Backup Power During Bushfires: Generator Safety & Setup
Every Victorian summer brings the same question for homeowners, farmers and site managers: what happens to the property if the power goes out while a fire is moving through the district? Fire season outages are rarely brief. Lines come down, substations get isolated as a precaution, and crews cannot always reach damaged infrastructure until the fire ground is declared safe. A property that loses power can lose its water pump, its refrigeration, its gate motor and its internet connection in the same moment.
The useful thing about backup power is that it is one of the few parts of a bushfire plan you can settle entirely in advance. This guide covers how to size a generator for emergency loads, where to position it, how to store and handle fuel safely, what to service before the Fire Danger Period starts, and how to decide what stays running when the grid does not.
Backup power in real Victorian fire seasons
East Coast Generators has been supplying power in Victoria for more than three decades, and a fair share of that work has happened with fires still burning. Generator Rentals Australia, our hire division, was called into the Kinglake area on the Sunday morning after Black Saturday to help restore power to communities that had lost it entirely. In 2013 we supplied generators to telecommunications sites and emergency services near Ballarat while the mountain was still alight. We were out again through the 2019–20 fire season.
That experience shapes the advice below, because most generator guidance is written for a blackout in a suburban street. Fire season is a different problem. The equipment becomes a heat source in a landscape primed to burn, the rules about what you can operate outdoors change day to day, and the outage may last well past the point where anyone can get to you.
Sizing a generator for emergency loads
Work out what you actually need to run before you look at equipment. Start with essentials rather than the whole property: refrigeration, the water pump, communications, some lighting, and any medical equipment in use on site.
Two numbers matter for every appliance. Running watts is what it draws continuously. Starting watts is the surge it pulls in the first second or two — and for anything with an electric motor, such as a bore pump, a fridge compressor or an air conditioner, that surge can be two to three times the running figure. Size to the surge, not the average, or the set will trip at the worst possible moment.
Our power calculator will do the arithmetic if you list your loads, and our guide to what size generator you need explains how the kVA figures on a spec sheet translate into real household and site demand. As a rough starting point:
- Household essentials only (fridge, comms, lighting, a small pump) — small generator hire is usually enough.
- A whole home including air conditioning and a bore pump — medium generator territory.
- Farms, packing sheds, commercial sites and multi-building properties — large generators, often as trailer-mounted units so the set can be repositioned as conditions change.
Oversizing carries its own penalty. A diesel set running at very light load for days burns fuel inefficiently and can glaze its cylinder bores over time. Getting reasonably close to the real load beats doubling it for peace of mind.
Placement: treat the generator as an ignition source
This is where bushfire advice diverges sharply from ordinary blackout advice. A running generator has a hot exhaust and a hot casing, and it is often sitting in cured grass on a day of extreme fire danger. The set is not just a solution to the emergency — it is a potential cause of one.
Clear the ground before the season, not on the day
Set up on stable, non-combustible ground: concrete, compacted gravel or bare earth. Clear vegetation, mulch, leaf litter and stored timber from the area around and above the unit. Fine fuels are what carry fire to and from equipment, and they are exactly what accumulates unnoticed beside a shed over winter.
Keep real distance from the building
Position the set outdoors, well clear of walls, windows, doors and vents. Distance does two jobs at once: it keeps exhaust fumes out of the house, and it means a fault at the generator does not become a fault in your home. People consistently place generators too close under pressure. A few extra metres, planned in advance, is free.
Check the day’s restrictions before you start an engine
The CFA declares Fire Danger Periods municipality by municipality, and Total Fire Bans on days when fire is likely to spread rapidly and be difficult to control. Restrictions in these periods extend to machinery and equipment that could start a fire, and the detail depends on where you are. Build the habit of checking VicEmergency and the CFA’s current guidance before running an engine outdoors on a high-risk day — and think through what you will do if the answer is that you cannot.
