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Emergency preparations

For electric power outages longer than half an hour, or so, It is possible and even practical to have a generator to provide power for the necessary appliances. Freezer, refrigerator, electric control for a gas furnace, some lights, and even tv and radio are fairly low power. Look at the name plate of all of these you want to be able to maintain functional through a power outage of perhaps a few days. Add up the number of Watts they use. That gives you a rough starting point to shop for generators. I have a 3000 Watt generator that is more than enough for me. This one is just a small and cheap one to show how inexpensive it can be. http://www.lowes.com/pd_473285-48270-APG3014_0__... The simplest way to hook one up to the house wiring is not legal so have an electrician install a switch and instruct you on how to turn some circuit breakers off to reduce the load. The labor will be the biggest expense. Here is an example of the low end switches. http://www.lowes.com/pd_394441-48019-TF151W_0__... Gasoline is still the least expensive and easiest to store for emergency backup. Once you have your generator and can hook it up, the only limit to how long you can run it is the amount of gas you have on hand. A few 5 gallon cans of gas can be handy to have around for many things. You are already thinking along these lines so i hope you proceed with it. Emergency preparedness is a good thing. The exact nature of an emergency is impossible to predict, by definition. But the basic needs are almost always the same. Shelter, water, food and fuel.