oh darn, sorry about your tree

Lucky those trees didnt land on the house. I highly recommend a generator except for the noise.

Definitely. There are some quieter models. Look at this article. whole house generator

You can do a couple of things to reduce noise. Use an isolating mount (helps reduce vibration) and use acoustic panels. Glad you weren't there!!

Pine trees are so bad to break! Wish I had put in a whole house generator when we built. I let an engineer friend talk me out of it. I haven’t needd it, but nevertheless….

I did contact a company that installs them and found out it would be placed where the electrical meters are which was good news because that's on the side of the garage and not right next to the living/sleeping area. Fortunately our neighbors on that side of the house are a long ways away. I think noise would bother me less than no electricity, running water or flushing toilets for a few days.

#2DD just went through huge power outages after a tornado swept through a near by neighborhood. If the freezer and fridge remain closed the food should be fine for 24 hours and then some.

I would not trust food after 24 hours...most refrigerators are not well insulated enough to keep it below 40 degrees after that much time. You'd have to check the frozen food to look for signs of melting, depending on how full the freezer was and how cold it was to begin with as to whether it would've held below 32 the entire time. Most likely not.

We've had generators at all of our houses since the Blizzard of '93. All have been Generac. The newer versions are much quieter than the first ones we purchased. We always get an automatic transfer switch and maintenance agreements that cover two services a year for oil changes. Even if they are not used during the year, it is still best to have it checked on twice a year because it can (and does) catch any issues. Generators do test weekly.

Our current house has the generator on the north side of the house (by meters/eletrical panel and transfer switch). Our main living area is o the second floor, so this is directly underneath a DR window. I can hear it testing, but it's not super loud.

Sorry about your pine tree. Hope your power is restored soon.

@3katz4me you can have a generator and not run it 24/7 during an outage. You can run it during the day to keep refrig/toilets etc operational and shut it off at night when you go to sleep - your food will still be fine in the morning.

@Allison0704 - thanks for that info - very helpful. @DLM2000-GW - I would get one that automatically turns on/off so not sure how manually stopping it would work in that case. I'd want it on 24/7 for lights if needed, phone if needed, etc. - especially if we have guests. It's also quite likely we could need it for heat or possibly AC. We only use the AC when it's really hot but that is often the case when storms blow through. I contacted a local company to evaluate my situation to tell me what I'd need. @Annie Deighnaugh - I didn't have much in the fridge and just a few things in the freezer. Power came back on after about 29 hours so I'm willing to take my chances with the frozen items. There are a few things in the fridge that I'll throw out - again! When it was so hot I was going to restock the ice cream items I had to throw away last time but never got around to it - fortunately.

To turn off, you would go outside to generator, remove a cover panel and turn off. It is a switch but always concealed.

In the past, we hired the electrician to hook up, but in Florida the generator company we purchased from has their own electricians, which was nice. Everything got done quickly. The cost was about the same.

We have a whole house generator...Kohler. It is automatic. We do shut it off at night mainly because we aren't using the juice and it's noisy when we have a long outage. Also we don't want to burn that much LP if we can avoid it, especially when you don't know how long the outage will be or when we might get the tank filled again. Otherwise, we just let it do its thing. Ours self-tests once every 2 weeks, and we do have it on a maintenance plan where they check it twice a year, oil changes, battery, etc.

Ours is not noisy at all, and comes on automatically. I cannot hear it inside my house, and outside it is about like having HVAC running.

If there is a very serious storm, we do turn it off at night just to conserve energy. However, we have a very large underground propane tank (you may want to consider this too) that would run everything for 2 weeks.

I’m sorry about your outages and tree. We have a Generac whole house generator. It’s not terribly loud.

Mine is a Generac and listed as one of the quieter ones. Its still pretty loud but maybe because its right under my living room window. The neighbor behind me has a big house with a big generator. When that thing comes on, its deafening. Kind of feel sorry for the neighbors next to him when they are in the cold and dark while being blasted by the sound of that thing. On my street of about 40 houses, there are 15 generators and it is quite a din when they all get going.

