mike wrote:



I found a good deal on a generator at a garage sale.
I found another good deal on a DIY transfer switch at another garage sale.
These were both impulse purchases with no opportunity to research.


Extension cord sounds like the right option.

When the Y2K mania was in full swing, my wife let me buy a small generator.
We had a really messy ice storm some years ago, and I knew power was going
out when I could hear major branches falling at one second intervals.
When the juice went off, I went to the basement and rewired our furnace
to a power plug, brought in the extension cords and went to bed,
About 6 AM, my wife woke me and said it was freezing. So, I started
the generator next to our garage, plugged the extension cord in, and
powered our fridge, freezer and furnace, and charged some batteries.
Even before the generator ran out of gas, it was warm in the house, and
the fridges were cycling normally, so I shut it down. I was just about
to do it again when the power came back on. (There is an advantage
being close to the substation with no HV fuses between, you get your
distribution line up first.)

Jon