Most people have no idea what to ask an electrician for. Start with what it is doing.

Either, and that is the decision rather than a detail. A whole house setup carries the panel; an essential circuits setup carries a chosen list, usually the heat, the fridge, the well or sump pump and some lighting. What decides it is the size of the generator and what the house actually draws, not what anybody would prefer, so it gets sized before it gets sold.

Judge it on what actually happens here rather than on a peace of mind line. In February 2026 more than 130,000 Atlantic City Electric customers across South Jersey lost power in one winter storm, with well over a thousand field personnel on the restoration. That is the scenario a standby unit is bought for. Whether it is worth it to you comes down to how long your street historically stays out and what is in your freezer, basement and medicine cabinet.

No. Back feeding through an outlet with a double ended cord sends power back out to the street and it kills utility line workers. There are two legal ways to connect a generator to a house, a listed transfer switch or a listed interlock kit on the panel, and both are permitted electrical work. This is not a place for a workaround, and no instructions for one appear on this site.

Your township's construction office is the place that answers this, and it is worth a call before anything is ordered. A standby install is normally two trades rather than one: the electrical side, which is the transfer switch, the connection and any panel change, and the gas line, which is a separate subcode. Zoning and setback rules can apply to where the unit physically sits as well.

It can, and this gets asked in South Jersey more than people admit. Getting legal means a licensed electrical contractor looking at what was actually done, which usually means opening up what was closed, then permitted work and a municipal inspection to close it out with a Certificate of Approval. Nobody here is going to make you feel stupid about it. The point of the call is the house, not the history.

On your own home, the state's licensing act has an exemption for work you do on a dwelling you live in yourself or that an immediate family member lives in. What that exemption is not is an exemption from permits and inspections, which apply no matter who does the work. It also does not stretch to a rental, a duplex or a multi family building, which is where most of the confusion comes from, and those need a licensed electrical contractor.