Do I need a generator? Have a Freezer.

[champa]

I am not sure you absolutely need a generator (sure it is a nice to have but so would be a storm room, or perhaps even a tin foil hat :-) ). In the last 15years, even after the hurricanes (Charlie, etc.) we've never lost power for long enought to loose anything in the fridge. Most power utilities in the area are underground so the power is issue is reduced a bit. Some people did loose power for a long time, but good luck finding gas when you need it. You'll need a lot of gas to run that generator. Figure that you will want to use it to run your fridge and maybe a window unit so you can sleep (yep, noise cortesy be darned!!) at night and that alone will eat through the one tankfull per night. You may want to consider naturel or propane gas for that. It is a shame we don't have city gas like in other places. My buddy in LA has his generator hooked up to a direct line from the utility company so if anything he just gets the bill at the end of the month without having to deal with the price gougers and maniacs running around after a storms.

By the way if you are getting one, don't pinch pennies. You'll want on that won't catch fire or other crazy thing like the B&S that were sold last summer during the LA and TX storms. Some Home Depots and Lowes had huge piles of returned units cause they were pretty much useless. Maybe even go for a diesel one (runs longer for less; same Kw's).

[PilotAlso]

I can comment on this topic because I've had some experience in a little storm named KATRINA!

My daughter and her husband lived in Biloxi at the time. Their home was over ten miles from the coast. They were without power for nearly two weeks. No one who hasn't experienced this will understand how miserable that can be.

No air conditioning, no fans, no lights (beyond battery stuff which wears out quickly), no cool drinks (can't trust the water even if it is available), no perishable foods. It sucks.

How did I get involved? Well after two days of this, she was able to get to a cell phone that worked. She called us asking for help.

Their house was the refuge for co-workers who had lived closer to the coast. They all had lost everything. Each had dogs and/or cats. A dozen people and their pets living in a modestly sized house without amenities gets ugly fast.

I purchased two Honda 2000 watt generators and delivered them along with a bunch of supplies including about 50 gallons of gasoline.

Those generators operated around the clock for the next couple of weeks providing electricity for fans, the refrigerator, lights, radios, etc..

After that experience, I would NEVER be without a back-up generator of some sort regardless of where I live. A prolonged power loss in winter in a northern state could mean a loss of heating for the home. This can quickly lead to frozen pipes and very cold residents.

BTW: the Honda generators are very quiet and burn gas at a miserly rate. They can even be adapted to run on propane if you can't keep a reasonable supply of gasoline on hand.

For the safety challenged, please don't wire a private generator into your homes electrical wiring in a way that could "back feed" the public grid. Doing so has the potential to KILL utility workers and others.

[KorrMuraan]

Originally Posted by PilotAlso

For the safety challenged, please don't wire a private generator into your homes electrical wiring in a way that could "back feed" the public grid. Doing so has the potential to KILL utility workers and others.

Very important! As during an outage is exactly the same time you'll have the utility working on your lines.

Best to have a switch installed with which to flip your home from grid to generator. I had one in AK on the side of my house (locked of course).