considering getting whole house generator

Look at it like this. I’m an electrical contractor, two of the power companies that I deal with every day has no spare parts, no spare transformers. In the off chance of a CME or Carrington event, it will be years before normal service is restored.
A generator or solar panel system will make life a bit more bearable.

a reply to: HODOSKE

If you do get one, you will want one that runs on natural gas or propane
If you are cheap like me, you wire in an outlet from the fuse box and get a regular 7500KW system to power the house. Won't run the dryer, but everything else (LED lights and gas heat/stove) But you have to have gas.

a reply to: HODOSKE

I had a 12kW genny installed a few years ago along with a 700 gal LP tank. It runs a self-test once a week and so far zero issues and the longest it's run is about 6 hours during a storm outage. I got it primarily because in the summer I experience frequent power outages. Today I'm damn glad I spent the $$. I also have a portable 8kW gen but it's not connected to the house; my backup.

Got my propane generator on wheels a few years ago and had the house wired so that I plug it into the house system once I switch over at the box. I live out in the country on a lake and the generator has to run my water well. We finally had a 3 day outage and I could run whatever I needed from freezer to well and boiler. I test run this unit once a month. I have 6 propane tanks at the ready. I also have a weather cover and lock it up to the maple out front. One thing I like is that I can load it up and take it to a family member’s place in town if they are out of power when I am ok.

Whatever you decide you need to start soon. My brother is on a waiting list and has been for a year. The whole house units are in limited supply and installers are being overwhelmed with requests. Also if you are going to go natural gas check with your gas company on fees above the usage. The area where my brother lives told one person that it would be a flat monthly fee of $60 plus usage. Do a lot of research.

I am in Texas and was out of power for a week in the winter storm last year. Did not have enough portable to run the refrigerators but as long as you don't open the doors the cold will hold for quite a while. We did not lose any food even with no power. Of course it was cold so that helped too. Did run my freezer as it was full of about 500 lbs of meat and I was not taking any chances with that.

Good luck.

Get something diesel and convert it to run on cooking oil. Or used engine oil.

a reply to: HODOSKE

We've had gas, diesel, and lp generators. We swore no more lp/propane ever again. They use a lot more propane and put out less power. Plus, we had tons of problems with it. Never a problem with our gasoline and our preference is for diesel. For emergency use I wouldn't count on a gas line and I think in hard times it's going to be hard to get a delivery truck to refill your LP tank. Diesel will be easier to find, carry, and/or can be hacked....as mentioned above. That's just been our experience.