In Florida, major hurricanes can leave millions without power. After storms like Hurricane Irma, the power outages lasted for more than a week. Thousands of residents of Puerto Rico still had no electricity when Christmas arrived, more than three months after Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on the island. That left a lot of people asking, do I need a generator?
As a resident of Southwest Florida, you understand that hurricanes are a fact of life. And you know that hurricanes will possibly result in power outages that can last for hours, if not days—or even weeks! You know that you need to stock up on water, food, and batteries when the hurricane is coming, but what about a generator?
When making your hurricane preparedness plan this year, you may be considering adding a generator to your list.
As a southwest Florida homeowner, if you don’t already have a backup generator, you’re most likely in the market for one. Most people can’t afford to go hours— sometimes days— without power, every time a storm hits.
Whether you use your portable generator at home, the office or for camping, the last thing you want is for it to fail when you need it the most. Unfortunately, in the real world, things happen. Filters break, fuel lines clog and pull cords tear.
Next thing you know, your small but mighty backup generator is having delays starting, is rattling or isn’t firing up at all!
The power’s out. Again.
You and your family are sitting in darkness, unable to charge your electronics, run your air conditioner (a must in southwest Florida in the summer!), use your stove, and, oh yes— your refrigerator full of food is about to spoil. You’ve had enough! It’s time to invest in a backup generator.
If you’re considering upgrading from a portable generator to a standby unit, you want to make sure the investment is worthwhile. After all, why pay so much more for a full home generator when you could continue muddling through with your little portable unit on the rare occasion you’re faced with an outage?
Here you are again— another storm, another power outage.
In the dead Florida heat, it’s agonizing waiting for the electric company to get your neighborhood up and running again. You and your family are melting and need some quick ways to cool off!
While obviously not as good as an air conditioning unit, here are a few ways to keep yourself cool without your AC until the power comes back on:
Here you are again—rummaging through your garage for your portable generator. A hurricane will be bearing down in just a matter of hours, but just when you go to fire your backup power source up… nothing! The generator won’t start.
When it comes to generator shopping, it can be hard to know where to start. A long list of terms get tossed around, many of which overlap and can unintentionally confuse— electric generators, gas generators, standby generators, automatic power generators, back-up generators, etc.