Quick Summary
There is no 20/20 rule for standby generators in New Orleans, and planning a pad around one is how installations end up needing to move. The City has its own residential generator checklist, and the numbers on it are nothing like 20 feet: 2 feet from the side and rear lot lines, 18 inches clear at the rear, 30 inches clear at the front, 5 feet overhead, 5 feet from any opening, exhaust not directed at the house, no front yard or corner side yard placement, and carbon monoxide alarms in every sleeping room. Big Easy Electricians sets standby generators across Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Tammany parishes and works from that checklist rather than from a rule of thumb. Estimates are free, and the placement question is cheapest to settle before the equipment is ordered.
Last Updated: August 2026
On This Page
- What Is the 20/20 Rule for Standby Generators?
- What Does New Orleans Actually Require for Generator Placement?
- How Far Does a Generator Have to Be From a Window or Door?
- Does a Standby Generator Need to Be 20 Feet From the House?
- Why Is the Federal Regulator Now Asking for 25 Feet?
- Do You Need Carbon Monoxide Alarms With a New Generator Here?
- Does a Generator Have to Be Elevated in a New Orleans Flood Zone?
- Do You Need a Permit to Install a Standby Generator in Orleans Parish?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Generator placement is the part of the job homeowners research last and the part that most often forces a redesign. A unit that cannot sit where the pad was poured becomes a transfer switch problem, a gas line problem, and a scheduling problem at once. The numbers below come from the City’s own permit paperwork rather than from trade folklore, and they are available in advance from the team that installs these units around the New Orleans metro.
What Is the 20/20 Rule for Standby Generators?
It is a rule of thumb rather than a published requirement, usually repeated as keeping a generator 20 feet from openings, from stored fuel, and from the property line. No code or authority publishes it in that form for permanently installed equipment, and it does not match what New Orleans asks for on a permit application.
The 20 foot figure is real, but it belongs to portable generators. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends running a portable unit at least 20 feet from the house with the exhaust directed away, and that guidance is about carbon monoxide. Somewhere along the way the number migrated onto standby equipment, where it is simultaneously too strict and too loose.
Too strict, because 20 feet from a property line is unachievable on most lots in this city, where side yards run three to six feet. Too loose, because a homeowner who has satisfied themselves that the pad is 20 feet from a window may still have missed the front clearance, the overhead clearance, the exhaust direction, and the alarm requirement that the City actually checks.
What Does New Orleans Actually Require for Generator Placement?
The City’s Residential Generator Acknowledgment is the honest answer. It is the form the contractor signs at permit stage, and the site plan submitted with the application has to confirm each item on it. Every number a homeowner needs is on a single page, and none of them is 20 feet.
The items the site plan must confirm, in the City’s own terms:
- Not located in the front yard or the corner side yard
- Set back at least 2 feet from the side and rear lot lines
- 18 inches minimum clear at the rear
- 5 feet minimum clear overhead
- 30 inches minimum front clearance
- 5 feet minimum from any opening, windows given as the example
- Exhaust will not be directed towards the house
- Complies with manufacturer requirements, which must be attached along with a drawing showing the distances and any other equipment on the plan
| Item | What the City’s form asks for | What the 20/20 rule of thumb says |
|---|---|---|
| Position on the lot | Not in the front yard or the corner side yard | 20 ft from the property line |
| Side and rear lot lines | At least 2 ft | 20 ft |
| Clearance at the rear | 18 in minimum | Not addressed |
| Clearance at the front | 30 in minimum | Not addressed |
| Clearance overhead | 5 ft minimum | Not addressed |
| Distance from any opening | 5 ft minimum | 20 ft |
| Exhaust direction | Must not be directed at the house | Not addressed |
| Carbon monoxide alarms | Each sleeping room plus one in the living area | Not addressed |
The form also states that the installation is subject to a final inspection and that changes will prevent issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy or Certificate of Completion. That is the sentence worth reading twice, because it means the placement agreed at permit stage is the placement that has to exist at the end. Anyone can read it themselves on the City of New Orleans residential generator acknowledgment form.
How Far Does a Generator Have to Be From a Window or Door?
Five feet from any opening is the figure the City puts on the form, and the same five foot separation from openings appears in NFPA 37, the standard covering stationary combustion engines. It is measured from the enclosure to the nearest edge of the window, door, or vent rather than to the middle of it.
Two details catch people out on older housing stock. A soffit vent, a dryer vent, or an attic gable vent is an opening for this purpose, and those sit at heights nobody thinks to measure. A raised house with an open underfloor area also gives exhaust somewhere to collect, which changes where a unit can sensibly go even where a tape measure says it complies.
Direction matters alongside distance, and the City makes that explicit by requiring that exhaust not be aimed at the house. A generator that meets every clearance while pointing its exhaust across a six foot side yard at a neighbor’s bedroom window is a complaint waiting to happen, and rotating the pad at layout stage costs nothing. That judgment is why generator installation work starts with a site walk rather than a model number.
Does a Standby Generator Need to Be 20 Feet From the House?
Not under the current rules. A permanently installed unit is designed to sit close to the structure, and New Orleans accepts 18 inches at the rear, because the transfer switch, the service equipment, and the gas supply are all at the building. Twenty feet is portable generator guidance, not a standby setback.
The practical distance ends up decided by three things at once: the rear clearance the manufacturer’s instructions allow, the position of the gas meter, and the conductor run back to the transfer switch. Longer runs mean larger conductors, so a pad placed at the back of a deep lot for appearance can add material cost without adding safety.
Carbon monoxide is still the reason all of this exists. A standby unit vents at a tested height and direction, which is what makes a close installation acceptable, while a portable vents wherever it happens to be pointing. Households relying on a portable during an outage should read what to do when the power goes out before the next storm rather than during it.
