New installA new standby generator
Sized to your house, set on a pad, piped to your gas line and wired through an automatic transfer switch. Then we pull the power and prove it works.
Lincoln, NE · Home standby power
Generac Generator Installation in Lincoln, NE
When a summer storm or an ice storm knocks out the power, a home standby generator has the lights, furnace fan, sump pump and fridge back on in seconds, without anyone stepping outside. Lincoln Generators Co. installs Generac standby units, fixes the ones that won't start and keeps them maintained.
- Same-day call back
- New installs and repairs
- Yearly maintenance plans
01 Peak outage, Jul 31 202430,000+ LES customers
02 Lincoln homes heating with gasAbout 64%
03 Nights below 0°F a yearAbout 10
04 PhonesMon–Sat
01·What we handle
Power back on, whatever the problem
Most calls are one of these four. Tell us which one when you call and we'll know what to bring.
New install
Won't startA Generac that let you down
Didn't take over in the last outage, shows a warning light, or quit after a few minutes. We find out why and fix it. Generac repair
Once a yearYearly maintenance
Oil, filters, spark plugs, battery, a look at the transfer switch and a run under load, before storm season finds the problem for you. Maintenance
The handoffTransfer switch work
The switch beside your panel decides when the generator takes over. New switches, replacements and load managers. Transfer switches
02·Ways to start
Pick the help you need now
Three ways people work with us. Plenty of owners start with one repair visit and move to a yearly plan once the unit is running right.
No plan neededOne service call
For a unit that won't start, throws a warning or hasn't been looked at in years. We diagnose it, tell you the price of the fix, and repair it once you say go.
Most popularYearly maintenance plan
A full service visit every year on a schedule we keep track of, with a short written note of what we did. Owners on a plan go to the front of the line after a storm.
Starts with a visitNew standby system
We walk the house, list what has to stay on, pick the spot for the unit and give you a written quote for the generator, transfer switch, gas line and install.
64% on gas
A standby generator senses the outage, starts on its own and the transfer switch hands your panel over, then hands it back when LES power returns. Speed matters most when it's cold. A furnace blower, a sump pump during a spring storm, or medical equipment can't wait for someone to wheel out a portable generator and run cords through a window. A standby unit does it on its own, even when nobody is home.
03·Our services
Every part of the backup system
Installation is what this page covers. These four have their own pages because each one is its own job.
01 Generac Generator Repair
No-start, fault codes, a unit that didn't take over in the last outage. We diagnose it and fix it.
See the service
02 Generac Maintenance
Oil, filters, plugs, battery and a load test, on a yearly plan or a one-time visit.
See the service
03 Transfer Switch Installation
The automatic switch that hands your panel to the generator when LES power drops.
See the service
04 Generator Sizing
Essentials or whole house, 10 to 28 kW: we size from your actual loads, not square footage.
See the service04·Install day
From site visit to first outage test
Most of the thinking happens before the generator arrives. Install day itself is usually one long day.
- 01
Plan it at the table
What has to stay on, how the house is heated, where the gas meter and electric meter are, and where a unit can sit with room around it for service.
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02Set and connect
Pad down, generator set, gas line run from the meter, and the transfer switch wired in beside your main panel. Generac says the closer the spot is to both meters, the less the install costs.
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03Pull the power
Before we leave, we simulate an outage so you can watch the generator start and take the load, then switch back. You get a walk-through of the controller.
- Week 1Site visit, sizing and written quote
- Weeks 2–4Unit ordered, gas line and pad planned
- Install dayPad, generator, gas line, transfer switch
- Before we goSimulated outage and controller walk-through
Timing depends on unit availability and how much gas line work the house needs. We'll tell you the real schedule with the quote.
05·Sizing
Essentials or the whole house
The question isn't how big the house is. It's what you want running when the street goes dark.
Generac's air-cooled home standby generators run from 10 kW to 28 kW, and the right one is usually smaller than people expect.
