[gsxrken]

My wife does some part time bookkeeping and sales support for an electrical contractor shop. They are overwhelmed with generator install quotes. In fact, if you ordered a whole house generator right now, it would be drop shipped in May. The prices are also insane. Done-done, they average $20k here in one of the wealthiest counties in the US. And the vampire townships of NY will get you for three permits: electrical, gas, and mechanical as well as filing fees and then ding your property taxes higher due to increased value of dwelling,

The ROI is questionable at best. I could stay at a hotel for $229 a night for MANY nights before the $20k generator got into the Black. But the convenience factor is huge and I won’t tell anyone how to spend their own money. I had them install a transfer switch with my priority circuits on it, and I roll out my 5500w Generac (that I bought for Y2K believe it or not) and plug into the dedicated transfer switch receptacle. If I wasn’t an able bodied, handy, and slightly thrifty individual who can wrestle with it and occasionally clean out the main jet and float bowl needle, maybe I’d look at an automatic one. But today is not that day. It has gotten used through probably 10 power outages including the Hurricane Sandy outlier over the past 20 years. Most outages around here are less than 8 hours by far, and the house HVAC and refrigerators can coast until the power is restored.