Well I finally broke down and purchased a generator ($775, delivered), last year we had a humdinger of a wind storm and we lost power for days, I kept telling myself the power would come back on any time but it just never came.
On the last day my Dad and Ben came over and hooked me up with a suicide cable and my Dads generator (he did not loose power), it was great we had power!
Thing is that one the way back to drop my dad off the power came back on, so the 1st thing I had to do when I got back was turn the generator off and switch back onto the grid.
In the 3 days I waited for the power to return we lost all the food in our fridge and big freezer in the garage; easily this set me back $500 (steak, fish, etc).
Well I expect a "good" winter this year so I broke down and purchased a generator, this one here; though the seller says he is prohibited from telling folks who the manufacturer is I am fairly sure its made by this Chinese company Shine.
There are more expensive generators as well as cheaper ones with roughly the same specs, but this one runs off gasoline, propane and natural gas. This is important because when the power is out for days getting gasoline can be a problem, the generator is set up for high pressure natural gas not low pressure like what is run into homes in most of North America.
That's not a problem though (or so I hope) because Ben (Outdoor Living Concepts) is a "gas guy" and tells me he can modify it for me to work off low pressure (either through replacing the regulator or the jets).
That means if I get him to install a quick disconnect for the gas over by where I will run it I will be able to plug-in and have fuel and the resulting power without the worry of running out of gasoline.
That leaves me with one problem, how to pipe the power into the house; a suicide cable is fine in a pinch but its not exactly the "right way" so I need to also get a transfer switch; I think I will have my electrical panel replaced with one that has more capacity and has the hookup for the generator built in.
Soup to nuts I am going to be in this project for around $1200 I think but I will be set next time the power goes, overkill? Maybe but hey must keep that server running :)