Generac's sizing guide splits a home's loads into tiers. The essentials are the fridge and freezer, lights, internet, phone chargers and the sump pump. Next come comforts like the microwave and garage door. The heavy hitters are central air, an electric range, an electric dryer, a well pump or an EV charger.
For a home around 2,000 square feet, Generac calls 18 to 22 kW the sweet spot. Around 1,550 square feet, a 10 to 14 kW unit with one or two load managers can often cover it. A load manager briefly pauses a big appliance when the generator is near its limit, so a mid-size unit can carry a house that would otherwise need a bigger one.
In Lincoln, heating decides a lot. A gas furnace needs only a little power for its blower. An all-electric house with a heat pump or electric furnace needs far more, and that's the load that matters in January. The sizing page goes through it step by step.
Deciding which circuits stay on06·The crew
The people who show up
Same faces, install to tune-up
The crew that sets your generator is the crew that comes back to service it, so nobody has to start over reading someone else's notes. We work on Generac home standby units every day: new installs, no-start repairs, batteries, controllers and transfer switches.
We'll explain what we found in plain words and give you the price before any work starts. If a part has to be ordered, we tell you how long it should take and keep you posted.
07·Lincoln weather
Why Lincoln loses power
Lincoln Electric System keeps the city's power reliable most days. The weather is what breaks it.
On the evening of July 31, 2024, rain, lightning and damaging winds knocked out power across the city. Lincoln Electric System reported more than 30,000 customers without power at the peak, mostly from downed lines, and about 6,700 were still out the next morning while crews from Hastings and Grand Island came in to help.
Summer thunderstorms are only half of it. Lincoln's winters bring ice storms that coat branches and lines, and blizzards with wind. NOAA's 1991–2020 climate normals for the Lincoln airport average 26 inches of snow a year and about 10 nights a year below zero. Those are the nights a furnace can't stop.
LES has been Lincoln's public power utility since February 1, 1966. It's not-for-profit and locally owned, and when lines come down it restores hospitals and emergency services first, then works from the largest outages down to individual homes. If yours is one of the last, a standby generator covers the gap.
After an ice storm 26.0 in Average yearly snowfall, Lincoln airport NOAA 1991–2020 normals
10.1 Nights a year below 0°F NOAA 1991–2020 normals
41.8 Days a year at 90°F or hotter NOAA 1991–2020 normals
30,000+ LES customers out at the peak, Jul 31 2024 Lincoln Electric System
Climate figures are NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for Lincoln Municipal Airport (station USW00014939), from NCEI's climate normals.
08·Fuel and power
Gas in the street, power on the poles
Two local utilities shape every Lincoln install: the gas company that fuels the generator and the electric utility it backs up.
Most Lincoln houses already have the fuel a standby generator needs.
The City of Lincoln names Black Hills Energy as the supplier of natural gas for Lincoln and Lancaster County. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey (2020–2024 estimates) counts about 78,000 of Lincoln's 122,600 occupied homes heating with utility gas. A home on that gas line can run a standby unit straight from it, with no tank to watch during a long outage. Homes outside the gas lines run the same kind of unit on propane.
The electric side is just as important. Lincoln Electric System's customer-owned generation rules say backup generators are generally only allowed to run in parallel with the LES system for periodic testing. That's the job of the automatic transfer switch: it disconnects your house from the utility lines before the generator powers it, and reconnects when LES power comes back.
About 42,400 Lincoln homes heat with electricity. For those houses, sizing the generator around the heat is the most important call we make.
How Lincoln homes heat
American Community Survey, 2020–2024 five-year estimates
Utility gas~78,001
Electricity~42,369
Propane~1,620
Other~633
Utility gas Other fuel
One house lit on a dark street09·Costs
What a standby generator costs
We quote after the site visit. Until then, these are the ranges Generac and Angi publish.