Shelter it, but never enclose it
Rain and ember protection is worth having. A sealed box is not. Anything that restricts airflow traps heat and exhaust around the set. Where the ignition risk or the fuel handling is the problem rather than the power itself, battery energy storage is worth considering: no exhaust heat, no hot surfaces and no fuel on site removes two of these risks entirely.
And if noise matters — a set running overnight beside bedrooms, or a property close to neighbours — super silent generators cut the disturbance considerably without changing any of the safety requirements above.
Carbon monoxide: the risk that keeps catching people out
Never run a generator indoors, in a garage, in a shed, under a deck, or in any partly enclosed space. Not with the roller door open. Not for a few minutes.
Carbon monoxide has no colour and no smell. It accumulates faster than most people expect, and its early symptoms — headache, nausea, drowsiness, confusion — are easy to mistake for heat stress or exhaustion. During an emergency, when everyone is already tired and hot, that is precisely when the warning signs get dismissed.
Run the set in open air, direct the exhaust away from the house and away from any window or vent, and fit carbon monoxide alarms inside the home. If anyone becomes unwell while the generator is running, get them into fresh air and call 000.
Fuel storage and refuelling
Fuel is the part of a backup power plan most often underestimated. Work out your likely run hours, then double them. Fire season outages routinely run longer than expected, and service stations in an affected area may be closed, out of stock or unreachable. Our fuel consumption calculator gives a realistic litres-per-hour figure for a given set and load, which is a better basis for planning than a guess.
For storage:
- Approved containers or tanks only, meeting AS 1940, the Australian standard for storing and handling flammable and combustible liquids.
- Cool, shaded and ventilated, away from ignition sources — never inside the house or hard against the building.
- Rotate your stock. Diesel degrades; fuel sitting since last summer may have absorbed water or grown microbial contamination, and contaminated fuel is a common cause of a set failing to start when it is finally needed.
- Keep quantities sensible for the site, and check whether your council or insurer sets a limit.
For refuelling:
- Shut the engine down and let it cool before opening the fuel cap. Diesel spilled onto a hot exhaust or manifold can ignite.
- Keep a spill kit and an appropriately rated extinguisher within arm’s reach of the set — not in a shed on the other side of the property.
For longer outages, fuel tank hire extends run time substantially and cuts down how often anyone has to handle fuel near a running engine. If your property may be hard to reach once a fire is running, our onsite refuelling service can be planned ahead of the event rather than arranged during it.
Electrical connections: the part to get done properly
Never plug a generator into a power point. Backfeeding a house through a wall socket energises the property’s wiring and can push voltage back out through the meter and into the street. It puts distribution crews working on those lines at risk of electrocution, and it bypasses every protective device in your switchboard. Of everything people do with generators, this is the one that kills someone else.
To power fixed circuits — a bore pump, hardwired lighting, refrigeration on a dedicated circuit — you need a changeover or transfer switch installed by a licensed electrician, in line with the wiring rules and AS/NZS 3010, the standard covering electrical installations for generating sets. An automatic transfer switch handles the switchover for you, which matters when the outage starts at 3am or while nobody is home.
For portable use:
- Heavy-duty outdoor-rated leads, correctly rated for both the load and the length of the run — voltage drop over a long lead is a real problem, not a theoretical one.
- RCD protection on the outlets, and every lead inspected for damage before use.
- Leads run where they will not be walked on, driven over or pinched in a doorway, and kept clear of standing water.
- No daisy-chaining leads, and never run them under rugs where heat builds and damage goes unseen.
If supply needs splitting across several circuits or buildings, distribution boards, leads and changeover panels can come as part of a hire package rather than being improvised on site.
Pre-season servicing
A generator that has sat idle since last summer is not a generator you can rely on. Book service work in late winter or early spring: by the time the first Total Fire Ban is declared, every generator technician in the state is already busy.
