PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!get a carbon monoxide alarm! I can't tell you how many people nearly- or did - kill themselves because of the fumes! We had one guy with a CO reading over 700 in his house and he SWORE it wasn't from the generator! BTW our meters have 2 preset alarms. The low one is 35 and the high is 70! his was 700!!!

my 2KW rund my fridge, my CPAP machine, a few lights, and can run the furnace (all it needs to do is open the gas valve - we have steam, so no pumps/fans)

That's all we NEED - that said, I'm thinking of putting in a 10-14KW whole house unit - we have NG to the house, and along with the portable as a 2nd line backup, I should be good. The 10-14Kw unit is more a "it's nice" than a "we need"

I've thought about generators in the past, and have always concluded that I had no real need for one.

In the event of an extended power outage during a disaster, what do I need that requires electricity? Refridgerator and freezer? - nice, but certainly not a necessity. If the food inside spoils, it wasn't very expensive in the first place anyway. Much less than the cost of a generator. Lights? - you would certainly want some light, but I think several LED flashlights and loads of batteries would be perfectly functional. Washer, dryer, electric cooktop? - Don't need them. Heat? - that would be nice too, assuming the gas to the furnace wasn't disrupted along with the electricity for the fan. But we've got lots of cold weather gear and very good sleeping bags, so we could survive without.

The only thing I can really come up with that would be a necessity is communications. That could be cell phones, or computers/modems/routers/etc. Of course, you are dependant on the infrastructure to support these devices to be intact. HAM radio would be best, but I'm not into that.

So I can only come up with a use for a smallish generator. One big enough to charge cellphones, run a computer for short periods, maybe to power a charger for NiMH spare batteries, etc.

But I don't live in an area that is prone to disasters or has frequent power outages (I have been without power for probably less than 4 hours total over the last 30 years). For those of you that do live in problem areas, what essential things do you use your generator for? I can see if you have long and frequent power outages, you might grow weary of having your refridgerated foods spoil all the time. I'm lucky in that I don't have to deal with that where I live.

I don't live in a problem area but needs are driven by circumstances so here are mine. The two external things that drove my choice to own a moderate sized portable generator are midwest winter storms occasionally take out power and without power we have no heat. Similarly severe weather in warmer months can also take out power with resulting loss of refrigerator and the sump pump.

Generally those are events that can be worked around but my family comes with a built in set of challenges that had to be factored in. My son is on a very, very restricted diet due to Celiacs disease and several food allergies. Going out to eat is pretty much not an option and finding stuff he can eat at the local markets is a challenge. So... the answer is make sure we keep enough of his stuff around and make sure we have the means to make it last. Having the ability to keep the heat on or the basement dry are just very nice side effects due to the size generator I grabbed to meet the "real" need.

Of course being prepared has resulted in no major power losses since we bought the generator. Go Figure!

- Eric

If you live in an area with below freezing winter temperatures, keeping the heat on in your house (if possible) is a big deal. You may do fine with cold weather clothing and sleeping bags, but your pipes will not do so well.

The most common heating set up in older houses in Anchorage is hot water baseboard fed by a gas boiler. Most of these setups require an electric pump to circulate the water. When the power goes off, the heat goes off also. In the part of Anchorage where I used to live (the "Hillside") loosing power was not uncommon, due to requent high winds and lots of trees blowing down. I had a portable generator.

My present home is down on the flats, where power outages still happen, but more rarely. For a variety of reasons, when I moved in here I didn't have a generator. A few years ago, we had a widespread major wind event, with ambient temps in the 0 to 10 F range. Power was off at my house for ~36 hours. I barely managed to keep my pipes from freezing by a combination of desperate measures. We moved our propane patio grill inside (I know, a serious safety issue!) and also used a smaller portable propane tent heater which we moved from room to room. Several of my neighbors were not so lucky, and had pipes break. They had many thousands of dollars of repairs to plumbing, floors and walls. Frozen pipes ain't no joke!

I now have a portable generator stashed away. I also had an electrician wire a switch and "pigtail" onto the furnace. This is a common modification up here, and allows you to throw the switch which isolates your furnace boiler from house power. The pigtail can then be plugged into the generator. If wired correctly, it is a safe set up for running your gas boiler. You only need to run it periodically, just enough to keep the house barely above freezing (not necessarily comfortably warm).

I have a small copper water line that supplies a hose faucet out on the front of the garage at my house. One year I forgot to turn off the water to that line from inside the house and the pipe froze. Luckily I had nothing in the garage that could be damaged by water, but even still...it was not a fun experience. It made a loud kaboom and next thing I knew there was water and ice everywhere in the garage. Then I had to go shut off the line, cut out the pipe, and repair it (which was not fun out in the cold and icy garage).

