Look into a generator transfer switch and get a generator that can also runs on propane. Propane has no limit to shelf life. Natural gas is risky since you are reliant on being supplied a source.
I started looking into this and have a friend who just installed a 7,500 w generator for his boss recently. Somehow they were able to run an extension over to their neighbors house to run his heater I should ask how that worked. So you might be able to connect your heating supply if you know what you're doing.
That being said my peak usage in any given hour this winter has been 6kw and my peak average for a billing cycle was 1.3kwh so I could easily run my whole place off of a 7,500 w generator which only cost about $2k for the natural gas ones. If I just ran my heat pump, water heater, fridge and some lights I would only need like 3kwh for peak hours which by [this estimate](https://learnmetrics.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-run-a-generator-on-natural-gas/) is about $7 a day in gas. There's variable speed ones too but they're much more expensive it's probably way cheaper in the long run to just waste a little gas few days a year.
Dual fuel generators are a good solution for emergency use. I have an extra 30 lb propane tank that by my math should run the gas furnace and refrigerators intermittently for a week or so. After that I can pull the tank from the BBQ or start siphoning gasoline out of our cars to stretch it another week.
We have a 3200w generator for our travel trailer but keep it at our house. We connected it to our furnace and then could power other small electronics but not a whole house. Our meat thermometer showed our garage was the same temp as a fridge should be, so we just treated that as a giant walk in fridge, with a cooler outside. Our thoughts are in the summer months we want the fridge to work, in the winter months we want heat. We have rechargeable lights and power banks and candles and a gas stove so the rest of everything is managed.
I've been planning on doing the "RV generator powering the furnace" trick at my house. Did you have an electrician install a transfer switch? Do you mind sharing what the cost of the electrical work was?
So my husband is really good with electrical work, comfortable replacing wiring, outlets, lights etc. He rewired our trailer and has updated a lot of our house with overhead lighting, new outlets and switches and stuff. We have a lot of the electrical stuff just at our house like a volt meter, splicer tools, caps etc.
This time around it was more a “fuck we have 3 small kids, plus parents here, and can’t leave” so our friend who did the same thing called, sent him a YouTube video and he wired it with cutting an extension cord just to make it work. We will come up with a more permanent solution with a switch and better back up but it worked for us and a bunch of friends.
You can have more stuff wired on a full back up panel with a normal generator, which is what our friends have. But the pricing varies a ton based on your house and what exactly you want prioritized I would guess.
Ahh. The suicide cord method. Hopefully you remembered to turn off the main in your breaker panel so some line worker or neighbor doesn’t get electrocuted.
Tell your husband to order this for the furnace instead https://ezgeneratorswitch.com/product/ez-generator-switch/
Yeah. He knows. He turned off a bunch of things in our breaker panel so when our power came back on, it didn’t actually register for a while.
And he knows about that part now too (or something similar) but we didn’t really have a safe option for leaving so we just had to do what we needed at the time.
We weren't impacted by this storm, but my setup has several layers:
* Tri-fuel generator (runs on gasoline, natural gas or propane)
* Transfer panel with critical circuits routed through it (furnace, refrigerator, water pump and some lights)
* Mr Heater indoor safe propane heater - was used to thaw my water pump house a few times
* Having access to three safe locations within walking distance that are on different parts of the electrical grid
When a storm is in the forecast, I grab some various fuels and find reasons to use it during the rest of the year.
We're in an odd spot being rural (land with lots of trees, well water, overhead power lines, etc), yet urban (large housing development across the street with city services, buried power and no trees). When things happen here, it's going to be a very long time before service is restored as it will only impact 1-4 houses.
Small, 950 sq ft house here. I have a newer upgraded panel, that I put an interlock into. Then, I have a single Honda EU2200i generator feeding via outdoor inlet into the circuit breaker on the interlock. Overall, I am able to run basically all the crucial 120V loads I need (including my gas furnace), so long as I am careful about not having them simultaneously starting (especially any devices with motor loads). My constant load on the generator was about 600-700W. There are some appliances I didn’t try to use, such as coffee pot, electric kettle, etc. I was able to use a single burner 1000W hot plate as a substitute for range, as well as to heat water.
Given my average load, I was getting approximately 5-6 hours on a single gallon of gas. I keep about 7 gallons of unleaded in a couple cans, which was more than sufficient for the approximately 30 hours I was out of power.