A pre-season check should cover:
- Fuel system. Drain and replace old fuel, inspect the tank for water and sediment, and check lines, filters and primer for leaks or perishing.
- Air filter. Rural and fire-affected areas run dusty and smoky. A restricted filter costs you output at exactly the moment the set is loaded hardest.
- Oil and coolant. Change oil and filter to schedule, check coolant level and strength, and clear debris from radiator fins and airflow paths.
- Battery and starting. Electric-start sets fail at the battery more than anywhere else. Check charge, clean the terminals, confirm it cranks properly.
- A test run under load. This is the step almost everyone skips. A set that starts and idles is not proven. Run it with a realistic load long enough to confirm it holds voltage and frequency without overheating.
Hire units from Generator Rentals Australia are tested and prepared before they leave the depot. If the set is your own, our generator service and repair team can carry out pre-season servicing, and we are contactable 24 hours a day if something fails mid-season.
Deciding what stays on
When you are running on backup power, every appliance competes for the same fuel. Decide the order in advance and write it down, because nobody makes good decisions about load priority at two in the morning with smoke in the air.
First tier — safety and health. Medical equipment, and refrigeration for medications that must stay cool. If anyone on the property depends on powered medical equipment, register the address with your electricity distributor as life-support premises now, and treat backup power as essential rather than optional. It is the same reasoning behind standby generator installations at aged care facilities, where an outage is not something you can absorb as an inconvenience.
Second tier — water and communications. Tank and bore pumps, because water pressure matters for household use and for property defence. Then phones, chargers, a mains modem, and a battery-powered radio as backup for when the mobile network goes down with the grid.
Third tier — food, security and light. Refrigeration and freezers, gate motors, alarms and cameras, and enough lighting to move safely around the property after dark. For yards, sheds and access tracks, lighting towers cover far more ground than fixed lighting on a house circuit.
Switched off. Air conditioning beyond one room, pool pumps, electric hot water, ovens and cooktops, entertainment systems — anything that drains fuel without contributing to safety.
Plan your power strategy before fire season
Backup power is easiest to organise while nothing has gone wrong. Demand for generators climbs from spring and rises again with every heatwave and fire warning, and once the season is under way both the units and the technicians get harder to secure.
East Coast Generators supports homes, rural properties, commercial sites and critical facilities across Victoria, with a full range of generator sizes, emergency power for planned and unplanned outages, trained technicians and 24-hour support.
To get organised before demand peaks, send through a hire enquiry or talk to our team about what your property needs to keep running.
Frequently asked questions
Can I run a generator on a day of Total Fire Ban?
Restrictions during Fire Danger Periods and Total Fire Bans extend to equipment and machinery that could start a fire, and the specifics depend on your location and the day’s declaration. Check the CFA’s current guidance and VicEmergency before operating, and take the usual precautions: non-combustible ground, cleared vegetation and an extinguisher within reach. Our FAQs cover more operational questions.
How long can a generator run continuously?
A diesel set built for standby duty can run for extended periods provided fuel, oil and coolant are maintained and the load stays within rating. In practice, run time is limited by the fuel on hand rather than the engine — which is why fuel tank hire and planned refuelling matter for a multi-day outage.
What size generator do I need for a house during a bushfire outage?
It depends on whether you are running essentials or the whole property. A fridge, comms, lighting and a small pump is a modest load; add air conditioning and a bore pump and the requirement climbs quickly. Work through the power calculator with your actual appliances rather than estimating from house size.
Do I need an electrician?
For anything connected to your fixed wiring, yes — a changeover or transfer switch must be installed by a licensed electrician. Plugging appliances directly into the generator with correctly rated leads does not require one, but under no circumstances connect a generator to a power point.
Should I hire or buy?
If you need power for a defined risk window each year, hiring keeps capital free and puts the servicing burden on us. If you have critical loads running year-round, ownership usually wins. Our comparison of new versus used generators covers the purchase side in more detail.