Advice?

First and foremost, the major limitation of any generator in an emergency isn't the generator but the availability of fuel.  How much you can keep on hand should heavily influence what size you buy.  Remember gas station pumps run on electricity and what stations that will have gens will also have long lines.  An interesting article I read about last hurricane season was that 3 out of 4 gens in the state typically were not being used by the end of a prolonged outage due to lack of fuel.

Separate what you got to have and what would be nice then weigh it against the likelyhood of how long you may have to use a generator and your fuel availability.  One week usage is typically a good planning number.  

Its real tempting to go out and buy the biggest and the best but it is often the guy who has the one sized just right that gets the most bang for his dollar.  Personally I like the Yamaha sizing table over most other sites.

Yamaha Sizing Chart

Electric motors will have a spike in usage when they are started.  Always keep this in mind and plan for it.  Generators are typically rated continuous and peak.  Some generators like the Yamaha EF3000 have a model with a battery boosted surge which greatly enhances the peak numbers.  The easy way out is simply oversize your gen but it is also this thinking that leads to the ultra quiet gen, the one without fuel.  

Like anything in survival have a backup plan for your critical needs.  Remember you don't have to run a gen 24/7 to keep your fridge cold nor do you really have to have the AC on 24/7.  

During a recent trip to FL, I got the opportunity to see what a number of people in the area used.  To my surprise most of them were not low noise in that paticular neighborhood.  About everyone had one so when the power was out, the sheer numbers cut down on theft probability and noise levels were high in the neighborhood in general. Remember even though you aren't running your AC, it doesn't mean your neighbor won't be.  Still that is a major consideration and quiet is almost always the best.  Still most people opted in that neighborhood to run long cables and remotely run their gens typciallly from their backyards or behind fences.  Its often good to ask what your neighbors use.  This will help in your selection.

I personally consider FL a high risk area, meaning more outages over the years than most of the US.  Durability then would be a major factor in my decision making process.  Though I personally do not have a bias to Chinese gens/cheap gens and find them more than adequate for most of the US emergency needs, in FL I would recommend a more durable generator such as Honda, Yamaha, or Honda motor based contractor style gens.  

As a rule of thumb with longterm outage being a week, one week per ten years a cheap gen would be a good investment.  That one week is typically a good planning number and your fuel needs should be based on a week.  How you get there is different by person.  Some go with smaller gens doing without certain comforts or finding another subsitute while others simply store more fuel, but it is a good number to plan around.

Communication is a major concern during any power outage.  If you do not have battery operated comms, an inverter style (more expensive) inverter is often a good choice.  Though a non-inverter style works well on anything with a motor or even cheap TVs, the do not work well with delicate electronics such as computers or the newer high tech TVs.  They can be used via transformers to charge batteries.

Develop a comphrensive power plan and it will help you with your selction of type.  Maintaining water, food, and defense should take priority over comfort.  That being said, AC in FL is almost not quite as important as heat in the north.  A good nights sleep can't be underestimated for it impacts your reation time during the period.  A good compromise position is to not aircondition your whole house but a window unit in say your bedroom.  Window units are very inexpensive and another option is the portable which can be wheeled from room to room and the exhaust out any window in minutes.  The portable units are a tad more expensive than a small window unit but very versatile.  

What you plan to run will also determine how you plan to hook it up as well as your selection.  Running selective appliances, a small 110 volt gen works fine but when you are talking rooms, you will want to power through your electical box and that means 220v with a 30 amp connection.  For this application transfer switches are the preferred method .  They can be quite expensive which is kind of driver on selection as well.  Kind of hard to connect a $300 gen to a $300 switch.  

In FL a very popular option on gens is a remote starter.  This allows the user to stop and start his gen to conserve fuel without having to go outside.  This is a key feature for AC users since it allows you to cool your home/bedroom and then turn the gen off at some point at night without going outside.  It conserves on fuel.  The downside is it means you will need an electric starter type gen.  This adds to the cost but its a great feature in high usage areas.  

Alot of people put alot of emphasis on maintenance chargers for gen starter batteries, however I  personally do not.  Typically most people will wait a few hours before they fire up their gen to see if the power come back on.  That will mean when you do start it up, then you will be running it for a good period of time.  Enough time that it will recharge the starter battery.  You will note most portables with electric start also have a manual start.  Its a great feature though, I just put it into the nice to have not critical catagory so can be added when you can afford it.

Another major thing to keep on the old check list is oil level.  I wouldn't buy any gen that didn't have a low oil shutoff.  You should keep oil around all the time and follow the manufacturers run time recommendations for when to change the oil.  A hour meter is a very nice relatively inexpensive add on to any gen and one I would recommend for a high probability usage area.  

Its a very good idea when you get your plan and buy your gen to not wait for an emergency to try it out.  Instead have a off the grid night and check/revise your plan.  Keep in mind, the more options you have the better.  It is also why gens that you can later buy a second one running them together is a popular choice.  

Lastly the best setups are not really suited for a renter.  They are whole house units that do everything automatic switching on during an outage and periodic running to maintain batteries/engine lubrication.  

As for personal favorites for high usage areas, I like the Honda EU 2000, EU 3000, or Yamaha EF2000, EF2800, and EF3000. These are all inverter types with all the options I discussed based on model type.  

Tj