Power is out, but not me!

How many watts ?

That'll make you a target!

A target for what?

Moths.

We seriously considered one of those but we do not have natural gas service and would have needed a large tank of propane. I read they can consume 2-4 gallons of propane per hour costing up to $90/day.

My brother has had one for about 2 years but has yet to use it and maintenance costs about $300/year.

I still get by with essential services with my small gasoline generator.

We have a 5kw gas unit that will run everything but the water heater and I'm considering adding LPG capability since we now have one of those large tanks . Figure a gallon an hour it would run the genset for about

Only problem I have is having replaced the oil furnace with a heat pump which takes too much power to handle.

Because my wife needed oxygen I bought a portable too. I could run her machine and the refrigerator. We have city water.

I'd miss the AC though, sure can get hot here. 5 1/2 years and longest outage was 2 hours and I was asleep anyway.

why, the energy seeking extra-terrestrial aliens in:

'The Darkest Hour' (2011), of course [a]

Most people get sold on a unit that is way bigger than they need. I'll be getting one installed later this year - 12 kw ish. and it will easily handle everything minus the heat pump. And I doubt that it will ever be supplying even 75 % of full load because I presently use a Honda 5000 portable during outages and it handles all the essentials, no problem. Note - the smallest Generac < 10 kw ? > uses a single cylinder motor - avoid that. John T.

we're likely getting a 10 kw unit in the near future for our home, which is quite adequate for all the key items (basically the sump pump, refrigerator, lighting, tv/computers). It will also handle the window a/c unit.

We could probably even, if we added some capacitors to it... run the whole house a/c, but that's not any immediate issue.

NOTE: when calculating loads, you have to also include the "starting surge" for way too many standard appliances. Fortunately our refrigerator and a/c are newer, invertor units, so that's not a major issue.

ANOTHER sneaky one is... the DEFROST cycle on many "frost free" refrigerators. In another life I had to determine why the circuit breakers at a small religious center were cutting out and turning off all the overhead lights...

It happened because... a licensed, insured, and experienced.. electrician had wired up a new outlet on the floor for a standard sized (household level, not huge industrial) refrigerator. When the lights were all on AND the defrost cycle kicked in, poof, overload.

Yeah, it used hundreds of watts..

I originally bought my generator and had transfer panel installed because of a two day outage in the winter. We could bear with the summer heat and no water for a few days. We did have a two day outage this winter without heat and would have gone to a sons house if longer. I bought a couple of portable propane heaters if it happens again.

Might mention with the heat pump in the winter the power company sent everyone a audit of their usage and where we used to be below average we are now 90% higher. With the attack on fossil fuels and push to heat pumps and electric cars the infrastructure will be overloaded in the near future and power outages will be a common thing.

One must figure in the cost of the fuel for the generators. If you do not mind the cost the whol house thing is the way to go. If like me I do not want to pay much so a 5 kw will do me and I can make do with just getting by. I do have a wood stove if I need heat as I have a heat pump and the generator will not pull it. Have a well for water so need power for water. I also have a 3 kw propane/gasoline dual fuel that I only run on propane as we seldom have power outages and it will power what we want for the short time outages. I think in the last 5 years I have only put about 5 hours on each unit.

I would hate to pay $ 300 per year just as an insurance policy.

Mobs. Neigbors come to take electricity for themselves. Or at least to take it away from someone else. If I haven't got it, neither should they.

My 2 main reasons for investing in an automatic whole-home system - it's getting harder for me to drag out the portable and get it hooked-up ; a power outage when I'm away from home could cause serious problems, under wet or winter conditions - flooded basement, frozen pipes, etc. I've recently learned of a load-shedding relay device that the heat pump would be wired through - so the heat pump would be automatically disconnected when the generator starts - that would help assure that the generator would not be tripped from overload < especially when I'm away from home >

John T.

At this point my brother is totally incapacitated. He may recover but his wife could probably not handle a small generator and he had bought the whole house generator for her security.

I have alternatives here. Fireplace will maintain above freezing. Backups with propane and 5,000 watt gas generator. It's enough to power fridge, 1 portable AC and some oscillating fans.

That's why we heat with wood . I hate being cold in my house . The backup heat is a propane wall heater , which also runs without electricity .