Do you have a generator in case of a Black out? Are portable generators worthwhile?

I don’t have one where I live now, but I had one at a different house – it was wired directly into the panel, and supplied power to the refrigerator, the well-pump, certain lights, and the office computers. The benefits are obvious. The drawbacks are noise, the exhaust, the cost of fuel, and maintainence.

We really got lucky. This house Came With an automatic whole-house generator.
No upkeep; no fumes; no turning it on. Two seconds after the electricity goes off it
comes on. You can hear it but it’s not obnoxious. The lady who owned it put it in the side yard.
I don’t know what it cost her but it was very expensive and well worth it. I love it !

I would think a lot would depend on how often your electric goes out. Mine rarely goes out, so it would be a waste of money to have one. My brother lives in an area that is hit often with hurricanes or on the fringes of hurricanes and loses power frequently. He bought a generator and is glad he did. His is not a portable one either.

Don’t have one. But come to think of it, it would be a good thing, if one could afford it. I’ve got an AR 15, and a few Z Paks sitting around. Why not a generator?

No. I am fortuante enough to live in a civilised country that rarley suffers power outages (at least where I live – I have never experinced one) and where civil order is not so fragile that I feel the need to keep assault weapons handy (although I can have a 50cal 82A1 if the shit really hits the fan – hilariously it’s completely legal here while a .22 pea shooter is not).

I have a 1100 Watt unit. (1.1 kW) It has a two cycle engine and only weighs about 20 pounds. During one blackout that lasted a couple of days, we moved it from house to house.so the neighbors could run their sump pumps, refrigerators and freezers. The little guy did a great job. Very handy.

Thank you everyone for the information.

my neighborhood is the last to get lights back on. I was thinking of one, but heard they are dangerous. a girl from work was killed from improper use.

A big one for the whole house, would be awesome!!!!

Having electricity in your home at all is just as dangerous. Do it right, and you’ll be fine.

@jazmina88 If someone is smoking and fooling with gasoline I can see how
it could be dangerous.

I live in an area where electricity goes out somewhat frequently. I do not have, nor do I want a portable generator that uses gasoline. I do not want gasoline stored around the house and I would not want to fool with it. Also, some neighbors have them and they are extremely noisy. If I were going to have a generator it would be a permanently placed natural gas unit that automatically turned on when the power went out.

@perspicacious I didn’t know there were natural gas generators. Thanks for the heads up.

@dpworkin Yes, they are very common in my city. My particular community is not served with natural gas—we’re all electric.

Useful, but you do have to be very careful with them though. You can actually kill workers trying to repair the broken power lines if you don’t configure it properly (and be held criminally liable as I understand it).

Gasoline is the only option where I live. We do not have natural gas. I keep about 15 gallons handy and rotate it into my car every few months to keep it fresh.

No I don’t have a generator. I personally quite like it on the rare occasions when the power goes out. We put candles out and its quite a nice peaceful mood.