I am the last on my line, so power goes out ANYWHERE, I go out. I have well water. Propane heat. Old farm house.
When I did a major renovation, I had the electrician put in one of these so I could power the whole house with one pigtail:
An aside: Mine is a 3 way lever switch, big box 3'x 1.5". Up is connected to the grid, middle is neutral, down connected to the generator. When the electrician put it in, he connected a light bulb next to it which is linked to the grid. I use the generator in the down position. When the light turns on, the grid is back up
genous!
Then bought this. Duel fuel. Remote start which I can use in the bedroom.
I had been running gas only. Trying to buy gas during the '05 ice storm, proved difficult (3 weeks w/o power). I had 6 5 gal cans and went through them in a week. Also, how long will the gas be good, even with Sta Bil? So with Helene in my mind, why not use the propane (bottled gas stays good for a long time) from my 500 gal propane that runs my house. I was thinking about trenching a hard line into my garage (+200 ft). But a bunch of trees around, not a cheap idea. The propane guy from my area suggested tapping off of the tank to re-fill my small 20 gal BBQ tanks.
I decided to use those and a bought a wheeled 40 gal tank. Not cheap, ~$200.
I decided to place the generator in one location, instead of moving the cars outside (electric garage door) to maneuver the generator outside, close to the garage door next to the short pig tail and vent. I understand that propane burns cleaner (doesn't need as much venting) and quieter. Also, it will burn twice as long. Downside is that it provides 80% of gasoline power.
So I needed 50' (heavy duty 8/4 wire) of this to run across the garage ceiling to drop down the pig tail next to the generator from the breaker box. Not cheap ~$200.
Now, just un- cover the unit, turn on propane, start it, plug in pig tail, once there is electricity, crack the garage door
I have heard about the headaches with Generac's. Also, out $6-8k. Mine comes out <$2k and my time. I don't own a farm/business to warrant the cost difference. I suppose the Generac provide better peace of mind.
edit: I put on a battery maintainer after my trial run this summer and found the battery was dead. It turns out the generator came with a plug in trickle charger!!