Standby generators sitting 5 feet from the wall are exactly what the code allows, which is the distance that let carbon monoxide into 105 Louisiana houses after a hurricane knocked the power out and left them running for days

“The installation standard that governs these machines calls for 5 feet between the generator and an opening into the building…

Federal staff now recommend at least 25 feet, and put it in writing to the committee that owns that standard, along with a second recommendation that the engines be built to emit far less of the gas, as the federal report sets out.

Here is the limit of it. A recommendation is not a rule, the standard has not changed, and nobody counted how many of these units are already bolted down, so the size of the exposed group is simply unknown…”