Had a portable 5kv up north. Found it to be useful a couple times. But down here where pipes don’t freeze I see no need for it.
Let’s assume your power here goes out. It then becomes a comparison of outage duration and costs. Electric company will give you an estimate of outage length. If it’s a few hours, go see a movie and keep your fridge door closed.
If it’s a few days go to a hotel. Cost to replace food probably a couple hundred bucks, and cost of hotel room vs cost of generator.
A small portable generator to power electronics is nice but house might get too hot to allow you comfort: cost $300-$1000 depending on size.
A large automatic whole house generator would be very nice and you wouldn’t even know you lost power: cost $10,000 - $15,000 depending on size. Add in cost of fuel and rest runs and price goes up.
Me, I find it cost effective to just go to a movie for a brief outage, or buy fresh food and go to a hotel for any lengthy outage that most likely will never happen.

So, to keep comfortable and a few things running, you’d be worried about losing the friendships your neighbors? Trust me, they wouldn’t be concerned about you one bit if they had one and needed to use it.

Nope. However I do have an inverter that will run a lamp, box fan, TV and internet router off th golf cart and car batteries, and the car has a 70 amp hour alternator to recharge those.

I have had the Honda 2000 quiet portable generator for 15 years, It is well insulated and very quiet,I dont know offhand what the DB rating is, but when its outside your home you barely hear it.Very very reliable as well, and this one has never needed repairs.

I wonder what does it matter what most do. I've considered buying one but have not. First of all what do you want to run on it. To power your AC you need a large one. Do you have room to store one? Fuel how much gasoline do you want to keep in your garage?

Also, in my case I would share a bit of power. My neighbors were there for me (up and down the street) when I needed it most.

I paid the electrical contractor who did my house to install a 50 amp plug so I could connect a generator and power the house. I purchased a 9000 watt dual fuel inverter generator and installed a soft start system on my AC. I’ve tested it and it works great. It runs my AC and all the fans and lights/plugs. If I want to run the microwave or the washer/dryer, I have to turn the AC off.

If I never need it, so be it. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I wouldn’t want to be one hour without power, much less 1 day or 1 week.

Get a Fan
 

My goodness...can't get by with a fan for a few days?

A lot of people do have portable generators , I have one never used in 11 years most electric in TV is buried cables, high tension are exposed.transmission lines.

I have a Honda 2000i. I haven’t needed it here yet, but I have used it camping and such. It’s small, and I would rather have it just in case.

You would make MORE friends because they would all be knocking on your door asking to charge their phones, use your internet…etc.

Why? been in FL since 2006 we have never found a reason to own one

Yes, it is true.

There’s a big difference in a good inverter like the Honda, and a normal generator.

Generators
 

I checked it out last year and decided it was not worth the money for us.
Most power losses are due to trees pulling down wires at your home or in the neighborhood. The power company tries to restore power to the large blackouts first (due to press and government scrutiny) and leave the individual homes for last.
We have underground wires here in St Catherine.

Not lost power in 12 years living here. Buy before a storm and return if not needed