We had a hurricane pass through and we were w/o power for 11 days.

I had a 5000KW generator I bought from a big box store. Forgotthe brand.

I bought two 110v window units. Not sure of the brand - got them at Home Depot.

I had two refrigerators running off the generator along with the two A/C units.

Probably had a cell phone charger and a few lamps.

When I bought the generator (post storm), I bought the largest gauge extension cords that I could find and tried to keep the length to less than 50'.

Look at the generator and make sure you're running an A/C and a fridge on one "leg" (don't plug A/C and fridge into one cord).

My extension cords looked like spaghetti but whatever I did worked. I put the generator away from my house so we didn't have exhaust fumes.

My generator ran 24/7 w/o a problem. The only time i turned it off was to change the oil (buy the oil when you buy the generator) or to refuel (I let my generator cool before I put gas in it).

All that said - you need a lot of gas to run a generator round the clock. I think i had to add fuel about every 8 hours but I'm not sure.

My other advice is practice this drill at least once before hurricane season. Do a dry run (your wife will think you're nuts).

You want to figure out all the issues while you have real A/C in your house and your big box store is not out of supplies.

That my two cents.

I think if you manage your power use, you can get by with a smaller genny than you might think. As usual, I researched this to death, and came within a keystroke of buying a pair of the Champion 2000w units, and then the WEN 2000w units, to run in parallel, but got cold feet and just ordered a Honda EU2200i. I'm hoping I can run my fridge and a 6,000BTU wall unit. The EU2000i will run a 6,000BTU wall unit with ease, so I'm hoping the extra 200 watts and larger engine in the EU2200i will be up to the task of adding a fridge to the mix. Running watts in a worst case scenario is around 1,300 for both, and I think the only time I might have an issue is if both cycle on at the same time. I was able to calculate the fridge surge watts at 1,400 based on the LRA rating of the compressor. The window AC is the wild card, but I'm thinking maybe 1,000 watts if it's Energy Star rated. The Honda's are conservatively rated I believe, as I've seen them easily power appliances that shut down other genny's with the same wattage rating.

The one thing I learned about the fridge is that the amp draw indicated on the data plate is the max it will draw if all functions were operating simultaneously (defrost circuit, compressor, ice maker, etc.). It's unlikely that the defrost circuit and compressor would run at the same time, so I think running watts under normal conditions is less than 800, perhaps more like 500, so my total running watts is probably going to be 1,000. If the EU2200i can survive a 2,400 watt surge for 1 second, I'll be good to go. I guess worst case is I have to buy the Companion unit and run it in parallel. Realistically, I'd probably just run the fridge during the day, the AC and night, and go through a 4 hour cycle with the fridge. By the way, a 6,000BTU unit will cool 250sq/ft, so you might get the room comfortable with that, otherwise move up to 8,000BTU. I think the power consumption goes up quite a bit above 8,000BTU's.

I cringed at the $900 price, but I wanted something I could put 100% trust in.

http://www.consumerreports.org/inver...er-generators/

One of the most important aspects of an inverter generator compared to a 'normal' generator is that a normal generator ALWAYS runs at whatever fixed speed is required to produce 60HZ AC power. This means that 99% of the portable gas generators run continuously at 3600 RPM (some diesel generators run at 1800 RPM) ALL THE TIME regardless of the electric power being consumed. Whereas an inverter generator is not dependent on the fixed RPM to produce 60HZ AC so they can speed up/slow down to match the actual WATTS load. Therefore they are typically much quieter and much more fuel efficient (as well as producing a much better AC sine wave which is much safer for sensitive electronics/motors)