We have been through two longer runs without power, where we used a smallish generator, two days during a hurricane and nine days in a winter storm.
We have a Yamaha 7,500 watt. It ran flawlessly. The fuel tank required refilling every six to seven hours hours in the winter storm with a full load of electric heaters and frig and freezer for two houses. Thankfully, I had plenty of fuel stored for it and plenty of heavy gauge cords and splitters.
For household needs, have more watts available than you think you need and buy based on reliability. The fuel tank needs refilling, and won’t fill itself in the middle of the night and you need to sleep. So consider run time between fill ups.
One neighbor had a Troy Bilt, which failed due to a crack in a fuel cutoff valve. Another neighbor had the Harbor Freight store brand with a rope crank, which would not start in the freezing temps.
The Yamaha has an electric starter and rope backup.
Make sure to have plenty of fuel and add stabilizer. Now I found an alcohol free gas station and am storing that.
For a house, buy more power and more fuel than you think you need. We were running electric heaters to keep pipes from freezing for nine days.
Now I have a 20,000 watt natural gas Kohler unit on order. Some natural gas lines froze during the winter storm. So keeping the Yamaha ready too.
