 borrowed for an installation you cannot yet fund - provided you understand the limits below.
- Temporary situations. Waiting on a standby installation lead time? A portable bridges the gap, then keeps working as a second asset afterwards.
The limits that matter in Irish homes
The portable's problems start the moment you ask it to do an installed unit's job:
- Hardwired loads are off the table. Your well pump, septic pump, heating system controls, immersion and most modern boilers are hardwired. An extension lead cannot reach them. Powering them from a portable requires a RECI-registered electrician to fit a changeover switch - at which point you have half an installation.
- Running them is a discipline. Portables go outdoors, away from doors, windows and vents. Carbon monoxide from a generator run in a shed, porch or garage kills people in every storm season. No exceptions.
- Petrol does not keep. Petrol degrades in months. During Éowyn, forecourt fuel itself was unreachable in outages - a portable plus an empty jerry can is a paperweight with a pull cord.
- Somebody must be home. It will not start itself, refuel itself, or protect a holiday house between Christmas visits.
Where a standby installation wins outright
If your home has any of the following, a standby set is not a luxury - it is the only class that solves your actual problem:
- A private well. No power means no water, and Ireland's one-off housing stock is full of well pumps. This single load makes the standby case for most rural households.
- Oil or heat-pump heating in winter. Even a modest outage disables heating controls, circulating pumps and burners. A heat-pump home also carries a serious start-up load that only proper sizing handles.
- Work from home or a home business. Broadband, router, laptop and lighting down for three days is not an inconvenience any more; it is lost income.
- Medical or mobility equipment. Stairlifts, powered beds, oxygen concentrators - these loads are exactly why automatic start exists.
- A multi-day outage history. Households in Connacht, Donegal, Kerry and Clare that sat through multi-day Éowyn outages already know which class they needed.
- An unattended property. Holiday homes and rental properties protect themselves only with an ATS installation.
The safety line between them
The one thing that must never happen - with either class - is wiring a generator into the house so that it feeds power back onto the ESB Networks grid. This is called backfeeding, and it is illegal and lethal: line crews restoring a storm-damaged network work on the basis that local lines are dead. Only a proper transfer switch installation makes a generator-to-house connection legal and safe, and that connection work must be carried out by a RECI-registered electrical contractor. If anyone offers to "wire the genny into the board" for cash without certification, the answer is no.
Cost honesty
There is no SEAI grant for generators of either class. SEAI schemes cover heat pumps, insulation and solar PV - not backup power. The portable's price tag is genuinely all-in; the standby's EUR 5,000 - 15,000+ installed band (ASSUMPTION - indicative, quotes vary) bundles the unit, transfer switch, groundworks, fuel provision and RECI-certified connection. Our cost guide breaks those layers down so you can compare quotes line by line.
A practical decision path
- Count your outage history. Multi-day outages in the last three winters, or a well pump? Lean standby.
- Run the sizing maths. Our sizing guide and calculator take ten minutes and turn a vague worry into a kVA number.
- Price both properly. Get the portable's real cost including a changeover if you want hardwired circuits - and get two or three RECI-registered installation quotes broken into the five cost layers.
- Decide before storm season. Post-Éowyn lead times mean autumn orders get installed before the first Status Red warning; winter panic orders wait months.
Either class, bought deliberately, beats a torch and a deadline. Bought carelessly, both disappoint - so take the sizing and the certification seriously, whichever fork you choose.
Price bands on this page are indicative 2026 planning figures (ASSUMPTION). Installer quotes vary by site, size and switchgear.
Size the set before you take the call
Walk into the quote conversation with a load list and a kVA bracket — then hold every bidder to the same scope.
Open the sizing calculatorIndicative planning figures (EUR, ASSUMPTION) — not a quote. Installation work must be carried out by a RECI-registered electrical contractor.