An increasing number of residential property owners are installing their own immediate back up generators in order to maintain the comforts of home such as working air conditioning and refrigerators even when Belco's systems are down.

Belco Energy Service Company Ltd. (Besco), which is a subsidiary of Belco and partly owned by New Venture Holdings, has been advising businesses and individuals on energy conservation since 1995.

Its general manager Kevin Janzen said that while most major businesses already have energy back-up systems in place, the latest trend in Bermuda post Fabian as well as in the southeast American states that are prone to hurricanes and windstorms is for individual residences to take responsibility for their own personalised backup power systems.

"Businesses do it so residences are starting to," Mr. Janzen said. "After Fabian there were many people without power for an extended period of time so if you can afford to exist without the inconvenience that is something that is tweaking the interest of public."

Besco's propane powered backup generators are unlike the portable generators found at most hardware stores in that Besco installs them directly into a home.

The noise they generate is around 61 decibels which is similar to the noise generated by a condensing unit on a split system air conditioner.

As permanent backup systems, they are designed to click in instantaneously in the event of an outage. Owning the system is not cheap however with installation prices starting at $13,000 and going up depending on the specific residence.

While at that price they are not for everyone, Mr. Janzen said that demand locally is very high among those who want total convenience and the ability to operate their homes under a power outage as if there were no power outage at all.

He equates the residential backup power industry as still in its infancy however he sees the day that such appliances will be as common as current modern day systems such as dishwashers or air conditioning.

"The personalised power systems are an appliance that adds value to your home and a level of convenience and security that people are interested in," he said adding that people are buying piece of mind and convenience.

"If you have a home that is worth a substantial amount of money, if you buy the right style of generator that is a liquid cooled model with an aluminium housing and is quiet and installed correctly, it is part of your home. It adds value to your home."

Mr. Janzen said that no matter where people reside, power outages at utilities are a fact of life and his company is offering reliable power at a time when storm activity is on the increase.

"The clients that we are dealing with are more interested in making sure that they are protected in case of a hurricane or wind storm disaster that could potentially take power lines out and that is something Belco can't control," he said.