TexasCHLforum.com

I personally run a 5000 Watt gas generator. It was made by Coleman / Briggs and Stratton and it ran about 2/3's of my house including both fridges, microwave, outside lights for security, ceiling fans and tv's . It did not run my home A/C, my pool or my oven, but everything else ran through it without an issue. I do however have 2X110 watt 12000 BTU window a/c units that kept the living areas very comfortable. At the time I had 8 X 5 gallon cans and was running the generator for 10 hours on and 2 hours off. With this schedule I ran about 10 hours on 5 gallons of gasoline. I do have a power siphon kit that I bought at Auto Zone, and both of my vehicles were completely full of gas so there was about another 45 gallons available.

If you are going to set this up, you might want to have an electrician install a 2nd circuit panel with a power transfer switch. This powers my house directly and I don't have to run cords anywhere. I just told him which circuits to make hot on the generator. Now I have just one plug (the 4 prong) to plug into the generator and flip the big red switch. I have an instruction sheet on the generator and even my 14 year old can completely convert the house to generator if I am not home. The hookup with all parts cost about $250 installed by my electrician. Here is a picture of the setup:
The lessons I learned and the way to rectify them:

1 - Buy a Honda Generator. They are much quieter.
2 - Buy bigger gas cans that have a flexible fill hose. It is very dirty and the new environmentally friendly fill spouts leak everywhere. I now have 2 of these as well. I fill each of my cars up at least once a month out of the cans and then take them to be refilled. In June I fill up the 8 gallon tanks and starting in November I just empty the 5 gallon tanks into the larger tanks. I keep both 14 gallon tanks full year round, but rotate the gas within 6 months in every tank. http://www.jcwhitney.com/14-gallon-fuel ... map=538314" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
3 - Make sure you have plenty of generator oil. You need to change it every 20 hours of use. Also make sure you have something to empty it into.
4 - Get a very large chain or Krypton lock. I put a lag bolt into a can and filled it with lots of cement in my backyard. I can then chain my generator to it and just run my one cord over there. There were a lot of generator thefts during Ike. Yes I have plenty of guns, but I do sleep.