On 28-Jan-2014, "Steve Freides" > wrote:

> l not -l wrote:
> > On 27-Jan-2014, sf > wrote:
> >
> >> On Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:36:32 GMT, "l not -l" > wrote:
> >>
> >>> Worst case, I move in with my son who lives a block away in a house
> >>> I inherited when my mother passed. It has a whole-house natural gas
> >>> powered
> >>> generator. During the last two power outages, my son didn't even
> >>> know they
> >>> had happened until quite a bit after the fact.
> >>
> >> Wow! How much did that set her back (ballpark it) and how many years
> >> ago was it installed?
> >
> > ~$9,000 installed, $125/year service contract. It was installed
> > nearly 5 years ago.
>
> We've considered doing that but, so far, our situation hasn't warranted
> it.
>
> There are also some issues in our part of the world with gas supply,
> e.g., someone else in our town was told that there wasn't enough gas
> pressure/volume/capacity in his block to support a big generator - it
> wouldn't work properly and would cause problems for his neighbors, so he
> couldn't do it. Our electrician told us this isn't uncommon and you
> have to check with the local utility before you install one of these
> things. That was about the quote we got, too, $10k if memory serves.

We did have to have a new, higher capacity METER installed, at no charge, by
the gas company. There was a large capacity supply line run from the new
meter to the generator as part of the install.

The only issue we had in getting it installed was from the electric company
and fire department over the number and placement of warning decals. The
two had different ideas about where the decals should be to keep their
employees safe; it could be disastrous for a worker/firefighter who thought
they had cut off power only to have the generator take over.