Ded, is it louder than your HVAC?

@mtnrdredux_gw - we have natural gas so it would run on that - no tank required.

We have thought about one but not talked to any sales people yet. I assumed they would install near the gas main, which in on the far side of our house from the electrical panel. We could have an headache getting one installed -- the construction of our house (L-shaped) doesn't make it easy to run anything between the two sides. Running an exterior line will be difficult to impossible because of the trees and pool. I don't think we are allowed to have propane tanks. I didn't think it would be that complicated, but it might be. My son's house will be easy -- Maybe we help him get one and go stay with him if need be.

Mtn, yes , much.

I do not think ours is loud. I suppose I compare it to our first two that were much louder.

Found this
The Generac generators we offer produce around 66 dB standing at 23 feet – a standard distance for measuring generator sound output – which isn't particularly high. That noise level compares to around 68 dB for air conditioners 20 feet away and 70 dB for washing machines at a similar distance.

A washing machine from 20 feet away? I don't think I hear that at all unless one of my kids washes sneakers!

We are getting a generator, because my fridge and freezer are almost always packed and long power outages are a real pain to manage and I hate to lose all that time and work I have invested in my frozen harvest. Also, most of our power outages happen in the summer. Ironically, winter ones are easier. We can drink bottled water and keep the fridge stuff out on the porch and the gas heat in the fireplace works without electricity. It just doesn't go on and off automatically.

Our project has been held up for months due to the power company. Generac of course had a waiting list for the actual generators, but we planned for that. The power company said there was an indefinite hold on meter upgrades due to "materials shortage." According to the state-wide Generac installer, only one gas company in the state was having this "shortage" but they are not saying anything else about it only that they have absolutely no way of knowing when it will end. Well, meanwhile the Generac installer and the engineers from the gas company figured out a work-around. Actually will cost less than a meter upgrade. But I am still waiting on them to be able to get the Generac installers and gas company installers to schedule the same day to be here. I've been playing tag with these companies for a month and a half over these various issues, although just a week in to the installation phone tag game.

Wish we had gotten a plug in one now. But we chose the whole house outdoor model due to not having storage space in the garage. We are trying to move items out of the garage, not add more. Now it seems like a bit of a mistake.

Well I just scheduled my generator assessment appointment - first opening is two months from now. The company does everything - gas, electric, generator. They have several brands including Kohler and Generac. Anyone I've talked to has one of those. Should be interesting. They forewarned me it would be $10-$12K - I guess so they didn't waste a trip if I didn't have that in the budget. That's the exact range I had in mind based on what others have told me who either have one or have looked into it. The thought did cross my mind to get it sooner than later as it will likely just be more expensive later.

Where I live, the gas company has to do the meter upgrade. Otherwise the Generac installer does it all. They even helped facilitate the work around with the gas company. But they found the rate of response from the gas company just as glacial as I did. Like I said, they also commented to me that there were three nat. gas companies in MI and this was the only one they had trouble with. Unfortunately, where I live, this one company is the only option for nat. gas service. Hardly a good example of capitalism serving the consumer well with regards to that commodity. The installation company has been stellar though.

Sorry about the trees but glad no serious damage. I’ll ditto the generator and what Allison said. We also have had Generac and upgraded after the last 5-day outage in 2011 to a larger one that is much quieter. Also her recommendation on the tests.

The time we were 5 days without power, we would turn it off at night. It was in April and temperatures were mild so we slept with windows open. I’ll put up with some slight noise just knowing we have available power if needed.

FYI our last install was a Generac 38KW Protector QS, natural gas. $17,300 for everything. Of that, the generator was 13K, electrical labor 1300, gas labor 1K, permits (elec and gas) $312. Materials (electrical, auto transfer switch, battery, etc) 3K. Subtotal was $18K+ then we got a discount of 900+ (don't remember why and invoice doesn't say).

We did get one that's large enough to run our heating system so we will be comfy if we lose power to a winter storm.

@3katz4me, so, did you end up with a generator?