note: first appeared in January 2015

I had a buddy that was absolutely sold on generators, he had three of them. Swore by them and he was proud to own them. He was showing them off to me one day and I asked him, “What would you use them for?” He just stared at me with this blank look on his face. I asked him again. Finally he got his composure back and said for the house. I said okay, “Where is your fuel for them?” He only had a single 5-gal can of old gas, half full. My friend didn’t buy me lunch that day.

What I am getting at is a couple things:

1. If you are going to own a generator what is specific purpose?
2. Do you store enough stabilized fuel for it?

Then once you have asked & answered those questions I want you to think about this…Disaster struck, maybe even “grid-down”, and you get out your generator and stored fuel. You fire that puppy up and poof your lights are on, your AC is running and the freezer is safe.

OK, now think about this for one second…Who sees you are the only house on your side of town with lights on? And all your neighbors, or anyone else driving or walking by, can hear your generator purring along. What do you think will go through their head? So now it is day 5 or 10 or day 20. Now exactly how popular are you?

Yes, generators have their place in “prepping”, there is absolutely no question about that. But have you identified a specific purpose/mission/reason for your generator? Can it meet that task? Do you have the right amount of fuel for it and its mission? And are you prepared for a whole lot of attention, a bunch of it probably unwanted?

Do I have a generator?  Yup, a Honda EU2000i for keeping my batteries charged if the two solar panels can’t keep up.

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