by Matthew Brady

Frank Magalski and his wife, Mira Gearhart, could endure one power outage. But four in 2008 — the longest stretching more than a week — pushed them over the edge.

"At the end of the fourth one, as I was walking up to tell a neighbor who was wondering what was happening, I heard another neighbor's generator come on," Magalski says. "By the time I got home, my wife and I both said, 'We are putting in a generator.'"

Home generators — the permanent, standby models that can power an entire house — are an increasingly popular choice for Columbus residents, particularly after gale-force winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike in 2008 knocked out power to more than 400,000 Ohioans.

Efficient Electric Corp., an 11-time Super Service Award winner in Columbus, saw a spike in demand after the storm and says it has remained steady since. The company installed Magalski's unit.

Residential Division Manager Troy Payton says a typical installation requires both a licensed plumber to connect the gas line and a licensed electrician to connect the unit to the home circuit. His company handles both with a licensed electrician on staff and subcontracted plumbers, or it will work with a plumber chosen by the customer. It costs about $4,000 for a 7-kilowatt unit with standard installation, he says.

"In most homes, that's enough to get by with," he says. "Try to think of this as only emergency power — gas furnace, refrigerator, a couple of lights."

In addition to more power, a standby generator offers key advantages over a portable model: a continual fuel source (natural gas or propane) and the option of an automatic transfer switch so the generator kicks on even if you aren't home when the power goes out.

Magalski says a portable generator saved the contents of his refrigerator and freezer during his four outages, but he could only run it during the day because he needed to refuel it frequently and it only powered a few appliances and lights. "It was like living in the caveman days," he says. Now he has a 20-kilowatt standby generator with automatic transfer switch at a cost of about $7,000 installed. "It'll power about 85 percent of the house," he says.

Chuck Nutter of highly rated Nutter Handyman Services in Columbus says most of his clients opt for a 17-kilowatt unit. A standard installation, with automatic transfer switch, typically costs $7,000 to $8,000, he says.

Choosing a manual switch will knock off about $3,000 from the total, but Nutter doesn't recommend it. "The automatic is well worth the peace of mind," he says. "Three thousand dollars — you can wipe that away real quick with frozen pipes."

Both Efficient Electric and Nutter say annual maintenance — oil and filter change, spark plugs and testing — runs $150 to $200.

Tara Bebinger of highly rated Keller Williams Consultants Realty in Dublin says a generator can increase the resale value of a home if the agent markets it correctly. Magalski's unit comes on once a week to test itself, but he hasn't had an outage since installing it last year. "There will be another one, with the storms and everything coming through, I have no doubt," he says.

"We'll be ready. I think this is a good investment."