The power went off during a big thunderstorm Thursday night and we were without power for twenty-five hours. The only bit of good news was the storms that brought down the power lines also brought down the temperatures and yesterday was rather pleasant — windows all open since no air conditioning was available. Had the power gone off 24 hours earlier when it was a muggy 90F outside we would have been gnashing our teeth.

Whenever this happens thoughts of installing a Generac Power System come immediately to mind. I got a quote last year, $14,500 for the equipment, installation, and permitting. It’s a hefty chunk of dollars for something that happens rarely though it does seem to be happening more frequently and for longer periods of time. If the power were to go out for 24 hours or more during a wicked cold spell or an evil heatwave money would be no object but it would be too late.

Is it worth it for shorter outages? I don’t know but I’ve yet to bring myself to purchase one so I’m gambling a bit. At the moment, with a cool breeze hitting me in the face, I’m tempted to forget the big dollars and go with something smaller — like emergency lighting and a few solar panels continuously charging a cache of batteries to keep the cell phones charged and to keep the internet cycles flowing. That wouldn’t take much power. The refrigerator and heating/cooling are the real energy eaters.

As noted, if another power outage as long as this one (or longer) occurs during a hot or cold spell, I’ll write a check and quit worrying about it. Besides, it might turn out like my snow blower. Three thousand dollars and six years later, we still haven’t had enough snow to break it out of the garage. Maybe if I get a generator the power will never go off again, in which case the neighbors should owe me a few bucks.