Hi: From Saskatchewan, Canada. Work in heavy construction and do the safety planning for remote areas. We can get down to -50degrees celcuis, and deadly with wind up. Blizzard in 2007 was a good wakeup call for us, as we had men out in it. As a result, every vehicle has cold weather survivial gear such as the hand and foot warmers, body warmers. I carry and the one pound propane heaters. Propane has a tendency to gell at such cold temperatures, so would need to ensure you fire up before it gets to bottom temperature range. The little gel stoves that backpackers use is a good source of heat, inexpenseive, and lasts for about 12 hours per can. The pccket warmers can be stuck in sleeping bags, and if you put them back into an airtight bag, may be able to deactivate them and reuse. (provided they are air-activated). A portable generator is a good idea, provided it is quiet and you vent the fumes outside, perhaps by using something similar to a dryer vent, like mechanic shops use. CO dector good idea in any case. Our Canadian tire stores sell battery packs that you can run a heater from, (electric plug in). It is pre-charged and kept on standby to run computer equipment and applicances. Would do the trick until it ran out of jpower, though some can be recharged using solar panels.
I have kids, so I make sure that we have plenty of different heat sources int he event of emergency, and we do have alot of heat emergencies these days. A cigeratte plug blanket is also good, and you can use a "power box" type of set up very safely when required. Works great for the car and in emergency road situations. I also used the kerosense heater last year, and smelled really bad. Need to vent windows, and someone awake to monitor.
Bottom line is, carry a bit of everything. It really hurts to be very cold, and even bags of tea lights can help to prevent cold weather emergencies from taking you down.
By the way, tea lights are pretty good too, provided you take the proper percautions. Everything takes planning, though it all definitely worth the work! Good luck, I am doing the same thing here now. I am looking for as many sources of heating my home as safely as possible.