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Ralph Mowery

In article ,
says...

That 5KW disappears pretty fast when you turn on the oven, start up
the dryer or the water heater kicks on, even if the A/C is off.
I ran my house on 5.5kw for 8 days but no dryer, no hot water and
everything was cooked on the gas grille. Fortunately it was warm
enough that we didn't need heat.

Sure the 5 kw is just barely enough. You have to do like the old show
Green Acres did with their electrical supply. Just turn on a few things
at a time. You could cut off most everything but a few lights and run
the water heater to get hot water. Then cut off a lot for the stove, or
just use the microwave.

The cost is another factor. Just looking at a 7.5 kw and running at
half load the company says about 18 gal per 24 hours on gas and 5 hours
on 20 lb of propane. That is going to be around $ 45 per 24 hours of
run time. The inverter type will cut back under light loads, but the
ones without will consume about that much even without much of a load a
load.

My small 3500 kw will run for about $ 25 per day at half power. I can't
run as much ,but can burn a few lights and watch TV and heat some things
in the microwave. If I want more power, I can fire up the 5 kw unit.

People have to realize that this is a temporary emergency situation.
They will not be able to run the whole house unless very rich.

The larger diesel generators seem to be a lot more econimical to run
from what I have heard.