[chrismorse]

The alcohol will pull moisture out of the air and F**K up your generator carburetor.

A local chainsaw/lawnmower repair shop said that over 50% of their business was fixing the damage that alcohol caused in equipment.

50%

Typically, generators sit for 99+% of the time, giving alcohol plenty of chance to eat up stuff.

I can buy alcohol free gas at the local petroleum dealer for the princely sum of $6.00 per gallon, but it is worth it to not have to keep repairing my yard equipment or draining the tank after every usage. I keep 4 or 4 5 gallon cans in the shed, away from the house.

I have a 5K Generac and it has worked well during our outages. I usually end up running a power cord over to the neighbor's house to keep her frige, lights and cell phone charger working.

It is amazing how little power you need to run a few lights , a refrigerator, stereo/tv, if you have nat gas water heater, stove and furnace.

My nephew just shuts off the main panel feed, starts the little Honda generator and plugs in a double ended male cord to a circuit and bingo my sisters house is powered up.

Much better to get a transfer switch installed and run a propane or nat gas generator.

If you build a shed or dog house for the generator and install a larger (or additional) muffler, you need to run the exhaust outside the shed and be sure to secure the generator down, so it doesn't dance all around and snap off your fancy new QUIET muffler, or start something on fire.

Don't go so big on the generator that you cannot start it with a pull rope. Battery start systems, even with battery tenders, occasionally take a dump, then you are trying to cobble up some jumpers to a battery you have to rob from a car, just to get the generator going a few minutes before the power comes back on.

If your generator is a cheapie second hand unit, Starter fluid is your friend.

Again, DO NOT use alcoholcontaminated gas.

Good luck,
chris

Illegal as hell and potentially dangerous to the utility folks who are trying to repair the lines IF someone comes along and flips the main back on