To 'answer' the question, restocking a fridge AFTER you've eaten most of the stuff inside....cost us about 350 dollars. It was that low because we had anticipated the storm. There was the second fridge and the chest freezer in the garage. That added to it. We've been through 2 hurricanes that knocked out power for 7 and 4 (or 5-can't remember) days. It was a relatively big deal. No, not life threatening, but it did have a big impact. We have figured out that even just those 2 hurricanes would have off set the cost of the generator. We have weighed the pros and cons and decided to upgrade. Unfortunately not an automatic standby but a power transfer and a large enough generator to handle a few big things.