We have a gas (propane) fireplace that was the workhorse that got us through 3 days of no power. We also have two wood burning fireplaces but burning one kept us at 60-62 in the house. The lack of light was a bummer, I finally fired up a 7000 lumen led work light from the truck inverter last night. Now that's an expensive 400 watt generator.

So, we haven’t had it this cold for this long since 1981, so no generator!

I'll prepare for whatever situation arises the best I can and hope I can in advance. Wish my family, friends and neighbors good luck, then I'm taking off to Mexico until it's comfortable to come back.

Honestly, my renters in a pier and beam home left their house with no power. Once I found out a couple hours later, I went over there and turned water off and left faucets open. I'm sure everything froze. A couple days later when power came back on, I let it warm up, went back over to turn water back on, and no issues. The problem with pipes bursting has much less to do with lack of generator power than it does the lack of knowledge to turn off the water and de-pressurize the lines. You can't guarantee that you'd have enough generator power to keep the house warm enough to avoid freezing without spending $5k+ on a whole home unit. Or...you can just turn water off and open faucets, and turn it back on when the place it warm again.

As for generators:

My dad had a dual fuel champion, and they drink so much gas that it really is difficult to keep them going.

I ran my Predator 3500 and powered my wifi, two TVs, and some other small electronics and it never ran out of gas, so I have no idea how much it sips. I only filled it up twice, and never even went through my first 5-gallon gas can. So I dunno, but it was super easy to use and powered enough for us. I'm sure it would have gone through gas faster if I had to power the fridge or a space heater, but I didn't. It ran for 3 days nearly non-stop with zero issues.

It's one of those things that you have to decide how much you really want to power that once in a blue moon. My Predator could easily run my fridge, water heater (propane), septic, two TVs, and wifi and just use a bit more gas. Or swap out something for a space heater or two.

Currently have a 5500 watt gas powered generator connected to the whole house Through a 230v plug in the utility room. I have the 40 gallon tank in the boat and 25 gallons stored in 5 gallon cans. I rotate the 5 gallon cans if I don't burn it in my mower or utv, I'll put the gas in my truck about every couple months and refill the cans next fill up. That way I keep fresh fuel. I know that it's a pain but the gas stays fresh.
I'm interested in getting a whole house generator and am interested in hearing from you folks that have one that could tell me about how much fuel you have used by, hour, day, week or whatever. My location will require that I use propane

We have been very lucky here in Edmond. Lost power for 2 hours and that was it. However since we did live in Colorado, out in the country, we still have most of our gear for when we would lose power. ..kerosun heaters, propane stoves and lamps. I do kick myself for selling my Honda 12KW Diesel Generator before we moved here. Thing was a beast and powered our house just fine in Colorado when we lost power. I've also got a Thermoarc gas powered stick welder that would work as a generator if need be...but it's in storage in another state. I am going to pickup a generator here in the 7 to 10k range just to have it. We are moving to Florida when I retire and whatever house we get there will definitely have a generator setup to power the house for when those pesky hurricanes hit...:) Probably a multi-fuel setup with transfer switch.

I hope this shows people just how dependent we are on reliable power and heat and how today's houses are just not built to handle what we have just gone thru. I don't buy the excuse this is a 20 year event...it could happen again next year or the year after but it will happen again and sooner than we expect. We have always kept several weeks worth of food, water and assorted necessities because we developed that habit living in the country in Colorado because you just didn't run into Wally world to get stuff like many of us do. This is one practice that the Mormons do that I do absolutely support. We were fortunate to have Mormon friends who lets us use their canning and dried product storage equipment to set aside our "stash" of essentials.

Just reading the 2021 Ford hybrid has a 7200watt generator. That would be handy

We are seriously considering investing in a whole home generator for the very reasons you gave.

If you find the need for near endless kilowatts, then "whole house" is the choice, but be prepared to feed that beast. It will get expensive. Do some calculations from specifications and you'll find this to be true. Natural gas gets VERY expensive, but does come with the high-reliability chance of fuel availability over a lengthy outage.

If you can scale back your wattage load, you can get a solution for far less. I use a Generator Interlock with my existing panel along with a "portable generator" sized to the load and fuel demand I've developed in a balanced approach. For the cost of the generator plus ~$250 I can manually choose to run from the grid, or my generator sitting outside. I can allow any load in my home to energize (up to my generator's limit) without any transfer switch (expensive) or extension cords. It's as easy as flipping two breakers after the generator is up and running - but is a manual procedure, not automated when grid power drops.

I, too, like to do all of the work except punching it into the end zone.

I have natural gas, i just use fireplace if it gets this cold again.

I suspect after this nightmare we won't be out of power in the winter again

Generator for me, I have lived out here in the country for 4 years and power has gone out for a total of 4 - 6 hours. The thought of it being out for days has me convinced to go with a whole house generator.

Gonna be lots of guys buying generators and them not working when they need it to run. The things are a nightmare of carburetor maintenance. I’ve had mine for 6 years and run for several hours over the years, had to dissemble & clean they carb 3 times now to keep it running properly.

I plan on using stabil, a little bit of Seafoam, and running it once a month for 30 minutes.

That magnetized oil dip stick looks like a good idea also.

I also ordered one of these in case this happens and I’m out of town.
Kiddos or my better half can easily use it to run the industrial heater.
I have less powerful versions of these already; great for camping and fishing trips
Just make sure to fully charge them once a month

Before I bought the Generac , I used a portable gas generator. I found that it was important , when you shut it down, It was best to close the
fuel line valve and let it run out of gas.

your mileage may vary

MO