01
Standby generator, installed
$8,000to$16,000
Generator, materials and installation
Generac · checked Nov 2026 · national
02
Yearly maintenance visit
$171to$396
Per visit; national average $274
Angi · checked Nov 2026 · national
03
Transfer switch replacement
$200to$400
Part only; labor is extra
Angi · checked Nov 2026 · national
These are national numbers, not Lincoln quotes. Generac's installation guide says installed home standby systems average $8,000 to $16,000 including the generator, and that cost moves with the complexity of the job and the distance to your gas and electric meters. Maintenance and transfer switch figures are from Angi's generator maintenance cost guide (updated September 2026), which notes that switch replacement adds several hours of labor to the part price. The cost page breaks it down further.
10·Service area
Lincoln first, then out the highways
All of Lincoln and Lancaster County, plus Beatrice, Crete, Seward and Waverly.
- 00LincolnLincoln is the seat of Lancaster County and Nebraska's capital.
- 01BeatriceGage County seat on the Big Blue River, straight down US-77, with city power from the Board of Public Works.
- 02CreteSaline County college town around Doane University, with its own city electric system and power plant.
- 03SewardSeward County seat west on US-34, home of Concordia University; city electric in town, Norris power outside it.
- 04WaverlyGrowing Lancaster County town northeast of Lincoln off US-6 and I-80, on the same LES grid as the city.
We work all over the city, from the older houses around Near South, Havelock, University Place and College View to newer neighborhoods on the edges of town. Lincoln is the seat of Lancaster County and Nebraska's capital, and most of its homes sit on flat, open ground under a lot of sky, which is exactly where summer storms and winter wind get a clean run at the power lines.
Beyond the city we follow the highways. Waverly is about 20 minutes northeast and on LES power like Lincoln. Seward is west on US-34, Crete southwest on Highway 33, and Beatrice straight south on US-77. Each of those towns has its own power supplier, and the town pages explain what that means for a generator. Rural homes in between are welcome too; tell us your address when you call.
Flat ground, big sky, lots of lines11·Getting started
How booking works
Call (402) 542-4677 or use the call-back form. Lincoln Generators Co. will ask whether it's a new install, a repair or maintenance, the generator's size and age if you have one, and whether the house runs on natural gas or propane.
For a repair, we set a visit window, diagnose the unit and give you the price before we fix it. For a new system, we start with a site visit and a written quote, and you decide in your own time.
Every job starts with a conversationFAQ·Quick answers
What homeowners here ask first
Short answers. Call if your setup is the odd one out.
01How long does a standby generator install take?
The install itself is usually a single day. The weeks before it are the longer part: a site visit, sizing, ordering the unit, and getting the gas line and pad ready. Generac's own installation guide says the work takes hours but the preparation takes multiple weeks.
02Natural gas or propane?
Most Lincoln homes already have natural gas from Black Hills Energy, and a standby unit can run from that line, so there is no tank to refill. Homes outside the gas lines can run the same kind of unit on propane from a tank.
03What size generator does my house need?
It depends on what you want running, not on square footage. Generac's air-cooled home standby units run from 10 kW to 28 kW. We list your must-have loads, check how the house is heated and size from there, often with a load manager so a mid-size unit can handle the big appliances.
04My Generac didn't start in the last outage. What should I check?
Look at the controller and write down any light or message it shows, check that the unit is set to automatic, and check the generator's breaker. Then call. Many no-starts come down to a weak battery, a tripped breaker or overdue maintenance, and those are usually quick fixes.
05How often does a Generac need maintenance?
At least once a year for most homes, or sooner if it ran for days through a long outage. Generac's warranty terms expect the unit to be maintained on schedule, so read yours and keep the paperwork from every visit.
06Do you only work on Generac?
Generac home standby generators are our specialty, and our service pages are written around them. Lincoln Generators Co. is an independent company and is not affiliated with Generac Power Systems.
→·Next step
Keep the lights on next time
Call or send the form. Tell us whether it's a new install, a unit that won't start or a maintenance visit, and we'll set up a time and explain the options and price before any work starts.
Talk to a technician(402) 542-4677- Open Mon–Fri: 7:00 AM–6:00 PM, Sat: 8:00 AM–2:00 PM
- Serving Lincoln and nearby towns