Generator installation in Montréal

In Montréal, it’s our master electricians who tie the generator into the panel, through a transfer switch, 60 A manual or automatic: its price is in the quote, written and free of charge. The unit, its base and the fuel are extra.

How much does a generator hookup cost in Montréal?

What we bill for is the hookup. Installed and wired, the 60 A manual transfer switch or the automatic model has its price in the quote, written and free of charge.

The unit itself, the base it sits on and the fuel come on top: none of our published amounts include them, and we don’t post any package price.

The figure for your home comes from a free written quote, prepared after the visit. To put it together, we ask for the service amperage, the panel brand and three photos: the inside of the panel, the label of its main breaker and the room where the transfer switch will go.

No price thrown out over the phone, and no deposit up front: the invoice is settled once the job is done.

Duplex, building or house: portable or standby

Montréal is mostly lived in apartments. In the 2021 census, the city counts 816,338 occupied dwellings: 56.9% are in buildings of fewer than five storeys, 13.2% in duplexes, and barely 7.1% are single-detached houses. About 66% of those dwellings were built before 1981.

Portable. It runs on gasoline and only works once someone takes it out. Our job: a power inlet mounted on the outside wall and a manual transfer switch installed near the panel. On the night of the outage, you set it outside, plug it in and switch the circuits over.

Standby. Fed by propane or natural gas, with gasoline ruled out, it stays installed outdoors. As soon as the grid fails, its automatic transfer switch starts it and takes over within seconds; when the power returns, it hands the circuits back to the grid. Nobody needs to be home.

How much power to plan for? Our guide what size generator for a house helps you decide.

For Pierrefonds-Roxboro and the west of the island: generator installation in the West Island.

The transfer switch, in short

Plugging the unit into the dryer outlet, or feeding a wall outlet through a male-to-male cable, makes the current flow the wrong way. With us, a generator is therefore connected only through a transfer switch.

Portable, manual transfer switch; standby, automatic transfer switch. For the manual one, get into the habit of operating it once a year.

All the details, and what to do during an outage: the transfer switch.

Generac, Kohler or Siemens: what we usually install

We usually install one of three brands: Generac, Kohler or Siemens.

The most frequent with us is Generac. Its Guardian line covers 10 to 26 kW. If you choose propane, the manufacturer requires a supply of at least 250 US gallons for a residential generator; a few cylinders wouldn’t do.

The warranty comes from the manufacturer, never from us. For most Generac residential standby generators, the standard limited warranty is 5 years or 2,000 hours; according to Generac’s warranty document, it begins at the unit’s first successful start-up or at its online activation. We only install equipment certified for Canada.

The circuits to keep powered

No need to power the whole house. We gather in an auxiliary panel, the generator panel, the circuits that really matter: sump pump, heating, fridge and freezer, with a little lighting and a few outlets. The dryer, the oven, the spa and the electric car’s charger aren’t on it.

The list is decided with you, based on what the unit can deliver. An example we publish for a 60 A panel: heating on one circuit, lighting on three, outlets on three.

We then mount that panel at the agreed spot, with the power inlet outside, and move the chosen circuits to it one by one, labelling each.

A 60 A panel doesn’t turn the generator into a 60 A source: the limit is the unit’s actual power.

Who does what: the gas, the base, the unit

A standby generator brings in several trades. Here is how the work is split, with us:

We, STM-Électrique, do all the electrical work: choosing the circuits to back up, wiring, transfer switch, auxiliary panel, declaration of work, municipal permit if the city requires one, and a complete switchover test.

A licensed gas company connects the propane or natural gas. That part isn’t ours: we coordinate with them.

The general contractor or the supplier, depending on your project, takes care of the base the unit will sit on.

On site, a standby takes a few days. Delays come mostly from permits and the fuel connection: a project started in November may have to wait. With the quote, you receive the schedule in writing.

Outdoors, never in the garage

Never a generator in the garage: the unit runs outdoors, period. During an outage, Health Canada advises keeping it 6 metres or more from buildings. In the house, keep a carbon monoxide alarm in working order.

For a standby, the city also has a say in the location. Next door, for example, Laval’s urban planning code prohibits a ground-mounted generator in the front yard, and Longueuil’s municipal fact sheet wants it in the side or back yard, in a shelter or soundproof enclosure. The details are on our pages generator in Laval and generator in Longueuil.

Westmount: Hydro Westmount and a permit for the unit

Westmount has its own distributor. Hydro Westmount maintains the network that supplies all homes and businesses in the city.

On its mechanical equipment page (heat pump, spa, air conditioning unit), the City of Westmount states that permits are issued by its Permits and Inspections Division; for a generator, it asks for a start sheet. The page refers to its zoning (1303) and noise (1387) bylaws. In Westmount, that permit is therefore one of the steps to plan for before the installation.

Our electrician in Westmount page covers other work in that city.

Hookup day

On the day, count on a few hours without power: that’s the time to install the transfer switch and move the chosen circuits to their new panel.

For a standby, we finish with a mock outage: the unit starts, the switchover happens, we check the backed-up circuits, then the grid comes back and everything switches back. Before leaving, we explain how to use the installation on the night of an outage and how to maintain it; the detailed invoice and the work report follow.

We work out of our warehouse in Laval and our offices in Mirabel, and the detailed quote arrives within 24 to 48 business hours after the assessment.

Frequently asked questions