Choosing a generator

     Imagine the scene, a family fights for survival in a cold and dark world, where the winds blow ceaselessly and the wolves are always at the door.   A ragged man, tired of the weight of the world, exits the home and fights his way through the snow to a lone generator...with a single mighty pull the dark dissipates as the lights come on.  His family inside cheers for now they have heat and don't have to worry about eating cold beans out of a can!   

    Dramatic music swells.....

     Okay, maybe it's not that dramatic.  Maybe the wolves at the door was a bit over the top, but the point is that ever since we lost power for just a tad over 24 hours recently; the idea of a generator has never been that far from my mind.

    Plus, I work from home and I depend on power to not only allow me to access my computer and phone lines...but to also keep the pellet stove running.   

    When it comes to generators however, I quickly learned that I know less than diddly squat about them.  Perhaps even less than diddly or squat.  I'm not going to bore you with what that research entails because frankly, everyone's needs are going to be different.   

    This is basically what I wanted to make sure was taken care of in case of another power outage, and yes they are in order of importance for me:  

1. The Pellet Stove.  - It's pretty much the main source of heat in our home.  We do have electric base board heating in the house as well, but that would get pricey real fast come the low temperatures of winter.   Our stove then, becomes the main source of heat for the home, and we supplement the heat with the baseboard heaters in the master bedroom and office, but that's it.  
2. My Office PC - I need to be able to access New York Life's mainframe in order for me to do my job, so I simply need access to the internet and power for my laptop and dual screens.   
3. Freezers and Refrigerators - The lovely Susan was a professional chef at one time in her life, so having access to food is very important.   Plus, we know the pain of having to throw away several hundred dollars of food after dealing with a hurricane in Florida (the eye passed right above out house and the power was out for five days).  

    Other things like that Lights, Phone Chargers and TV  were important of course, but those were low on my list.

    I wanted to go whole house for another reason as well.  Well we live in a split level home, it's not your traditional split level.   The pellet stove is in the den, the freezer in the garage, the PC is tucked into the third bedroom that also serves as Sue's craft center.  The kitchen is in the front of and rear of the house.

    Unless we wanted extension chords running everywhere, then having a system hook up into the main electric box was the way to go.  This would have to be done by an electrician and probably run me about $500 (it didn't but more on that in part 2).

   

    When you considering a generator you basically need to add up all the wattage for what you wish to run and determine the size of the generator you will need from there. Wattage is just a measurement of the power you will need.  In my case I would need anywhere from 7,500 watts minimum all the way up to 10,000 watts.   I would rather go the 10K watts to be on the safe side.

    As you can imagine, the more power needed the bigger the unit.   The bigger the unit, the higher the price point.   I  was trying to keep the price below 2K (including installation).  Because of this, the stand by units were out, so I had to go portable.

    The problem was that I knew the big names in the field.  Companies like Generac, Briggs and Stratton, Honda and Yamaha certainly provided quality and longevity (I only looked at Briggs for example is because I had a push mower that lasted for over 20 years) they were also mostly out of the price range I wanted to stay in. 

    So that meant a portable generator from a lesser known company.   This is were independent reviews and various homesteading forums come into use.    I also preferred something dual fuel for a few reasons, neither one of us likes having an electric stove, and we would love to switch to natural gas one day.  If you can link the generator to that, why not?   But in the meantime, we could use gas. 
      

    There is an old saying however that I believe in.  "I am to poor not to have quality."  The one that I am giving some serious hard thought about is a Wen Generator.  Generally speaking the reviews seemed good and the price, just a tad under $890 on Amazon, fit my budget.  We do have a guy coming out on the December 7th to give us an estimate on a Generac unit, so I may wait depending on what additional info I may gather...but I think my mind is already made up.

    Just in time too, as the weather is supposed to get cold and nasty this week.  Now, I just need to find an electrician to hook me up properly.

UPDATE - We actually did buy a Wen Generator.  It should be arriving on the 16th and I'll be happy to give my review of it then.