What kind of electric generator should I buy?

I want to buy a home generator. Live in a suburb of a large city (Indianaplis). Live in a new upper middle class community with all buried electrical lines.

Have a finished basement with a sump pump that has a portable battery back up system. Looks like a car battery. Never had to use it though.

Power outages are seldom but want a generator just in case there's a long outage.

House is total electric but has a natural gas line. Only thing that's run on natural gas is the fireplace. Not sure why but that was the way it came. House is 5 years old.

Should I get a portable generator or one of those permanent one that comes on automatically? I know the permanent ones are expensive but can run on natural gas.

Which should I get?

Oh, my house has 200amp electrical service.

Thank you for any tips and suggestions.

 

You need to determine your needs. What do you want to run when the power goes out? Make a list. Then figure what you need to run.

Depending upon the size of your generator you may have to make some compromises. Do you need/want automatic start? The bigger the generator the more fuel it uses, not a big deal with natural gas just the cost.

You can get a portable generator that runs on natural gas too.

I have a 3000 watt generator. I can run almost anything I need but my heat is gas. It easily runs the boiler, fridge, some lights, and the TV. I've gone through a 5 day outage with it. The beauty is I don't use a lot of fuel (propane, no natural gas here).

Don't rush into it, think about what you really want to do.

 

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