Reliability

Natural gas generators for home use tend to be fairly reliable. Standby generators are hooked up to your natural gas line and directly to your home electrical system. When a power outage occurs, the advanced electronics in the generator detects it automatically whether you are home or not, and starts the generator within seconds. This saves you the trouble of having to go outside to your shed in a storm to get the generator, turn it on and mess around with extension cords.

Natural gas lines typically work during most power outages as long as the pressure in the pipes stays high enough. Compression stations usually have their own backup generators that can run for days, if not weeks, which help keep the pressure up and the natural gas flowing.

There are exceptions to this rule however, such as earthquakes that may tear apart natural gas pipelines themselves. If you live in an area that occasionally experiences earthquakes, it's advisable to store a propane tank or two for your home natural gas generator, or just go with a portable propane generator or gas-propane dual-fuel generator.