I run a "suicide cord." Basically a short electric cord with two male connectors. You plug into the outlet nearest your panel. They are easy to make with 10 dollars of components from Home Depot. A bunch of guys are probably going to jump on me and say this is not safe. They are correct. Neither is running extension cords all over your house. Neither is 30 degrees in your home. Neither is going on a road trip. Lots of things in life are not safe.

Here's the main thing. You have to make absolutely certain you shut the main breaker off or you run the risk of potentially killing a line worker. If you are a responsible adult who plans to remain sober while operating the generator it's an option. If your house burns down you could be screwed though as insurance would probably have a fit.

If you have time and money, adding a manual transfer switch is by far a better option. In a pinch though, a suicide cord can work.

This option scares me a little and there are other requirements you listed that I have not been willing to do this week.

Champion Power Equipment makes flat extension cords to go under doors.

That's a good solution with the flat extension cords--make sure they are at least 12 gauge.

Unless you have over let's say a 15,000 watt generator, I see very little benefit of hard wiring into the house.

With 10,000 watt and under generators, I think the benefits of keeping them portable outweigh the benefits of hard wiring into the house--unless your house itself is portable (RV/mobile home/etc)

In order to run your central heat or central cooling for any significant period of time, you need extremely powerful generators. If you have one of those, definitely hardwire into house with a certified electrician.

For my particular situation and house design:
In a 6-7 day moderate crisis like we just had, I would just keep my perishable food in large coolers outside and use the outside propane grill for cooking food. I'd reserve the 10K and under watt generator to run portable industrial electric heaters in the downstairs north facing rooms that are far away from the fireplaces.

There is certainly a strong case for this solution. I plan on keeping it fairly basic so I have a better chance of keeping it fueled as well. If I had a whole house generator, I would still be sitting in the dark because of not being able to keep fuel in it.

CCTX, I have gas furnaces. I was able to run one and a few extra things on a 2,000 watt Honda.

The running the generator sober?

I feel you man, we had no power, no heat, only option for hot chow or hot water was the charcoal bbq out in the 10 degree weather... I did day drinking like a mofo!

The wife was like "what up with that"? I was like "Well we have to go sleep once it gets dark... and it aint like we have anything else to do!"

mud, you can install an empty waterproof plug box on exterior wall with a pass thru to inside, install another inside. can be locked on outside and a small piece of foam board or some glass insulation in both boxes to keep air from passing thru, they seal up pretty good anyway.

Yes, gas furnaces are much more efficient.

During this 7 day moderate event, having the extra insulation in the attic, running two fire places, and running one industrial electric heater and two moderate sized commercial one kept the down stairs at 68 degrees and the upstairs was 75 degrees.

We also have very well sealed windows and doors.

The coldest room in the house was the north side downstairs laundry room next to the north facing garage.
There were about five hours where I had a bit of concern regarding the pipes going to the washing machine, but I moved one of the portable electric heaters to blow directly on that wall and the exposed plumbing. This worked to thaw the pipes and water began flowing to do laundry on Tuesday.

That’s a good idea as well!

Exactly

So it's a good idea from hoppie, but from me you ask how it works when the garage door opens?

Correct. If Hop says it, I believe it.

Where do you get the idea that properly creating a power inlet solution is impractical for less than a 15kw generator? With a power inlet box, proper wiring, and a portable generator, one can have all the advantage of "hard-wiring" without making an extension cord jungle. If a person has an absolute minimum need such that 5000w would do, then so be it. If they wire that into their existing SAFE electrical system, they can power those things - and turn the rest of the electrical items off, unplug them, or turn off breakers. A big percentage of the "jury-rig setups" that the average person cobbles together with extension cords is unsafe, and at risk of causing damage or fire. They just don't know enough to understand what they may be doing is inadequate/dangerous. The constructed wiring of your home is probably adequate/safe (assuming good building practices were followed).

Any of us don't really have many circumstances in which we run everything we could run all simultaneously. That leaves "whole house" solution definitions somewhat vague. My 7500w generator will run all appliances as needed along with some lighting and other miscellaneous loads. The only thing it isn't going to run is a 3 ton air conditioner. But, it will run the natural gas furnaces just fine. My 3500+ sq. ft. home is fully operational other than the 3-ton AC units. I guess I should disconnect because I didn't buy at least a 15kw generator?

Where do you get the idea that "central heat" requires an "extremely powerful generator"? The blower on most gas-fired furnace units is powered by a 110v 15A breaker. Mine has a soft-start controlled motor, so it's surge amps may be as low as 6 Amps! Now, if someone has electric central heat, you are correct that most generators will never cut it.

Actually, there are many advantages even with a less than "whole-house-consuming-power-rated" generator:

1) No need to have a door or window open to bring extension cords into the home, or cords to trip over, or the need to change out what's plugged into each cord.
2) You avoid use of inadequate extension cordage. Most people think an extension cord is an extension cord. How about let's plug several of them together end to end? See the fire risks adding up?
3) You'll need to have all those extension cords available - enough of them, long enough, and of sufficient current rating. Have you priced extension cords lately?
4) It's cold, and you want the power on. But you'll need to untangle those cords and get them in the right place first. How hard is it to get to that fridge plug?
5) On that extension cord most can't size properly - want to risk burning up the compressor in that high dollar fridge from brown-out? Go right ahead. Oh, and you'll probably have to move any fridge or freezer to get behind it to move the plug to the flimsy extension cord.
6) Any hour of the night, walk into any room or closet and be able to turn on any light you need - in order to find something you really need - like more blankets or coats, for instance. Just be sure to keep ALL unnecessary loads turned off - extension cords or not, you should not exceed the rating of the generator.
7) Are you on rolling blackouts? Want to return to the grid while it's on? You can do it with the flip of some breakers. No need to plug things back into the wall (like that fridge) that were never unplugged to begin with.