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I built my "house" 1000' off the road, completely without power. Although I had all the cable buried and was ready for NYSEG to turn me on, they took a couple of months to get there easment...then I got involved and had it in 2 weeks. (There's a lesson there...)

I have a cheap ($550) 5000W Generac with with 10HP Techumseh engine. I built the entire shell of the house with it. We ran all the tools, air compressor, well pump, etc. off it without any problems...until the last week of the building process. The air compressor started blowing the fuses on the generator, literally 2 days before we had the roof shingled.

It is very loud...but worked well. I had no problems running the 3/4HP pump 165 down. It is very difficult to start when cold...more or less impossible. Not electric start...and I'd highly recommend this, especially if you you hope your wife can get it going (at least my wife). (Although she did manage to start it up a few times when I was on the roof...always good for a hoot).

If spending the extra few hundred bucks won't cause financial pain, I'd buy something a little nicer. But at the time, I was building a house...

You also might want to look into the "transfer switches" that are avaiable to switch circuits from line to generator. No chance of backfeeding into the grid...which can win you somew nice fines from your power company, and possible kill someone. Home Depot has a box on the on-line site, complete with a heavy 240V cable and connectors, and outside "feed thru" panel, for som,ething like $179. I bought one and will install it as I wire the house.

Good luck.

Features to look for in stand alone generator
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Replies 32 Post by Bruce Pirgerr