Electric vs. Gas Generators: Which is Best For Your Situation?

If your goal is to have an all-electric house, for nearly all product categories the electric alternatives have performance that’s as good or better than their fossil fuel counterparts.

Induction ranges, heat pumps and electric clothes dryers have many advantages over natural gas appliances. Making the switch to electric can be an easy choice.

One case where that may not be true is small scale backup power for a home. Small gas generators are a common choice among homeowners to provide some backup power during blackouts. They can be affordable too: a gas generator with enough output to power a gas furnace can cost as little as $500.

But what if you want to stick with an all-electric approach in your home? There are electric generators available, which are really just large batteries that you can plug optional solar panels into. While these are clean alternatives to a gas generator, they have significant limitations.

That said, electric generators can be the better alternative for backup power in some situations. This article will help you understand what electric generators are, and help you decide between gas and electric options for your home.

What is an electric or solar generator?

An electric generator or solar generator is a large battery that’s equipped with outlets that let you power your devices whenever you need off-grid power. Blackouts are a situation that you might plan for, but there are other cases where you might need electricity when you’re away from a wall outlet.

The term “generator” is a little bit misleading, because electric generators are rechargeable battery packs that simply store electricity. They don’t generate power on their own, so a more accurate term might be electric power station or battery backup.

Many larger electric power stations have inputs for solar panels, which will let you charge the station whenever it’s sunny. In theory, this would let you have unlimited access to off-the-grid power. However, in practice, the amount of electricity you can sustain by charging with the relatively small solar panels used with electric generators is only enough to power smaller devices. If you want to continuously operate a large appliance like a furnace or even have whole house backup, you will need to scale up to a whole-house battery and solar panels.

How much electricity can an electric generator supply?

Electric generators have two specifications that indicate their output and storage capacity.

Watts is a measure of how much electricity the generator can supply at any point in time. This will let you know if the generator has enough output to power your appliance. For example, a typical microwave oven draws around 1,200 Watts. However, a small power station, like the Jackery Explorer 240, has a peak output of only 600 Watts, which would not be enough to let you use your microwave. You would need to upgrade to something like the Jackery Solar Generator 1000, which has an output of 2,000 Watts.

The other important specification is the capacity in Watt-hours. This is the amount of electricity that the generator can store. Think of it as equivalent to the fuel tank capacity in a gas generator. The Jackery Solar Generator 1000 model has a capacity of 1,264Wh, which is enough to power an electric space heater on high power for about 50 minutes.

How much electricity can a gas generator supply?

The main advantage of gas-powered generators is that they have much higher output capacity than an electric generator at the same price point. For example, you can buy an inverter generator with around 2,000 Watts of output for around $600. In contrast to electric generators, the capacity of the fuel tank is less of concern. A small tank is an inconvenience because you will need to refill it more frequently. However, the total capacity is ultimately determined by how much gas you keep in storage.

Many gas generators can also be adapted to operate on propane. This might be desirable because propane is a cleaner burning option, and could be convenient if you already keep extra propane tanks around for a gas grill. Propane is also desirable because, unlike gasoline, it doesn’t go stale over time.

What type of appliances can you operate with an electric generator?

The typical electric generator has several types of power outlets, including 120V A/C plugs to power common household appliances, and multiple USB-A or USB-C outlets for smaller electronics.

It’s possible to operate even large appliances like a gas furnace or a window air conditioner with an electric generator. To do this, you’ll need one with a large storage capacity. An example is the EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3, which has a capacity of about 4,000 Watt-hours (4 kWh). This model also can provide 4,000W of output and up to 8,000W for brief periods of time, which is enough to operate even very large appliances. However, at this rate of output, this model would be able to sustain that maximum output for one hour.

The DELTA Pro 3 is at the high end of electric generators, so that relatively small energy storage compared to a gas generator is a significant drawback.

How long can an electric generator power a refrigerator?