Whole setup was about $2300 in 2021. That was about 1000$ for the generator and balance for the electrician to install an inlet, dedicated circuit and interlock. The setup is a bit manual, as it requires refueling every 5-6 hours, but overall, very happy with the cost and effectiveness of it
I did the same at my cabin near Lake Tahoe. Manual Interlock at the panel was a couple hundred installed. It’s a minor effort to manually hook up the generator, but waaaay cheaper than a whole house generac. I keep a handful of gas containers filled fresh at the beginning of the winter, and then come spring I slowly use them up in my truck. Plus then I can pick what circuits I want on. Nowadays with LED lights the load is pretty small. Just make sure it’s up speed before you turn on the furnace. We were out for 6 hours on the tail end of the storm last Weds. Also, have a look into buying a generator tent (seriously!) to keep the rain/snow out.
I have a GenTent, and that worked pretty well!
I’m also considering getting a fuel extender cap and extra tank for my generator. They have models that essentially attach a big auxiliary tank, and allow for much longer run time to the Eu2200 without powering down to refuel.
They told me it was "cruel" to keep six dozen hamsters in my basement. That I was a "nutjob" for planning to power my house with critters running on wheels. That it was "financially unwise" to spend so much money on food pellets and vet bills.
Well...WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, ASSHOLES? My hamster buddies have been running their asses off for days while I've been enjoying three--count 'em--three luxurious 12W lamps AND cooking on a hot plate set to medium. Because I am a GENIUS.
For electricity I have a Honda 900w generator, that feeds a 70 amp battery charger into a 280 amp hour lithium iron battery. It can also be charged by solar, but that isn't great in the winter. Three hours of run time on the generator powers my battery pack for 24 hours. I don't use electricity for heat because it's inefficient, instead I have a $100 diesel heater that's a Webasto knockoff. 5 gallons of diesel will get me about 2-8 days of heat depending on settings.
The generator was $1k, the batteries and charger were about 1k, the heater was $100, and an inverter is needed if you want to use house appliances. I can last pretty much indefinitely with enough gas and diesel.
I want to get a bigger generator and an interlock someday, but this is just my bare minimum survival and camping setup.
Yes it looks just like a car battery. For anything 12v, it can be wired directly to the battery. This is pretty much anything that you would plug into the cigarette lighter in a car. One of these can also be wired to the battery. https://www.amazon.com/Cigarette-Extension-Perforated-10FT%EF%BC%88Send-Insurance/dp/B07TTNF118/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2DH8G4M8DZ6Z6&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dqbUeBaUy1XaepA6IRY_mEAr5WnF95A6hR2h8HkYAI3P5vFDDiBL_Iv07jF02ZHUP4n6cJS4-OvBWuknza2__paC_kouBcfg8reLA7bUT7J3sqWo2zaTxy-swK90DOZSfYZJYF3pRTmXhGzwIs-uNop8EOPk4xJrRemHkKag0rNME0h1HAJvISIc26MW1dmlNs3wOgte2pDrTmS9_4tfPEU2MFZ-4loytWRlYxB0Re4.BNdB0pnHXfsbjEclSytiXnUFZiGZH0BZFoaDY5aeGf0&dib_tag=se&keywords=12v%2Bcigarette%2Boutlet&qid=1705451134&s=instant-video&sprefix=12v%2Bcigarette%2Boutl%2Cinstant-video%2C222&sr=1-2&th=1
In order to run anything that uses a regular house plug, a power inverter changes the 12v to 120v which is what a house uses. This also can be directly wired to the battery. Follow a guide if you don't know what you're doing because you do need a few things like a fuse in between the connections for safety.
You can also just buy one of those battery power stations, which is the same thing. You just get more bang for your buck if you buy the battery by itself.
I’d love to hear from anyone in Portland who has a battery backup/solar system. I am curious if it works here where we often don’t have sun for days. I need to figure out something to do. I can live through these power outages but I want to be able to save my elderly parents from the cold.
Get them a mister buddy INDOOR-safe propane heater, the CORRECT adapter for large tanks specified by its manual, and a 20 lb propane cylinder. That will heat 220sqft for several days, which is usually enough.
Generator, actually two of them. One for the barns (basically running heaters on water pipes a small Honda and a Cummins 25KVA for the house. If you buy one go bigger than you think.
We had a transfer switch put in by West Side Electric. They did great work and I could buy my own generator. Works like a charm to power the whole house and costs a fraction of the price of an automatic one like Generac. I use TruFuel 4 cylinder for gasoline storage which has a shelf life of 5 years.
