“If you’re new to this and just getting started, buy a propane generator. Last year during a power outage I used propane that I had stored for Y2K. You can’t do that with gasoline.”
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Good point. Another option is a dual fuel generator, gasoline and propane.
As I had mentioned in my response above I live in an area where we have frequent power outages. In January 2019 we had a 4 day outage which was the event that got us to finally get a generator.
For months i went back and forth, what size and fuel and even make of generator. We finally settled on a 8000 watt Generac gasoline unit. Coupled with a power inlet box and main panel backfeed interlock. With this I can power about 80% of our home with some notes and exceptions. It will run our boiler and well so we can take a shower and stay warm.
While we use propane for our clothes dryer and stove, I felt it best for us to go with gasoline. I have a system where I keep about 100 gallons on hand, I treat with Seafoam in numbered containers and rotate those containers out after about 3 months. I put the old gasoline in our cars or my boat or riding mower. It is work, that is true, and I had to build a dedicated storage shed away from the garage but so far so good.
In a perfect world I would get a propane whole house with an automatic transfer switch. Propane solves the storage shelf life issue but it creates a few problems of it’s own, such as having enough propane storage tanks and a place to keep them and connected to the generator. But I agree propane is probably the best overall solution. Given that we have oil heat, a diesel generator would be nice also but this is a huge expense. I think it really comes down to how much you want to spend.
What I did over the years was to go to yard sales and buy the 20 gallon cylinders (like you use on your bbq grill) for about $3.00 each and then have them filled at Costco for $9.00 each.
I have 28 of these stored in a stand-alone shed. I made some mistakes along the way like not checking the cylinder expiration dates before I bought them. About 20 % of the cylinders I had already bought were expired...Costco would not fill them.
BTW, the generator I have is a 7550 watt hybrid gas/propane.
I live in 'hurricane alley' and got tired of dealing with OLD gasoline. I had to keep some in storage every year. Propane is a dream in comparison.
Non ethanol gasoline with PRIG additive. Will last years. If you have some gas that has gone bad (varnish smell), PRIG will rejuvenate it. That was a product claim that I got to test and it worked.
PRID for diesel