Greetings, I made it thru the hurricane Irma pretty decently without flooding I did have power outage, and what was my current generator, craftsman 5500 working 8500 peak, made it thru fine. Once I got power back where I’m at, I transported it to my mother’s house a city away to help her since she was not as lucky as I was. As of this message she is still without and probably will be till Sunday or further. Since she’s not as much as a prepper as I am she had never thought about a generator in the state of Florida. she offered to buy it from me for a good deal for both of us since it was low hours and it allows me to put money towards the bigger better deal, and don't worry it was a price that would be good even if there was no hurricane around, as there is price gouging right now as you can imagine.
as you can see my last one was a craftsman/ B&S 5500/8500 model, but I would like to upgrade something so that I can run a house off of it, I would be on the assumption maybe the 10k watts and above ? I’ve got an elderly father who can’t take heat extremes too well since he uses a walker and is a post kidney transplant recipient. my thought process is get something that I can install a disconnect box to, or since we are in a rental home maybe back feed thru the dryer circuit since we are in a rental, but at a later time and date when I get to Altamonte I can install a disconnect box. My priority for powering would be AC for a home that's 1600-2500 sq. ft. (the two houses sized), of course power for a fridge and freezer. And then maybe a few convenience items such as box fans or a TV with antenna. The hot water heater and washer dryer could most likely be used sparingly when needed.
I was thinking of going with a diesel generator since they are on the beefier/commercial side of things and some of them I could maybe put on a small trailer in the garage. I don't have any real work experience with them since I’ve only used the gas one a few times, but I would like to think that a diesel one might have a lower perceived noise output compared to the blaring generator noise we all come to dislike over time. I’ve briefly read about the military generators being a good economical choice, but that it would have to be rewired to go from a 3 phase output to 2 phase output for civilian use?
I have to rule out a propane/NG generator as we don't have any gas line feeds in the neighborhood and would not want to have a big tank in the backyard, maybe a 100lb cylinder in the garage for a grill/ burner. My budget is in the $1k-2k range with 2k being the limit as it’s all coming out of pocket probably after the first of the year when everything settles down. I’d love yalls input as to what would be a good choice