My own memories of living through several terrible storms wasn’t enough to push me to buy a portable generator. So what tipped the scale? Simple math.
Note: We worked with Briggs & Stratton on this blog. The thoughts, opinions and how-to are 100% MyFixitUpLife’s. It’s what we do.
The now all-too familiar images on TV from Florida, Houston, and Puerto Rico and my own memories of living through several terrible storms wasn’t enough to push me to be the provide of my own back-up power? So what tipped the scale? Simple math.
Here are 6 practical reasons to get one and how to get the right one (no math required).
The logic for buying a portable generator is obvious. Nobody needs it explained that light and heat are better than no light and no heat. Turns out it was the not-so-obvious that kept me from getting one, namely habit and a skewed view of some simple math. My lights turn on 99.999999% of the time. I’ll roll the dice…
Wait…What am I thinking? I’ll roll the dice with work, health and warmth? Exactly. We all do it because, in part, thinking about chaos is no fun. None at all. However, simple practicality brought me to my senses.
The machine we’re using at our house is the Briggs & Stratton Q6500 (this link brings you to coupon code landing page; details below). In case you didn’t know, getting the right generator for home is typically a maze. It’s easy to buy the wrong unit and to torch electronics. The Q6500 makes it almost preposterously simple. The beauty is in the negative space, in what you DON’T need to know versus what you do. OK, here goes.
Work At Home. This one alone did it for me. I did the math. I realized while I watched hurricanes stack up like checkers in the Atlantic that if Theresa and I go a week without power, like we did after Super Storm Sandy, that costs us more—lost wages, out-of-pocket costs, lost time, blah, blah, blah—than getting a portable generator before the next inevitable storm. Done.
To power home, you want an inverter generator NOT a job site generator. The reason for this is “clean power”. Inverter generators produce a clean current that electronics crave. A circular saw doesn’t care about the quality of power it gets. Your desktop with every picture of your kids on it along with your taxes, yeah, that does.
Stuck At Home. While you may work in an office, you may not be able to get there due to downed trees or flooded roads. Nevertheless, the client call needs to be made or the market needs to be watched or you need to talk to your boss in London. Life goes on. You can keep moving forward with your power source lighting the way (so to speak; that’s a little lame but I’m leaving it in).
What most people don’t realize is that generators are loud. They idle (home lawnmower-ish loud), then when the current is drawn from them (ex: The fridge cycles on), they wail (landscaper lawnmower-ish loud). All day. All night. The Q6500 is 60% quieter than standard generators and yet delivers power enough to run 10-circuits. Run-time is generous at 14-hours at 25% load which means there’s time to get fuel as needed.
Safety, Family, and Home. While most big storms I’ve experienced dropped power for a day or two, those were long, cold days and enduring them (I did not survive them, I was inconvenienced…people in Florida, Houston, and Puerto Rico are surviving) did not make me a better person or improve my life like some struggle does. I wish I could have been a resource to my family. A safe place to be with heat and food. That’s only possible with a generator.
The Q6500 can keep most core stuff in most homes—like the kitchen, some lights, TV, an office, a sump pump, water heater, and furnace operational. However, without what’s called a “transfer switch” individual cords would need to be run to individual items. That’s a lot of cords and probably an open window to pass them through. The transfer switch is essentially an interface that plugs the generator (outside) straight into the breaker panel in your house (inside) and the electricity from the generator runs through the wiring in your home, not cords. It’s just this side of automatic and ensures that your house runs as close to how it normally runs as possible.
The transfer switch needs to be installed by a licensed electrician (the kind that gets a permit for the work being done).
Powering Up Plan-B. If your home is shredded or flooded like so many in Houston, Florida and Puerto Rico, you’re now in the vortex of the insurance schedules and timelines. Storm victims often have to deliver the pile of what used to be their life to the curb—or show some kind of demolition or construction progress (I saw this after Katrina)—by a certain date so the insurance company can see it. You may not be checking email for work, but there is still work to do.
With 120A-20A outlets (4), USB outlets (2) and a 120V-240V locking outlet (1) you can run cords to tools, work lights or cordless tool chargers for clean-up. You can keep your phone charged to stay in touch. It is important to know the receptacle rating of the twist-lock plug on the unit (the Q6500 is 30Amps) when selecting the proper transfer switch to power indoor items. A licensed electrician should know this, nevertheless, confirming that is a good double-check. And, even though the unit feels heavy, it’s 30% lighter than standard generators.
Community. I’m stealing this idea from people much smarter than me. After 9/11, people in New York ran cords from their homes outside so searchers and family members could charge their phones. I’ve had to charge my phone in my truck to stay connected. If my neighborhood is without power, you can bet money I’m running a cord out to the street and putting up a big ‘ole sign that says Charge Your Phone Here. If there’s one thing storms prove, it’s that what connects us is far greater than what divides us.
The cost to community is immeasurable, yet that’s how we often end up measuring things. You can’t measure emotions. I bring that up in this feature-block not to make some “gotcha” marketing move, but because that’s how my mind works. Whatever storm befalls you, you’ll be buying restaurant food or spending money on new tools or paying a guy to remove the tree from your car. The Q6500 is literally the most generator for the least amount of money to be had. It’s literally in a class by itself. Nothing delivers the power, quiet, and wattage for the money. I looked.
Relief. It’s hard to feel now, but the only thing more powerful than the sense of dread when the heat shuts off and it’s 20-degrees outside is the sense of relief that it won’t last long. It’s not a sales pitch. I remember being helpless and cold for a week after Sandy in 2014. When the lights came on, shivering with our 4-year old, it was almost like they made a noise telling us we were back in the modern world.
And while relief is a beautiful thing, so are all the other days between storms and power outages. The Q6500 is compact. It won’t take up much space in the shed or garage. It’s there when you need it and out of the way when you don’t. With a steel body and very cube-shaped it’s efficient to store.
Fun. The Q6500 may pay for itself in other ways. Life is not all storms and chainsaws and “What do we do now”? It’s tailgates and bounce houses and camping and the family reunion at the park.
This portable generator is way more power than any of those events need. But so what, it’s quiet and ready to roll in good times and not so good times.
