Generator Safety: Carbon Monoxide, Placement, and Weather

The uncomfortable fact first: portable generators are involved in roughly 70–80 carbon-monoxide deaths in the US every year, per Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates, and they cluster in the days right after storms. Almost none involve a machine malfunctioning — they involve a working generator in the wrong place. The rules below are short, absolute, and cover essentially every case.

The placement rules

• Outside only. Never in the house, basement, garage (even with the door open), crawlspace, or enclosed porch. A generator produces as much CO as hundreds of idling cars.
• 20 feet from the house, minimum, with the exhaust pointed away from windows, doors, and vents — the CDC and CPSC number, not a suggestion.
• Never near window AC units or soffit vents; exhaust drifts along walls and finds openings.
• CO alarms with battery backup on every level of the house and outside sleeping areas. If an alarm sounds, get out first, investigate never.

Buy the CO shutoff — it's the seatbelt

Since around 2019, most major brands sell models with a built-in CO sensor that kills the engine if exhaust accumulates around the unit (Honda CO-MINDER, Generac COsense, Champion CO Shield, and similar). CPSC data credits these systems with sharply reducing deaths in test scenarios. If you're choosing between two similar machines, the CO shutoff is worth more than any other feature on the sheet — our catalog flags which models carry one.

Rain, snow, and cords

Generators make lethal voltage and hate water. Run them under an open-sided canopy or a purpose-built generator tent — never a sealed enclosure that traps exhaust and heat, and never a tarp draped over a running machine. Set the unit on a dry, level pad, not in a puddle. Use outdoor-rated 12-gauge-or-heavier cords, fully uncoiled (a coiled cord under load is a heater), routed where they can't be pinched by doors or driven over. If the model has GFCI outlets, use them.

Fuel and burns

• Shut down and cool for several minutes before refueling — gasoline on a hot muffler ignites.
• Store fuel in proper containers, outside living space, away from the generator while it runs.
• The muffler side of the machine stays burn-hot for a long time after shutdown; keep kids and pets away.
• Ground the unit per the manual, especially when feeding a transfer switch.

None of this is complicated, and all of it fits on an index card taped inside the garage: outside, 20 feet, exhaust away, CO alarms in, cool before refueling. Do that and the machine is exactly what it should be — the most boring appliance you own.