[John Rogers]

I have two generators, one is a small 1KW that I bought after the San Diego wild fires in 2007 and a much larger one, 10KW that I bought a couple years ago. The small one could power the frig and some lights. The large one can power nearly the whole house including the heater and hot water heater which are both gas.

I did have to make up several heavy duty cords, one goes to the garage freezer and heater and hot water heater, very important in the east coast winters. Another goes to the upstairs refrigerator, lights and various electronics. I was going to install a plug in system at our breaker box but decided to go with plugs and extensions instead. I also use my old 5 gallon racing gas cans and have added gas preservative so it will not go bad over a years time. I have enough gas at any time for about 4 or 5 days constant running as when we had the fires and power went off, the gas pumps did not run! When I was looking at them, all the generators listed their "gas consumption" rates so you'll need to know how much to keep on hand.