With the forecast in Chicago of up to a foot of snow and 1/2 inch of ice, I decided to bite the bullet and get a small generator. For some reason our neighborhood has about 5 or 6 power outages a year, and we’re always the last ones to get power in Wheaton. No I’m serious. Everyone thinks they are last. Neighbors and myself have confirmed that our little track of about 10-15 homes are on some kind of jacked up loop that goes down when anyone sneezes. During the 2007 wind/rain storm that took out most of chicago’s power, the neighbors and myself would call the power company and would have to argue with the rep. She/he would tell us we have power. We would say, no we don’t. He/She would say they were told we did. We would say we didn’t. etc…etc. It got so bad all the neighbors were calling every hour, hearing “we are not aware of an issue in your area”, it would switch to “we are aware” and then 45-60 minutes later it would clear. One neighbor even called Wheaton City and they told him all of Wheaton had power. Of course we invited that person to come join us.
Anyway. The WEN 3500w generator I purchased at Menards for $299 should be able to run the basics at the house so long as I have gas.
that’s a good price for a generator. i know you will do this, but do be careful with a generator. i bought a transfer switch to safely hook ours up to the house wiring.