This is the most popular post I wrote back in 2008 but is still valuable today!
If a hurricane is heading straight for your area, do you evacuate? You should. But stop and think about your refrigerator. How long will it be before you can return to your home? Two days, a week, or maybe longer?
If you have no whole house generator back up, your refrigerator will stink and may need replacing. If you have a whole house generator, and leave for an extended period of time, your refrigerator will continue to work and you may be able to save your food. But what about maintenance? It is absolutely necessary for any generator.
If you run your generator on propane, your generator will continue to run until your power comes back on or you run out of fuel. Generators need maintenance. They need oil and filter changed every 100 hours, or every four days, if it is running continuously. If you do not perform maintenance, you may blow up the generator. If that happens, you will have to buy a whole new generator.
If you run your generator on natural gas, it will run until the power comes back on, no matter how long that takes. If you come back in 8 days, and your generator has been running continuously, you should have changed the oil and filter twice.
Generators are great but need maintenance. Is there a way around the maintenance so that you won't have to worry about it? Yes, solar. You can install a small start up system that will run your refrigerator and a few lights. There is no maintenance on a solar system - at least not for 25 years. And you won't need to worry about blowing up your solar system due to lack of maintenance. Consider solar with a back up generator.
And now I invite you to leave a comment below. Let me know how you take care of food in your refrigerator when you leave town for an extended period of time.
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