Thanks for the info everybody. We dodged the bullet this time but next time I'll have some insight.

One more note about air conditioning. This was recommended once and it works for me.

Get an air conditioner that is actually a little too small for the room to be cooled. That will let the temperature rise a bit, but the unit will be running more nearly continuosly, which will dehumidify better. 78 degrees and drier is more comfortable than 70 degrees and humid. YMMV.

Depending on the humidity where you live, a swamp cooler might be an alternate solution. They work great here in arrid Colorado. But since you mentioned "tropical storm", something tells me that "arrid" does not describe your location! Swamp coolers are cheaper than air conditioning, need much less power, but really crank the humidy up as they cool you. I would not use one through the air conditioning/heating ductwork in my house because of the mold possibilities. But a standalone portable one, for emergency use, sure!

Anything can cool "UP TO" 500 square feet. Including the fan I made by folding up a sheet of paper. It's more likely that my little hand fan will only cool 0.5 square feet, but by definition, that is still "up to" 500 square feet! Marketing ploy from the A/C manufacturers, that's all.

i have two window units that only use about 500 watts each. no problem running both at the same time on my little honda EU2000i gen, but instead i run them on a small solar system (1000 watts of PV panels fed into 12V DC L16 batteries, then converted to 120V AC via invertor). each is enough to make an average size room livable in extreme heat.

How much space do 1000 watts of panels require? I know nothing about solar, but this sounds intriguing.

4 panels of {250 watts each} weighs total combined 200 lbs,would be 160 inches by 66 inches of space

http://www.solarworld-usa.com/system-designers/~/media/Global/PDFs/datasheets/sunmodule-solar-panel-250-mono-ds.pdf

thnx IzzyJG99. been using this system for years to run the house. rarely is the back-up generator needed. while it takes careful consideration to what electrical items you can use and for how long, we have everything we need, including laptops, modems, printers, satellite 'net and tv, a 52" flatscreen sony, full size stereo, power tools, et al...

spuds is correct. today it would only take four 250w panels and slightly less space than ours.

i have eight 120W panels that take up 8x8 square feet on the mount. here's a pix:

Thanks for that. Puts it into perspective.

BTW, you live in a most awesome place! I am so jeolous!!!

I tell ya,panels are major BEAUTIFUL IMO.

These are classics,real beauties in person.

Picked up a pile of these recently,somewhere around 1000 watts....with the federal tax credit came in at 83 cents/watt.