Quote Originally Posted by dannymax View Post
I have an 8,000W w/13,500W surge gasoline generator I set up in the garage and trenched into the back side of the panel, plenty of power to run the whole house. I looked into a propane unit, even had a crushed stone pad prepared to mount it on, but changed my mind. In the event of a big ice storm, or similar catastrophic event, it may be very difficult for the propane trucks to get in here (we live back in the woods) but I should always be able to get to town on my 4 wheeler for gasoline. Plus I didn't care for the amount of propane required for the exercise cycle.....seems like you could go thru a tank a year even if there were no outages.
How do you vent the exhaust with the generator in the garage? Whole house generators are the way to go if you can afford one. Using a transfer switch and power box works best. I've seen some people who pull their power meter and plug a portable generator in to the socket. BAD MOVE. What they don't realize is the power feedback to the main pole can kill a powerline worker. Here in eastern NC we've had outages from hurricanes, tornados, and ice storms. The longest we were out was 8 days after hurricane Fran in 1996. We currently use a portable gen. for the fridge and some lights.