[driftdiver]

I know people who’ve spent $1,500 on a generator to protect $300 worth of food and have only used it once in the last 8 years.

[JRandomFreeper]

I know someone that spent over $500 on a genset, billed it to a specific contract to cover his costs and then went on to bill it several more times on other contracts.

If you let a useful asset sit unused, you are burning money.

Side benefit is that you get to use the equipment during emergencies.

I make sure to run Stabil(tm) in it, change the oil regularly, and run it out of fuel when I'm done with it.

/johnny

[RegulatorCountry]

It's the rare winter here that it wouldn't get used for at least a day or two. Between winter ice storms, which are more common than snow storms, and the occasional hurricane remnant that makes it inland this far, it's a practical inclusion to have a generator panel wired in when the house is built. A little more complicated to retrofit an older house. I've meant to do it here but didn't get around to it, now money is a lot more dear than it was prior to 2008, so it will have to wait for better times. I can make do like I always have. There have been protracted outages in very cold weather that eventually drove me into renting a room in the closest area that still had power, though.