Buying a House With a Generator in Quebec: Check the Connection Before You Celebrate

In rural Quebec, a generator is often part of the sales pitch: during an outage, the house stays heated and the well keeps running. But a generator is only worth something if it is properly connected. A makeshift connection to the electrical panel is a defect, not a feature. Here is what buyers should check when a generator is included in the sale.

Standby or portable: what are we talking about?

• Standby generator: permanently installed outside, connected to the home's electrical system, often with automatic start during an outage.
• Portable generator: a mobile unit started by hand. It powers appliances plugged directly into its outlets or, if a connection has been set up, some of the home's circuits.

Either way, the key question is the same: how is the generator connected to the house, and who did it?

The connection: electrician's work

Connecting a generator to a home's electrical panel is electrical work. In Quebec, that work is done by a licensed electrical contractor. A proper connection isolates the house from the grid while the generator runs. A makeshift connection can send power back into the grid and endanger people working on it during an outage, besides damaging the installation.

The Quebec government recommends having a generator installed by a qualified person, reading the manufacturer's instructions and, for a portable unit, switching off the home's main breaker before connecting it, then plugging appliances directly into its outlets using CSA-approved extension cords.

Documents to ask the seller for

• The electrician's installation invoice, with their name and licence number.
• The generator's year and model, and its maintenance since installation.
• The transfer setup: what switches the house from grid power to generator power, and who installed it.
• The circuits powered: the whole house or only some circuits, such as heating, the well or the fridge.

If the seller can't provide any invoice and the connection was done by them or a relative, assume it will need to be checked and possibly redone.

What the inspector can flag, and what they don't do

A building inspector visually examines what is accessible. They may note that a connection looks non-compliant and recommend a master electrician's opinion. They don't run a load test or a full check of the installation. If the report recommends an expert, that expert should inspect and price the work within your inspection condition period.

An electrician's quote to bring the installation up to code gives you a precise amount to bring into the negotiation.

Safety guidelines to know

The Quebec government lists several guidelines for using a generator:

• place the unit outside the house and garage, in a ventilated spot away from doors and windows, on a raised base and sheltered from the weather;
• never use a fuel-burning appliance indoors: carbon monoxide is odourless, colourless and potentially deadly, and only a carbon monoxide alarm can detect it;
• respect the unit's capacity, shut it off for one hour every eight hours, and let it cool before refuelling.

During the visit, check that a carbon monoxide alarm is present and working, especially if the generator sits near the garage or an opening.