PONTIAC, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Technicians at Oak Electric in Pontiac are offering some tips to keep you and your family safe this winter while using a portable gasoline generator. 

• Be sure the generator is outside in a safe area
• Keep the generator at least 10 feet away from your home to prevent carbon monoxide from entering inside
• If the generator runs out of fuel, make sure it's powered down before adding more fuel

"With a portable generator, you don't want to plug the generator into like a dryer outlet and run the whole house," said Gary Pipia, Oak Electric president. "It's very dangerous. You have to have what they call either a manual transfer switch or a bypass mechanism. The reason why is you don't want to back feed power into the home, then it goes out to through the utility and you could potentially injure a utility worker."

Automatic standby generators are professionally installed and will kick on if you lose power.