Keeping your refrigerator from thawing in a blackout is a typical priority for many homeowners. The amount of time that an electric generator could keep your fridge running depends on its size, but the average fridge might draw around 400W while it’s running. A fridge doesn’t run full-time however, so if you assume that the compressor is switched on only half of the time, an electric generator with 4,000 Wh of capacity would be able to keep a fridge running for about 20 hours. That’s not bad, and is enough to get you through most power outages. (According to federal data, most power outages in the US last 12 hours or less.¹)

With solar panels, how long can an electric generator operate?

Solar panels turn sunlight into electricity, so if you have a sunny day, you can recharge an electric generator anywhere.

The type of solar panels that you can plug into an electric generator are small and portable. Some even fold into a smaller package. A typical solar panel of this type will have a rated output of 200 Watts. However, you can estimate that you might only achieve 75% of that output in real world conditions, so 150 Watts is a better estimate for calculations. This means that if you have 10 hours of good sunlight, a 200 Watt solar panel could generate about 1,500 Watt-hours, or 1.5 kWh of electricity.

That could provide enough charge to keep a small refrigerator running for 24 hours, and it would certainly be enough to keep your small electronics (like a laptop or internet router) charged. However, if you want to keep a larger appliance like a full-sized fridge or air conditioner running, you will need multiple solar panels, which quickly starts to get expensive.

How expensive is an electric generator compared to a gas generator?

There are several manufacturers that sell electric generators and solar panels. Some of the popular ones include Jackery, Goal Zero, EcoFlow, and Bluetti.

The Wirecutter review site gives its favorable nod to EcoFlow and Jackery products. The smallest Jackery station, with 293Wh of capacity, is suitable only for small electronics and is listed for $259. Its largest model is the Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus, which has 5 kWh of capacity and comes with two solar panels rated at 500 Watts each, and sells for $5,000.

That’s a big investment compared to a gas-powered generator. It’s expensive enough that if you’re considering a purchase, you may also want to investigate home solar panels and a battery backup. (More about that later.)

When should you choose an electric generator over a gas generator?

The high relative cost of electric generators and small solar panels means that purely on a cost basis, a gas generator is probably a better choice for the most common scenarios that homeowners want to plan for, such as the occasional blackout. However, electric generators still have their uses, particularly when safety is paramount. They’re also handy in situations where you wouldn’t fire up a gas generator.

There are good reasons why you might want to choose an electric generator, and others where a gas generator will be your best choice, even with an all-electric home. I’ll present some different scenarios below to help you make the right decision.

Scenario: you want to survive a zombie apocalypse

By zombie apocalypse, I mean a situation where the electric grid has failed for an extended period of time – weeks, or even more – and it’s uncertain when services will be restored.

If you want your home to have electricity through a power outage that may have no obvious end in sight, there really is only one option: home solar panels with battery storage.

This means rooftop solar panels and a home battery that is much larger than the batteries we’ve mentioned so far. Home solar arrays are up to 25 kW in size, and home storage batteries start around 14 kWh in capacity and go up from there.

With this type of setup, your home can theoretically have electricity off-the-grid forever. While your actual amount of power available will vary with the weather, this is the only way to have power indefinitely.

Remember that the infrastructure that supplies fossil fuels, such as gas stations and pumps for natural gas lines, depend on electricity. If there’s a widespread outage, gas stations won’t have power. In large natural disasters that have happened in the US, there has often been hoarding that has quickly depleted the limited supply of gasoline.

Home solar panels is a big topic beyond the scope of this website, so I won’t delve into it further, but there are many excellent online resources that you can find.

Scenario: you want to power a few key appliances during the occasional blackout

This probably the most common scenario for homeowners. If you worry about keeping a couple things running during a blackout, such as a furnace, a window air conditioner, a refrigerator, and a few electronics, your best best is a portable gas generator.

They start in price around $600 and can be as expensive as a couple thousand dollars. (Any larger than that and you are getting into whole-home backup generators). Portable gas generators provide enough power to operate a few appliances for several hours before needing to be refueled.