Anyway, we do have a generator wired into the house. A few of us in the family had them installed back in 1998-99, because of the whole y2k thing. We decided on a diesel unit, as I have a few 1000 gallon tanks of diesel on hand (since I'm in the construction industry). This is what we had it set up to run:

-basement sump pump
-a few hall lights, the kitchen lights, and the ceiling fans in the bedrooms
-a few key 110v outlets: in case I need to power some small appliance
-first and second floor furnace
-our three refrigerators
-the two electric garage door openers
-the water heater
-the washer and dryer
-the kitchen microwave
-the central alarm system* (security/fire/carbon monoxide) *This has a battery backup, but I made sure it would get power anyway.

Off the top of my head, these are things I decided not to wire in after careful consideration:

-Central air> This draws an absurd amount of power and I didn't really feel it necessary with the ceiling fans in the bedrooms.
-Stove> The range top is natural gas, so that can still be used to cook.
-Security Cameras> This has its own backup power supply.
-Modem and Router> This is backed up by its own UPS.
-Main desktop Computer> I didn't want to hook this computer into the dirty generator power, but it does have a UPS that will keep it running for at least 15 minutes in a power failure. Otherwise, I've got a few battery-powered laptops.
-Main cable tv box and main tv> I've got a portable tv and a few portable am/fm radios for information, so I didn't bother.
-Phones> I've still got a self-powered landline, so that doesn't require generator power as long as you have a wired phone plugged in (of which I have two in the house, kitchen and master bedroom).

For me, the most important things to have powered were the sump pump, the furnaces, the refrigerators, the garage doors, and the alarm system. As they tend to cause me to worry if they aren't working. Also important to me was the hot water heater, just because it's so annoying when that goes out.

mine is a convenience...I weathered all previous including the 04 and 05 hurricane seasons without one...the 3500w was a gift from a friend, and cost me $8 for a gasket to rebuild the carburetor

the house is all electric, but over the years have accumulated the hurricane supplies and techniques through lessons learned...multiple propane bottles, ice chests, kerosene lanterns, water storage tanks, propane stoves, etc

before retiring, my daily routine was to get up at 6 and to work by 7...sleeping was a major consideration for me...if you are not a resident of the Gulf Coast, its hard to realize how opressive the heat and humidity can be... the house was built pre air conditioning era with many windows, however most of the windows had been painted shut....I started acquiring battery powered fans prior to the first of the 3 storms in 04...originally I was going to purchase a small window air conditioning unit, but have changed my mind..

my current plan is to run intermittently for two items... battery charger for the 12v batteries (I have a GoalZero 7w panel just in case), and freezer to produce ice for the non frozen perishable foods... I've made arrangements with the neighbors to power their shallow water well if necessary (I covered over my well when I inherited the house).. additionally I quit fighting with a gas powered chain saw and purchased an electric one...the generator makes it usable if necessary

most of the convenience and recreation gadgets are 12v and can be charged by the car's cigarette lighter and the generator is overkill

We live in an area of frequent and often long power outages, and used portable generators for several years, then installed an automatic standby generator. Here are our critical reasons/circuits:

Critical:
1. Sump pump. This automatic pump keeps the basement dry by allowing water to flow into the sump, essentially a 55 gallon drum buried below the basement floor. Without it, the basement will fill with water, destroying everything it touches, e.g. the HVAC system, hot water heater etc etc etc. Not a theoretical threat in our area. The first year we moved in, a storm took out power and a neighbor who did not have a generator ended up with 3 feet of water in her basement. And such a "flood" is usually not covered by your homeowners insurance. To us, this was and IMO is a fully sufficient reason by itself to have a generator.

Other significant reasons:

2. Fridge: food and insulin. Insulin is expensive to replace, especially when I try to keep a minimum 3 month supply on hand.
3. Medical devices: power assist devices for DW so she can move around the house. The techs who installed our automatic standby generator told me that 80% of their installations were due to medical devices needing power.
4. heat and hot water: both gas operated, electricity only to power controls and fan.

Convienence:

5. TV and internet.
6. a few lights here and there

Les, did you ever get the windows open?

I rented a small, old place in SoCal many years ago, and the windows had also been painted shut. No A/C. I called the owner and asked if that was by design, and she said she didn't know they were sealed (she had never lived in it), and gave me permission to open them. It was a real job, but it made a difference in the summer. But I don't know FL, whether it would be worth the effort, with your high humidity.

My neighbor there had a higher-class older home, and he said he would open the low windows on the shady side (they were almost on the ground!) and also the upper-floor ones on the sunny side, and that really helped. His house was a lot cooler than mine, and there was always a breeze flowing through it.

I guess when you could afford to build a nice house in the 'olden days' (aka pre-A/C) you could design for thermal convection.

Sue

Susan...short answer is no...I inherited the house 7 years ago and they were pretty permanent by that time...I have 27 windows installed prior to 1940 (1927 I think) and the glass is pretty fragile, and probably would cause more damage than worth if I forced them...the house is not a true Cracker home, but very similar in some ways... tall ceilings, built on pilings, wide porch, etc...with central heat and air, and a couple of large floor to ceiling windows replaced by jalousie crank out, it's only a problem during prolonged power outages, like the 04 hurricane season.. about 7 days

since retirement, I don't have the need I once did

most of my comments are just to pass on ideas and solutions that have worked for me in the past, or address problems I've encountered

regards