Whole house is a sales phrase, not a defined scope. Two proposals can both say it, cover different circuits, and differ in price for reasons neither document explains. Settling what you mean by it is the work of this chapter.
Who this helps
A homeowner who keeps hearing "whole house" from different contractors and cannot tell whether they are describing the same project.
When to read it
Read this before you request quotes, so the scope you ask for is written down rather than assumed by each contractor differently.
What you can decide afterwards
How much of the house this household is buying coverage for, stated precisely enough that two proposals can be compared.
Quick answer
“Whole house” is a sales phrase, not a specification. Before comparing prices, write down what must run, what should run, and what can wait, then require every proposal to name the circuits it covers and to state whether load-management equipment is included and which loads it would shed. Two proposals that both say whole house can cover different circuits and differ in price for reasons neither document explains.
What this chapter can help you determine
Which coverage scope this household wants, and how to state it so that every contractor prices the same project.
What coverage scope means in practice, and why the same words describe different projects.
The tradeoff between machine capacity and load management.
How to write down a coverage scope a contractor can price.
What is the household actually buying coverage for?
A defined set of essential circuits
Coverage is limited to circuits the household names in advance. Everything else stays dark until the utility returns.
This points here when:
The consequences that matter attach to a small number of loads, such as a pump, a heat source, and refrigeration.
The household is content to live differently during an outage.
Budget or siting constraints favour smaller equipment.
If this is the wrong call: Discovering during an outage that a load nobody listed — a well pump, a septic pump, a boiler control — was outside the covered set.
Broad coverage with load management
Most of the house is covered, but equipment is included that prevents the largest loads from running at the same time, so a smaller machine can serve a bigger house.
This points here when:
The household wants normal-feeling operation without paying for the largest machine.
The big loads — cooling, electric heat, cooking, vehicle charging — do not all have to run at once.
The household accepts that some equipment may wait its turn.
If this is the wrong call: Not knowing which loads the management equipment will shed, and being surprised by which part of the house pauses.
Unmanaged coverage of the whole service
Equipment is specified to carry the property's demand without shedding anything, so nothing is managed and nothing waits.
This points here when:
Simultaneous operation genuinely matters, for medical, business, or occupancy reasons.
The household does not want to think about what is running.
Site, fuel, and budget can carry larger equipment.
If this is the wrong call: Paying for capacity and fuel to match a peak the household never actually reaches.
What you probably already know
Which parts of the house were missed during the last outage.
Whether the household would accept some equipment waiting its turn.
Which appliances are electric rather than fuel-fired.
Whether major electrical additions are planned.
What is commonly still unknown at this point
Which circuits each proposal actually covers, which is often not written down until asked.
Whether load-management equipment is included, and which loads it would shed.
Whether the property has more than one electrical panel, and whether all of them are in scope.
Which loads start with a demand higher than they run at, which is a professional determination.
Information to gather
A written list of what must run, what should run, and what can wait — the load priority worksheet produces exactly this.
Whether the property has more than one panel, subpanel, or detached structure on the same service.
Which appliances are electric and which are fuel-fired.
Planned additions such as vehicle charging, a heat pump, a pool, or a renovation.
Photographs of the panel directory, so nothing is described from memory.
Questions to ask
Which specific circuits does this proposal cover, listed by name?
Does this proposal include load-management equipment, and if so which loads would it shed and in what order?
What is deliberately excluded from coverage in this proposal?
If a future load is added, what would have to change?
When this does not apply
The household has not decided whether backup power is warranted.
A system is already installed and the question is about its condition.
The question is which capacity is required — that is a professional load calculation, not a scope decision.
What would change the decision
The load priority list changes once it is actually written down.
A second panel, a subpanel, or a detached structure is discovered.
A major electrical addition is planned — vehicle charging, a heat pump, a pool.
A professional finds the electrical service cannot support the intended scope.
What requires a qualified professional
Which circuits can be covered, and what equipment that requires, is determined by a qualified professional from the actual electrical service and a load calculation.
No coverage scope is valid until someone qualified has confirmed the property can support it.
What this page cannot determine
Which circuits at this property should be covered.
What capacity any coverage scope would require.
Whether load management is suitable here.
Deliberately out of scope here:
Any recommendation about capacity, which is a professional calculation.
Which circuits should be covered at this property.
Whether load management is appropriate here.
Bottom line
The scope you can state in writing is the scope you can compare. Until coverage is written down circuit by circuit, price differences between proposals are unattributable.
What to do next
Do this chapter's work on paper: Home load priority worksheet. Turn a vague sense of what matters into a written, prioritised list plus an explicit inventory of what you still have to look up.
Standby generator or portable generator? — Whether this household needs equipment that operates without anyone present, or can rely on equipment a person sets up and runs.
How to compare generator quotes — Whether the proposals in hand describe the same project, and if not, what has to be answered before any price comparison means anything.
What drives the cost of a standby generator project? — Which scopes this particular project contains, so that a price difference between two proposals can be traced to a scope difference rather than guessed at.
how scope changes who has to approve the work — This choice decides how much of the property's electrical system the installation touches, and that is what determines which approval tracks the project lands on and who has to be coordinated with. Settling scope first makes those questions answerable.
whether the project is worth pursuing at this scale — If narrowing to essential loads still leaves a project larger than the outages here would justify, the honest next step is backwards rather than forwards, and that chapter is where the worth-it question actually belongs.