Keeping the Lights On
Gary and Audrey Gravatt are the owners of Gravatt Generators in Mercer County, although Gary Gravatt spends a lot of time in Butler County.
“I would say 80 percent of the sales are in Butler County,” he said.
What he's selling are permanently installed Generac home backup generators.
They run on natural gas or liquid propane fuel.
The 2-foot-by-4-foot unit is installed outside a home like a central air conditioning unit. The generator delivers power directly to a home's electrical system during a power interruption.
A power interruption such as the one that hit Butler County on Nov. 15, 2018, when Winter Storm Avery blasted the area with snow and freezing rain causing trees to fall over power lines throughout the county leaving thousands without power for up to six days.Gravatt credited memories of days without power as helping drive generator sales, but said Avery wasn't the only reason.“I would say the increasingly violent storms we're having. Electric companies are not as well equipped enough or have enough manpower leading to longer outages,” he said. “The power grid infrastructure is severely outdated.”Faced with more frequent and longer power interruptions, homeowners are opting for a backup power system.“A lot of it is for health reasons,” Gravatt said. “People need oxygen when they lose power or they need air conditioning. They can't afford to take a risk.”“People are spending more time at home and more people are working from home which drives demand,” he said.Or people are trying to prevent water damage to their homes — sump pumps can't operate during a storm-induced blackout.That's where backup power comes in the form of a generator.“Generac is the brand that I sell and install. It's a USA company in Wisconsin,” Gravatt said.Bill Racine, a spokesman for Generac said the company began in 1959, with just five employees in a barn in Wales, Wis., when Robert D. Kern began manufacturing generators based upon his own designs.Sixty years later, the company he founded — Generac Power Systems in Waukesha, Wis., — is a leading, diversified global supplier of backup and prime power products.“There's been a lot of demand,” Racine said. “For instance, California was never a big market for us, but the fires on the West Coast has led PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) to institute power shutoffs to help stop wildfires.”“Homeowners are really, really looking at generators in terms of home improvement,” said Racine.Once installed, Gravatt said, “These are automatic systems. The homeowner doesn't have to do anything. They come on automatically if the power is interrupted for more than a minute.”When power is restored, the generator turns itself off.The generators are powered by either natural gas or propane.“They are designed to run indefinitely if they are hooked up to an existing natural gas line,” he said. “If they are using propane, I'd recommend they have 200 gallons on site. That will keep it running for five to seven days.”Gravatt said the generator can be installed usually in a day and he does all the installation work.“We are a one-stop shop,” he said, adding he and four service technicians service what he sells.He added he will perform an annual maintenance service on the generators he sells, “usually just an oil change and tightening everything up.”Gravatt said would-be generator owners may have to deal with a waiting list, but not a long one.“This year has been extraordinarily busy, but I would say I can have a generator installed in a timely fashion.“We can get them a seven-year extended warranty for free,” he added.