Why Is the Federal Regulator Now Asking for 25 Feet?
Because of what happened here. On 3 June 2025 the Consumer Product Safety Commission published a staff report on the carbon monoxide hazard from stationary generators, built almost entirely on cases in the greater New Orleans area during the outages that followed Hurricane Ida in 2021.
The report identified stationary generators as the carbon monoxide source in 105 southeast Louisiana homes. Residents of twelve of those homes had symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, and one person was admitted to hospital overnight. These were permanently installed units on pads, not portables in garages, which is the finding that made the report unusual.
In July 2025 CPSC staff wrote to the NFPA 37 technical committee recommending that the clearance between a stationary generator and openings into a structure be increased from the current 5 feet to at least 25 feet. NFPA replied that the recommendation would have to go through the next code revision cycle as a public input, so 5 feet remains the enforceable number today. The report is public on the Consumer Product Safety Commission website, and it is worth knowing about before choosing a location a household will live with for twenty years.
Do You Need Carbon Monoxide Alarms With a New Generator Here?
Yes, and it is on the same City form as the clearances. The acknowledgment requires that carbon monoxide alarms be installed inside each sleeping room and one in the living area, referencing section R315.2.1 of the 2021 International Residential Code as adopted in the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code.
This is the item most often treated as an afterthought, and given what the CPSC report found in this city it is arguably the most important line on the page. Alarms inside sleeping rooms matter specifically because carbon monoxide exposure during an outage usually happens overnight, when a generator has been left running and nobody is awake to notice a symptom.
Practical points worth settling at the same time: alarms with sealed long life batteries do not depend on anyone remembering a battery change, alarms have their own expiry dates printed on the housing, and a house that already has smoke alarms does not necessarily have carbon monoxide alarms. Confirming that during the install is cheaper than discovering it during the final inspection.
Does a Generator Have to Be Elevated in a New Orleans Flood Zone?
Often, yes. Where a property carries a flood elevation requirement, mechanical and electrical equipment is generally expected to sit at or above the elevation the City applies to that address, which for a generator means a raised platform rather than a slab at grade. The figure is property specific and comes from the City.
That single requirement changes the budget, the appearance, and sometimes the location. A platform tall enough to clear the required elevation on a low-lying lot needs its own structural design, and it lifts the exhaust outlet, which then interacts with the five foot opening clearance at a new height. Neither problem is difficult on paper and both are expensive after the pad has cured.
The elevation applying to a specific address is worth confirming with the City before ordering equipment, because it also decides whether the gas connection, the transfer switch, and the disconnect need to be raised with it. Establishing it early belongs with the groundwork before any electrical project starts.
Do You Need a Permit to Install a Standby Generator in Orleans Parish?
Yes. A permanently installed standby generator is permitted work in New Orleans, filed through the City’s One Stop system, and the acknowledgment form is signed by the contractor as part of that application. Gas piping is a separate trade, so a typical installation involves more than one review path.
The form itself tells you what the inspection is looking for, because the site plan has already committed to it: the clearances, the yard position, the exhaust direction, the manufacturer’s requirements, and the alarms. The transfer switch carries additional weight, because an improper connection can backfeed the utility line and endanger crews restoring power on the block.
Permits also matter later. An unpermitted generator can surface during a sale, during an insurance review after a storm claim, or during any subsequent panel work, and resolving it then costs more than doing it in order. Where the service equipment is being touched anyway, the permit and inspection sequence for a panel upgrade runs on the same clock and is usually worth combining.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 20/20 rule in the National Electrical Code?
No. The National Electrical Code does not set a 20/20 rule for standby generators. New Orleans applies its own residential generator checklist at permit stage, and clearances for stationary engines come from NFPA 37 and the manufacturer’s installation instructions.
How close to the house can a standby generator sit in New Orleans?
The City’s acknowledgment form accepts 18 inches minimum clear at the rear, with 30 inches at the front, 5 feet overhead, and 5 feet from any opening, all subject to the manufacturer’s own requirements being attached to the application.
Can a standby generator go in the front yard?
The City’s form asks the contractor to confirm the unit is not located in the front yard or the corner side yard, so front yard placement should be treated as unavailable on a residential lot unless the City says otherwise for that address.
Can a standby generator be installed under a raised house?
An underfloor area is not a suitable location, because exhaust collects in a partially enclosed space and the clearance and ventilation assumptions the enclosure was tested under no longer apply there.
How far does a generator need to be from a gas meter?
Clearance from the meter and its regulator vent comes from the gas utility and the installation manual rather than from a single universal figure, which is why the meter position is one of the first things measured on a site walk.
Does the 25 foot recommendation apply to my installation now?
Not as an enforceable requirement. It is a recommendation CPSC staff made to the NFPA 37 committee in July 2025, and NFPA indicated it would have to be handled in the next code revision cycle, so 5 feet from openings remains the number in force.
Do carbon monoxide alarms have to go in every bedroom?
The City’s generator acknowledgment asks for alarms inside each sleeping room plus one in the living area, referencing the 2021 International Residential Code as adopted in the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code.
Get the Placement Settled Before the Pad Is Poured
Generator placement is cheap to change on a site walk and expensive to change once the concrete is down, and in this city it is the City’s own checklist and the flood elevation, not a rule of thumb, that decide where a unit goes. Big Easy Electricians measures the openings, the meter, the service, the yard position, and the elevation before quoting, and the estimate is free. Call 504-226-7555 or send the details through the contact page to get a crew out. Households weighing backup power against a capacity problem should look at what a panel upgrade covers first, since a generator feeding an undersized service solves only half the problem, and anyone whose interest in backup power started with a storm should read how lightning damage reaches household wiring. Where an inherited generator is already on site, a documented inspection of the existing installation is the fastest way to find out where it stands.