trader_4 wrote, on Fri, 12 Dec 2014 05:02:13 -0800:

What was going on with the power to the house while this clicking
was going on? Lights going on and off?

I was in the garage that whole time, and the fluorescent lights in
the garage were not flickering.

I guess that answers the question about the lights, sounds like
they were on the whole time.

What happened were three things:
a) Power flickered on and off and then off and on and then off.
b) Normally, by now, the generator would have kicked in, but it didn't.
c) So the house was dark (which normally never happens)
d) Opening the door, I could hear the neighbors' generators
e) Looking about, I could tell it was a power outage by the
pattern of which houses had generators & which didn't
f) Going outside, I fiddled with the generator (hitting buttons)
g) The generator kicked on and sounded good
h) The lights went on in the house (and stayed on)
i) But the control boxes in the garage were clicking
j) They clicked for five or ten minutes and then stopped clicking
k) The generator stayed on for hours (it's off now, so, PG&E must
have fixed it)

Any possibility the utility power was intermittent, coming back
sporadically? If what you were hearing was the main power relay's
moving, I don't see how you could have clicking and uninterrupted
lights.

The PG&E power "could" have been intermittent (how would I have known?).

I concluded that I wouldn't buy one, wouldn't rely on one, and
that it wasn't worth putting the money into the free one.

I swear by that thing! You have to remember that, here in California,
up in the hills, our power goes out five or six times a year.
Interestingly, we *thought* it was getting better, in that, during
the drought, the power stayed on for months before going out; but,
it has gone out thrice in as many months.

Sometimes we're out for days (the most I've seen is 3 days); but,
most of the time it's only for a half dozen hours. In this case,
the power came on during the night, as it's still dark outside,
but I see lights on the neighbors' houses who don't have generators
and I opened a window and I don't hear my generator.

Normally, I can hear mine (but nobody elses' since mine is loud);
and I can see which neighbors have lights and which don't (during
the night). But last night, I could hear the neighbor's generator,
because mine wasn't running.