On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 09:45:56 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:


Yeah, but...

I'm not looking to power too much, mainly the furnace, one fridge and
a couple of lights. I did that the other night with a couple of extension
cords off a 3500 watt generator. It was good enough for SWMBO and I. We
camp, so roughing it a bit - inside a house - is no problem. :-)

The main goal is to get the furnace up and running as quick as possible
and the switch I linked to does it quick and easy. (As would Greg's
suggestion of a homemade unit with a 3 way switch and inlet.)

I'm also not looking to buy (and store) a huge generator for the rare times
that the power goes out for anything that resembles an "extended period".
3500W is probably more than enough but I need to run some numbers before I
pull the trigger. My neighbor bought a 7000W beast that he never even got
hooked up before the power came back on.

We were lucky. We were without power for less than 36 hours. The
out-of-state crew cleared the lines and restored power along a 1/2 mile
route north of, and including, my street. On the next street to the south
and for another 1/4 mile the generators are still running. I'm not sure
what the delay is. There must have been 15 trucks - bucket trucks, pole
setting trucks, electrician trucks - working late into Thursday evening
to restore my part of the neighborhood. Since then all we've seen is a
few trucks mainly clearing downed trees south of me. There are still poles
to be set and wires to be strung. It sucks to be those without power. It's
been in the low to mid teens since Thursday night.

I bought a 5.5KW several years ago. (a deal I couldn't refuse I put in
the breaker interlock kit and a cable to connect the generator. The
power has not failed since. Great insurance. The generator has never
even had gas in it. Every once in while I pull it over a few times,
rock it and slosh the oil around.
The guy I bought it from had the same experience for the 3 years he
owned it. It was still in the box when I bought it.