A standby generator is permanently installed, connected to a fuel supply, and wired through a transfer switch so it starts and takes over on its own. It is the answer for outages measured in days.
Texas law is on your side here
This is the one part of backup power where a homeowner in an HOA community has statutory protection, and it is worth knowing before you assume you will be told no.
Texas Property Code Section 202.019 prohibits a property owners association from adopting or enforcing a restriction that prohibits or restricts an owner from installing, owning, operating or maintaining a permanently installed standby generator. The statute defines what qualifies: a unit powered by natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, diesel, biodiesel or hydrogen; fully enclosed in the manufacturer’s integral sound-attenuating enclosure; connected to the main electrical panel by a manual or automatic transfer switch; and rated at not less than seven kilowatts.
The association keeps meaningful authority over placement and appearance. It can have views about which side of the house the unit sits on and whether it is screened. It cannot simply refuse.
This is a real difference from EV charging, where Texas has no equivalent statute and an association’s architectural review carries more weight. If you are in Sugar Land, Missouri City, Sienna, Bridgeland or The Woodlands and planning both, expect the two conversations to go differently.
Sizing follows the circuits
The size question is the same question as with battery storage: what do you actually intend to run?
Whole-house backup in Houston means backing up central air conditioning, and that pushes both the unit size and the gas supply requirement up considerably. A critical-load approach — refrigeration, lighting, network, a few outlets, and one zone of cooling — is satisfied by a much smaller machine.
The load calculation gives the number. We would rather size to what you need than sell you headroom you will never call on.
Fuel and gas supply
Natural gas is the common choice where a line is already at the house, and it removes refueling from the picture entirely during a long outage. The gas piping has to be sized for the generator’s demand on top of everything else the house already burns, and an undersized supply is a generator that starves under load.
Propane is the option where natural gas is not available, which comes up on acreage properties around Tomball, Magnolia, Manvel and Alvin. It brings a tank and a refill schedule, which is a real consideration when everyone in the county wants a refill in the same week.
Siting
Clearances from windows, doors and property lines are set by code and by the manufacturer’s instructions, and they constrain placement more than most homeowners expect.
Two local factors add to that. Flood history matters — putting a generator at grade in a structure with documented flooding, as parts of Kingwood and Friendswood have, is a decision to make deliberately. And noise carries to the neighbour, which matters both practically and because it is the thing an HOA is most likely to raise when it exercises the placement authority it does retain.
The pad also sits on Houston clay, which moves. A pad poured without accounting for that moves relative to the house, and the gas and electrical connections between them have to tolerate it.
What we install
- Listed standby generator in the manufacturer’s sound-attenuating enclosure
- Automatic transfer switch matched to the service
- Gas piping sized for the unit’s demand alongside existing loads
- Pad siting for clearances, flood history and noise
- Load calculation driving the sizing decision
- Permit and inspection by a registered master electrician
Workmanship warranty: [[NEEDS: verified workmanship warranty terms]] Manufacturer coverage on stocked hardware: [[NEEDS: confirmed manufacturer warranty period for stocked hardware]]
If your HOA has already said no
Ask them to point at the restriction in writing, then read it against Section 202.019. The answer is frequently that they may regulate where it goes, not whether you may have one.
Call (346) 406-1223.