[David]

I bought a 6500 watt honda powered, but not honda generator for about $1,000 after hurricane Ike. If I recall, I was putting about 10 gallons in it a day for the 8 days we were without power.

It's loud as a lawnmower at full power. I put it behind the garage with 10 gauge wire connecting it to the breaker box so we had power to all outlets in the house. If you do this don't forget to cut the main breaker so you don't injure or kill the lineman when they reconnect your power.

I should have bought one of the $4,000 Honda generators a few months after the hurricane when they were selling for a little over $2,000 used, but I guess I got complacent by then.

Several folks around here installed 10 kw natural gas generators after the storm so they don't have to do without again. I didn't hear of anyone losing gas at the house after the storm so I guess it's a good option, but there's always a chance you'll loose the gas supply.

After the storm, I changed the oil, drained all the fuel and tucked the generator in the corner of the garage for next time. I have a 5 gas cans plus all vehicles filled before a storm, but that's still only a week or so worth of running.


There were stories of theives going around at night, pulling peoples lawn mower out of the garage and starting it, then shutting off and stealing their generator under cover of the lawn mower noise.