It sounds like we may be neighbors although we haven't got any sidewalks within miles of here. There is no one in our “neighborhood” who does not have a backup generator. We are very lucky to have natural gas lines so most of us run our generators on natural gas. When the power goes out I have to flick a couple switches and then run outside to get our twenty year old Briggs and Stratton powered generator going. Some of our neighbors have automatic transfer switches with electric start generators. And as I said in the previous post we do have friends who live off the grid, but their systems cost far more than what these articles make it sound like.
Oh, we have a generator...it's just not a "whole-house" model. We bought it mainly to "keep the freezer frozen".
"We are very lucky to have natural gas lines so most of us run our generators on natural gas. When the power goes out I have to flick a couple switches and then run outside to get our twenty year old Briggs and Stratton powered generator going."
If we had been so lucky as to have piped in natgas, we would, hands down, have an autostart whole-house genset.
Unfortunately, we have only trucked-in propane. We have a propane fireplace which will keep the whole house liveably warm on natural air circulation, so with camping stoves, LED lanterns (with propane and kerosene lanterns for backup), we are good for all the outages we have had.