A few years back we had five days in December with no power. The Onan 2500 propane generator built in to my Lance kept the fridge, freezer, and a couple fans running. Long extension cord runs though.
After that outage DW said 'go buy a real generator'. So now I have a Onan/Cummings 6500 generator in a special generator room with air inlet and ventilation fans. A 200amp transfer switch will move the entire house load over to the generator. Yes, I only have 30amps to work with, but it was necessary to go this route because of the location of the well pump wiring and the already full house breaker panel.
I got a 275 gallon fuel tank which is about 3/4 of non-ethanol premium gas. I will even sell gas out of the tank to my neighbors who also have generators, but always forget to have fuel on hand. I'm not making a profit here, but I didn't get the gas for free either.
-Eric
