Auragens sound like DTO (direct take off) generators, i.e. they are mechanically attached to the truck engine driveshaft and are powered by it. They don't have their own motor so they don't care what kind of fuel the truck uses. I agree, that's an interesting approach, and $350 is an amazingly good price. I don't see any on ebay right now. Of course to use one, you need a DTO-equipped truck.

I still think most of these applications (well pump where there's a well with enough water to put out forest fires? $800 worth of food in the freezer?!) are if not in the .01%, then maybe in the 1% or 2%. If you want to keep that much food around the house, try nonperishables.

I agree that having a light in a room is psychologically comforting, but it doesn't have to be full powered. A white LED bounced off the ceiling is plenty to see around the room and that's easy to do on battery power.

As for starting a furnace, would a computer UPS do it? Those are fairly inexpensive and compact compared with a generator. Anyway, have some warm blankets around.

I think for most properly equipped people, even an extended power failure with no generator, as long as the building itself is still intact so you have a roof over your head, should be no more than an inconvenience. The whole city of Auckland, NZ had no power for several months in 1998 and got by just fine.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/misc/mercury.txt