When the grid goes dark, the difference between a calm night and a cascade of tripped breakers usually comes down to the order in which you bring your generator and circuits online. A backup unit that ...

Portable generators are useful in an outage or emergency. However, some everyday appliances will suffer damage or stop working if you plug them into one.

Most people don't think about their electrical system until something goes wrong. A flickering light here, a tripped breaker there. The natural instinct? Call someone who can patch it up ...