I have many amusing stories from the giant Northeastern blackout of ’03 – but all was not fun and games. Our fridge and freezer went without power for a few days and all kinds of good food went bad. We’re talking bacon, people – bacon!. Sigh. If the loss of my favorite meat wasn’t tragic enough there was also one other thing to contend with – the stench of poultry, dairy and veg dying together in my fridge. The smell, in a word, was epic. It all could have been avoided if I we had invested in a back-up power unit. A nice group on the market is the Generac Residential Generators. Generac’s site boldly boasts “America Prefers Generac 5 to 1” and that’s good enough for us. After all, America is always right about everything.
Generac offers a variety of different styles and sizes, although most homeowners will likely look to the Air-Cooled Standby Generator. It’s the most compact, quiet and user-friendly generator of the bunch. Five models from 8kW to 20kW are available depending on the size of your home or the uses you foresee. This model is installed outdoors and is directly patched into your home’s utility line. When the power goes out, the Generator kicks in. If you’re still not sure you’d need a backup power system, just let me say this: think of the bacon.
While a few units can be found in big box stores (the 20kW is available at Home Depot for around $5000), Generac dealers can sell, provide quotes and install these units, so you may want to contact them directly if you’re looking for the full meal-deal. Amazon also features the more beefy Generac Guardian Series 25,000 Watt Liquid-Cooled Propane/Natural Gas Powered Home Automatic Standby Generator with Steel Enclosure (CARB Compliant)
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A few summers ago here in St. Louis we were out of power for almost two weeks in the middle of July after a bad series of lightning storms. Needless to say it was miserable.
We moved out of the city and built a new house, and I swore I’d never live like that again.
Our electrical co-op actually provided low interest (4%) financing for our Generac natural gas 16kW unit. The cost is just tacked onto the bill every month for 2 years.
As you mentioned, it has a small air-cooled engine and it starts and runs automatically for a few minutes once per week to keep in shape. It was pretty straight-forward to change the oil with synthetic and the air & oil filters are available on Amazon.com.
That said, apparently the best way to ensure you’re never without power is to buy a standby generator – but only because then your power never goes out! It’s not been out for more than 30 minutes since we built here.
I guess that’s life!