Well, "Snowmagedon 2021" turned out to be about 6". Drifts up to 3 feet. So much for certain death.
All you guys talking getting a generator- You need to understand there are generators and then there are generators! For some stuff a TSC/Harbor Freight/Lowes 3-8Kw job is fine. It'll run you well pump and probably your furnace. The problem that comes up is that all your newer appliances, washer, oven, maybe your furnace, microwave, plus your electronics and probably other stuff I don't list, require a very clean power signal. If I forget to throw the breaker for SWMBO's double oven when I hitch up the 25Kw PTO alternator, I may well be buying a new circuit board! And I can set the governor to give me exactly 60 cycles on that rig and it's got way more Kw than I need. You may want to look at the much higher quality Honda type inverter gensets. A bunch more money, but they are reputed to give a much cleaner signal across the board.
Also, FWIW, this gets discussed a lot on a couple boards I'm on. There are a few well known brand name whole house generator outfits that apparently make what is little more than junk. Do your research before you sink your $$$ into a system.
Ok I going to sound like a broken record here, but Brett has the right of it here. You get what you pay for. I worked a an alternative energy place for 11 years. We sold and installed solar wind and hydro systems both grid tie and off grid battery systems. Every off grid system has to have a backup charging system. Most off grid systems in Alaska are remote and very in size from one 12 volt panel to 3 to 5 KW 12, 24, 48 volt systems with automated backup generators.
Most off grid systems are smaller, generally 200 watts to 1500 watts of generation. The small systems generally were out of pocket budget systems put together to grow as the pocket allowed. The generator budget was generally the sacrificial lamb. Our smaller to medium systems used chargers you find in RV's ranging from 15 amps to 90amps. These chargers have a wide cycle rate and input voltage rate tolerance.
I remember one individual in particular who had a 45 amp IOTA charger (which will take a lot of abuse) that he would burn out on a regular basis. Couple times a winter. We would warrant them, then I took over as the operations manager and questioned this guy who was very unhappy with our products. He had brand X generator bought from brand X box store cheap. I replaced his spring time failed charger and said that was the last unless he got a good generator. Well in the fall he smoked another charger. Upset to say the least. I told him he needed a good generator and that he would need to buy the new charger. Two weeks later his generator died (thank the stars) and since he had a small system and charger the Honda 2000 inverter model would work good. Grudgingly he bought the Honda. I would see him a couple times a winter and maybe once a summer. Last I remember, couple years after buying the Honda the last charger was still working fine for him and he was a happy camper who was wishing he'd of bought the Honda right off the bat. Would have saved both of us headaches and money.
If the systems we sold, off grid were larger they had pass through generator plus inverters generally 3 KW or larger. When the generator was on the inverter would charge the batteries and the rest of the generator power would take over the AC system loads.
As Brett points out now days everything is electronic to some degree or another. Designed for early replacement. If you buy a cheap generator add the cost of replacing house hold items and add that expense, which will be a growing amount everytime you hookup your cheap azz generator. Buy once, pay more, be happy from then on.
