Emergency Electricity

Choose from the myriad selection of power generators to make ...

September/October 1979

 If you depend upon electrical energy to run your house or farm, you can't afford to be caught by a power brownout or blackout. Though America's utilities supply us with an amazingly reliable source of current-with an average of only 24 hours of outage every 10 years, per family-power failures do (and will) happen.

Furthermore, a loss of electricityeven from natural causes such as hurricanes or blizzards (and the seasons that spawn such phenomena are nearly upon us)-can leave you with a basement full of water or no heat. And the average damage costs from such natural (or unnatural) disasters might be much higher than you imagine ... often well over $2,000 (for the repair of damages caused by frozen pipes, for example). Worse yet, when the power does go out, you're totally helpless to remedy the situation . . . unless-of course-you happen to have an auxiliary generator.

It's true! You don't have to be completely dependent on those wires strung from the pole out front. For a pretty reasonable price-especially if you consider your potential losses-you can put yourself back "on line" with an emergency electrical supply. (Better yet, you canby simply opening the main jet-run on renewable alcohol fuel.)

So just consult the following list that shows average electrical consumption for various tools and appliances, [2] add up the wattage of those you might want to supply, and [3] remembering that one kilowatt equals 1,000 watts, consult the output column in the accompanying specification chart (which, though not allinclusive, does contain a good sampling of the better units available) to choose a generator that suits your needs and budget.