Power · certified Generac installer
Generac generator installation, repair and maintenance in Cullman, for homes and commercial sites
Richard Electric is a certified Generac installer. We sell, install, repair and maintain Generac generators, and only Generac.
The generator that will not start
A standby generator earns its place on the one night it is needed, and that is the night a neglected one fails. The usual causes are not dramatic. A battery that has gone flat, an engine that has sat for a year with no one checking it, a fuel supply that was shut off and never reopened, or a transfer switch that never got tested. The unit looks fine from the yard right up until it has to run.
Most owners only find out when the lights go out, and an outage is the worst time to start a repair. That is why this page has as much to say about maintenance as about installation.
An illustration of a home standby generator on a concrete pad beside a brick wall
Generac only, and we say so up front
Richard Electric is a certified Generac installer and services Generac generators only. If your generator is another make, the office will tell you that on the first call instead of sending a truck that cannot help. Within Generac, the work covers permanent natural gas and propane home units, commercial and industrial grade repair and installation, and sales of new generators.
A permanent home unit ties into the house through licensed electrical work, which is where the company's roots show. Richard Electric started in 1949 as an electrical supply business that also did electrical installations, and the shop still holds AL Electrical licence 05256. The generator work is done by people who already wire buildings for a living.
Routine generator maintenance
Routine generator maintenance is part of what Richard Electric does, and it is the cheapest insurance a generator owner can buy. A visit lets a technician look the unit over, run it, and confirm that the transfer switch still hands the house over the way it should, so a problem turns up on a calm afternoon instead of during an outage.
Commercial and industrial grade units get the same attention. If a shop, a clinic or a plant depends on a generator, the maintenance schedule should be set before the first storm of the year. Call (256) 600-0616, Monday through Friday, 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM, and the office will talk through your unit. Emergency service calls are taken.
Richard Electric · Certified Generac installer · AL Electrical 05256 · (256) 600-0616
Standby power, plainly
When the power drops
A permanent standby unit and its automatic transfer switch work as one system. Here is the minute-by-minute version of what happens after the lights go out, with nobody at home required.
Maintenance is part of the same system. The switch and the engine only help if both have been checked, which is why Richard Electric services the generators it sells and installs.
The power drops
The transfer switch sits between the utility meter and the house panel, and it is the part that notices. It watches the incoming line, and when that line fails it knows before you have found a flashlight.
The unit starts itself
A permanent unit is fed by the home's natural gas line or a propane tank, so there is no fuel to carry and no cord to run. The engine cranks and settles to speed without anyone standing outside.
The house moves over
Once the generator is steady, the transfer switch changes the home's circuits from the utility to the generator. It also keeps the generator from pushing power back out onto the line, which protects the people working on it.
The utility comes back
The switch watches for steady power from the line, moves the house back, and the generator winds down and waits for the next time.
Sizing, fuel type and placement depend on the house and the loads it carries, so the office looks at the actual property before recommending a unit. Call (256) 600-0616 to start that conversation.