Economics of a Generator for Power Outages

[Fern]

I never used to think it made much sense to buy one, since as i understood, it runs on gasoline and really would just keep your essential appliances going for a few more hours, right?

But with some pretty bad and prolonged power outages recently, i've begun to rethink my original position. Also, i'm on a medication that needs to be refrigerated. It can go up to 5 days i think at room temp, but not in humid 80 degree weather.

So an electric generator seems like maybe a good idea, especially if you've got a fridge full of food that could go bad or no heat in the winter. Anyone here have experience with one?

[Ima saver]

I wanted to get one, but the problem is, you have to keep so much gas to keep it going. The problem is, when the power goes out, the gas station loses power too and you can't pump gas to refill your generator. Plus, if they are not used, something can go wrong. We lost power last winter and my neighbor has a built in generator (starts automatically) because it had not been used or serviced in so long, it did not work)

When we lost power is usually in winter, snow and ice storms. We once went for 7 days, during the blizzard of 93! No power. We did not lose any food, we put the frozen stuff outside and the cold stuff in our bedroom. (It was 35 in there) I worried more about freezing to death than anything else. We had wood heat but now we don't.

[cschin4]

I have thought about buying a generator as well. My biggest concern would be the winter and freezing. I figure I could make it through the summer or spring with a power outage but we can have some harsh winters. I also thought of just putting in a gas fireplace or gas heater instead. Keeping warm is the #1 issue. If you live in a warm climate, then I think you could probably do without. But, what do the rest of you think?

[greedy4chips]

Y2k paranoia sent many people running to the stores to buy generators. Some bought generators big enough to run 2 or 3 homes and others bought ones that could only run a couple appliances. All ran on gas and no one stored enough to make it for several days.

If you have a severe power failure lasting for several days you can always siphen the gas from a vehicle if you are stuck in your house for an ice storm or something.

I would figure the cost versus loss ratio of losing your frozen/refrigerated items to heat or comfort in the summer if you lose your AC. I can refill my freezer and fridge several times for the cost of a big generator. Frozen pipes in the winter is another story and one that would be my biggest consideration for buying one to run a few space heaters while I went out of town.

At $3000+ for a good (10,000 watt) full house generator (natural gas or propane type), I think I would pass.

[lillyb]

I've got a little motorhome that has a generator. My backup plan has always been to go out there for any power outages. Flip of switch, and it's running on it's own tank. Should that tank run empty I can siphon (if nothing else) from the much larger tank to run the generator. Of course, the fridge runs off propane, as well. We can run AC or central heat (which also runs off propane, but if we run out we can use electric heat that is also stored in the rig). Dh usually keeps a couple 5 gallon gas cans in the garage as a backup as well. In the cold, outside is a good fridge for perishables. Have got all the comforts of home in the rig just waiting for me in an emergency.

[Crystallas]

I have an inverter that I can connect my car to my house for power. Its about 11 years old, and has actually served me well. Its not as economic on fuel as a new generator, but it does the trick in emergency situations.

I actually wanted to buy a wind/crank powered generator for emergency situations recently. You can build one yourself, and attach turbines to one, or a sprocket and rig it to a bike. You wouldnt need to ride the bike very hard to generate enough to power a few appliances, but it would be geared twords getting more usage as a windmill.