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This is why God made home generators.

When the power grid goes down (and it will), the standby generator is there to run the electrical devices on which so much of our lives depend.

Home generators may NEVER reach a cost-effective point in terms of pure economics (each kW of energy is going to cost WAY more than the power grid can supply it for) but the uncertainty and inconvenience of relying on the power company to restore power puts a double toll on the guy out there on the tower in a raging storm trying to reconnect the system - without causing a power surge or drop that knocks out the whole grid.

If I decide to go the generator route (see my previous post), I would have to hire someone to install it for me outside (garage too far from house) and learn how to work it. Plus I would have to have some kind of housing for it because of possible theft. Can I run some kind of cable from my furnace to it? You can tell I don't know much about this stuff.

Are they powered by diesel fuel? How long can you store it before it degrades and how much should I have on hand?

I do have a kerosene heater in the garage but haven't used it in years, may not work any more. The problem I see with that, is that I bought 5 gal at a time and would have to make a run to buy more. IIRC it only lasted about 4 days if I used it a lot. If it's really bad, the stores will sell out their kerosene supplies anyway.

I also looked into corn burners, but won't go into the difficulties of that option.