Quote:
Originally Posted by villagetinker
OP, the answer to your question highly depends on where you live in the villages. During hurricane Irma, some areas had no power for several days, mostly in the area served by Duke Power. We live just south of 466a (SECO Energy) and never even had the lights blink during that storm. We have been here since 2013, and may have had 10 interruptions, most were less than a few seconds, and a couple that were several minutes to an hour. I have very little info on the new section (Leesburg electric??) but I did see some complaints about outages.
I agree with the above comment about a small inverter generator (very quiet) or a regular generator (noisy) is the 2 to 3 kW range to keep food cold.
Now a few words of caution, read the directions on where and how to use the generator, the carbon monoxide gas can kill you. Make sure you have an adequate and safe way to connect the equipment you want to be powered to the generator. While extension cords are convenient, they are hard to get in the house SAFELY, and a transfer switch may cost as much as the small generator.
IMHO, they are not necessary in this area, unless you have medical equipment or other items that need power all the time.
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Good advice about the carbon monoxide danger. Even running a generator inside a garage with the door wide open (probably not uncommon in the aftermath of a storm) can be dangerous as CO is odorless and tasteless, and can sneak into the residential part of a house unnoticed from the garage.
I was able to find two flat extension cords, 50' long each, that are designed to go under doors. If push comes to shove I can run both of them from the generator located outside, under the garage door and under the door from the garage into the kitchen. One would handle the kitchen and the other stuff like lamps, modem, TV, etc. etc. They are 20 amps each though I believe they do come heavier than that.