After such a rough rain storm last night and the loss of power in parts of Toronto and most of Mississauga it has likely caused a lot of stress and panic for many people out there. If the overwhelming need hits to go out and buy a back up generator for your townhouse or semi/linked or detached home in Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville, Milton, Mississauga or wherever you live. Before you go out and buy the biggest one you can find answer a few questions. How much power do you need? Do you need to run the entire house OR do you want to run the refrigerator, freezer, and a few lights? Where are you going to store this item? Small can sit in a garage, big may need its own shed. If you go large in a generator are you going to be breaking the rules ie noise pollution or complaining neighbours? What is your time frame in an emergency? Do you want to be able to be self sufficient for 2-3 days or for 2 weeks with no hydro? With the above question you have to consider how much fuel are you comfortable storing on your property? 10 liters for the lawnmower and backup is one thing, 200 liters is another. How much money do you want to spend? You can go from a few hundred $ up to thousands of $ in the initial purchase AND then you need to think how much does maintenance cost? This is a negative questions but needs to be asked. A big generator costs more and may be a bigger target for theft as it is stored in a back shed, smaller can be stored in the garage. Do you want to go solar powered? There are some grants out there AND you can constantly use this power to cut your current hydro bills. All questions to be answered before you buy the biggest generator in existence!
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 15:15:33 +0000