Selecting A Generator For Short Term Emergencies

A generator of some sort is something every prepper should have near the top of his must have list. You can get a whole house standby rig that will hardly miss a beat when the power fails or a small portable unit to run every couple hours to keep your freezer frozen during an outage.

Price

Prices have been coming down in recent years to where a whole house generator can be had for a couple thousand dollars if you shop around. The name brands and run pretty high while some knock off camping generators can be had for a little over $100. 

Name brand or knock-off

This is a hard question to answer since some knock-offs are made in the same factories as the name brands. Others are popular in other countries but are unknown here. There are so many knock-off brands out there that come and go, it would very difficult to recommend one over another.

The advantage to a name brand generator is that you may be able to find parts for a repair if it was to break down. Knock offs will be hit and miss if you can get a hold of what you might need.

I will say I have had excellent luck with equipment that uses Honda engines. They seem to run longer and better than other name brands, but in my experience you will pay for that. 

Wattage

Get the largest wattage you can afford, unless you are shopping for compact size. You have to decide what you might want to run when you are shopping.

For example your microwave will suck up 1000-2000 watts of power while your freezer will use about 700 watts. Your furnace fan will take about 1200 watts and any portable heater will have the wattage listed on it.

Add up what you want to run in an emergency and get a generator at least 25% larger in capacity. If you can’t find one that big start thinking about what you really need to run or take turns running appliances so you won’t overload your generator. 

For short term use even a cheap knockoff will get you by, but for constant use check into name brand quality.

Category: Equipment