Ferrari Mailing List: Storm Outages and Emergency Generators

[Paul Bennett (pbennett]

The recent storms brings probabilities of more bad weather and I'm 
wondering...those who already have emergency power systems, what size 
generator do you have or wish you had.

I know the tradeoffs of basic needs vs gasoline useage and even 
noise.  For a 3 day to 1 week outage, The 
freezers/refrigerator  would need some time as would some lighting 
and even the tv system (computer?).  One kw would possibly do this 
but that seems too minimal .  2.5kw perhaps?

Googled to find gas consumption for 5.5 kw Honda to be 1/2 gal /hour 
at half load, so a large rotating storage lawnmower can or two would 
be part of the emergency plan.  It would be nice to build a new house 
with emergency circuits built in but lacking that, a special premade 
extension cord cut to reach necessary appliances from the outside 
generator location without having to leave doors/windows open.

We rarely loose power (every ten years) but one rare time I ran the 
motor home generator output into the house and was the only one in 
the neighborhood with TV lighting being quite obvious from the 
street, but became acutely aware of the problem of finding and 
running a long cord inside.

What are you doing now or plan for the near future?