The ability to provide a lot of power in a compact and relatively low-priced package is the main advantage of a gas generator. You can also have as much backup capacity as you’re willing to store in the form of gasoline.

The main downside is the health risk, which isn’t minor. Every year people die from carbon monoxide poisoning by improperly operating their generators, so be sure to read all of the operating guidelines before using one in your home.

Scenario: you want to power your entire house during a blackout

If you want whole-house backup and aren’t worried about a zombie apocalypse that may never end, a whole house generator can be a good option. These are often powered by natural gas (NG), so if you have NG service to your home, you can keep your lights on for as long as the NG infrastructure isn’t affected by the blackout too. Whole house generators will have enough output for an entire electric home, including large appliances like heat pumps and induction ranges.

As mentioned previously, home solar panels and battery storage can also be a great option to survive extended blackouts. However, because of the higher cost, solar panels and batteries shouldn’t be installed only for backup purposes. Instead, their main value is reducing your utility electricity costs. (Again, this topic is beyond the scope of this website.)

Scenario: small appliance backup for short blackouts, but safety is paramount

Gas generators are great, but they require careful operation. You can never operate them indoors, which presents some logistical problems if you want to handle a blackout in the winter. They have to be some distance from your home, which means that you need to be able to safely manage extension cords (which have their own safety issues).

Maybe you have elderly parents who live on their own? If you want to provide them with backup power but worry about the safety of a gas generator, an electric generator may be a best option. Larger units have enough power to keep a fridge running for many hours. As long as they’re able to move the fridge to access its plug, your parents would simply plug the fridge into the power station. No need to worry about long extension cords or finding a safe place to operate a gas generator.

To add capacity, you could include a solar panel or two. Just keep in mind that you’ll have to position the solar panels outside, and keep them pointed directly at the sun for the highest power output. If it’s cloudy, you won’t get much electricity.

These are significant drawbacks, especially when you factor in the cost. However, an electric generator is the better option for both safety and ease of use. With gas generators, not only do you need to worry about safe operation, but there is maintenance and fuel storage to worry about too. Do you worry about your parents being able to safely maintain a store of fuel, treat the fuel with stabilizer and discard it when it’s stale, replace spark plugs and engine oil? I would too.

With an electric generator, all of those maintenance and safety concerns go away. That might be well worth the higher cost.

Scenario: you live in an apartment, townhouse, or other home without easy outdoor access

Operating a gas generator means having access to an outdoor space that is a safe distance from the home. This may not be possible in many living situations, such as an apartment, townhouse, or assisted living facility. In these cases, a gas generator is simply out of the question, and a battery-based system will be your only option.

Scenario: you want operate some tools but don’t have a convenient power outlet

Not every use case for a generator involves a blackout. For example, you might want to operate wired electric garden tools, such as a string trimmer, but don’t have a conveniently located outdoor power outlet. An electric power station is a great choice for this situation.

A garden tool like a corded string trimmer or even a circular saw can be powered by a medium-size electric generator. This can be a better option if you don’t want the noise, fuel storage, and maintenance headache of a gas generator. And to be clear, you don’t need solar panels to recharge an electric generator. You can plug it into an ordinary 120v household outlet.

Bottom line: there’s a role for both electric and gas generators

If you have an all-electric house (or you’re aspiring to have one), it might seem strange to recommend a gas generator to provide backup power in a blackout, but this is one case where it makes sense. If you only have occasional blackouts to worry about, it doesn’t make sense to spend thousands of dollars on a battery backup that you might use only a couple of times a year when you can get a gas generator for significantly less than $1,000.

That said, electric generators with solar panels have their uses, especially when it comes to health and safety. The air pollution risks of gas generators are very real, and cause fatalities every year. Gas generators also require maintenance. Batteries, on the other hand, are much more convenient to use. All you do is plug in your appliance.

The bottom line? Both electric and gas generators are useful for different scenarios. The main thing is to understand what you need so that you can make a make a smart decision.

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