Harbor freight 4000w generator, an extension cord, and an electric heater in one room. Cooking on a camp stove out in the shed. It’s suboptimal, but our house is all electric. We haven’t lost power during this storm (or the last) but suspect it’ll happen one day.
Thinking about getting the new elec Volvo this year, so probably will look into a power wall type of situation this summer.
Interlock was around $200 installed.
We run 2 Honda 2200i generators in parallel, we already owned these but are round 1k each. We had everything we needed on including running 2 furnaces. Of course you to be mindful about turning every light on in the house at the same time and running the microwave etc… but for that price you can’t beat it
I got a 2kW Honda generator, its enough to power the freezer, fridge, gas furnace, a few lights, internet, and a USB charging hub. If I unplug everything for a couple minutes I can use the microwave. Cost me around $2200 for generator and heavy guage extension cords.
Kohler 20kWh whole-house generator. It was $15k all-in, but having previously lived in CA with the power issues there we wanted to feel really well protected for these types of outages. We lost power for 55 hours and our generator worked flawlessly the entire time.
We also have a GoalZero Yeti 1400 (lithium ion) that provides backup power to our alarm system, internet equipment, etc. along with a 200 watt solar panel that will recharge the GoalZero battery. It can chain multiple solar panels for even faster recharging but we just have the one. It’ll power a full-sized fridge, alarm, internet, and a few LED lights for about 24 hours without needing a recharge and saved me multiple times in California during the wildfire outages. That whole setup was about $2k.
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Westinghouse igen4500DF - runs on propane, good for 3700 Watts on propane or 4500W on gasoline - these are $1220-ish dollars. **The key is that its an inverter generator and can generate more than 3000W.** A 30lb propane tank runs it for 24 hrs under half load. This runs everything I've thrown at it (running propane) directly without any trouble. I also use the battery system below, but its not necessary. Today is day 4 without power.
Bluetti AC300 - This is a "solar generator" and power station \~$1500. It can generate 6000W surge and 3000W sustained. **This absolutely requires an inverter generator to charge.** It can charge on up to 30Amps from your generator and charges a battery in an hour at that rate. You can put a hell of a lot of solar panels on it (for whatever that's worth in a storm).
Bluetti B300 batteries - 3000Wh batteries. \~$2000 each. You can plug up to 4 into a Bluetti AC300. They run deals if you bundle, and can find the AC300 and 2 batteries for \~$4500 pretty typically.
I am currently running off of extension cords, plans for a transfer switch in the summer. The generator is putting out between 250 and 1500 watts depending on demand at the time. I calculated that overnight I used about 3000 watts in 8hrs running my furnace, water heater, fridge/freezer, and a small server/wifi router.
The fridge/freezer uses about 100-150 W on average.
The network stuff, various lights use 50 W average.
Furnace uses 600-ish watts under load. Much less when idle. I estimate 600 Watts whenever my Ecobee says its on and blowing hot air. It ran for about \~3hrs last night while 18 degrees out. Usual Portland weather this is more like an hour a night. **Most new furnaces require an inverter generator (or clean power station like the Bluetti). They require a bonded neutral in order to fire up.** You also typically need to modify your furnace to run it off of an extension cord (which violates code).
The water heater (power vented gas) uses a couple hundred Watts when active, maybe 100W a day as it heats really fast. **This also requires a bonded neutral.**
With 2 batteries for the Bluetti you can run this full load for 8 hours or so. The Bluetti can soak up the startup for just about anything (even major power tools). Fire up the generator to top up the batteries over 1-5 hours, repeat. You can go on for weeks with a couple of propane tanks. I literally have a spare extension cord right now I use for running my gas cook-top and exhaust fan, garbage disposal when needed, TV, garage door, etc. With a transfer switch it will be almost like normal. Also, these are "portable" so you can take them camping, tailgating, to unlucky friends/family. You are limited to 120V with one AC300 (but you can buy 2 and they can be set up for 240V). I solve the bonded neutral issue with a neutral bonding plug when using extension cords. This isn't a problem when using a transfer switch as it uses your home panel for the ground and neutral bond.
Pricey, for sure. That said, yesterday I (and my family of 4) had a hot shower, cooked meals in our 70 degree kitchen, came and went from the garage, played Minecraft with the kids on our server, watched a movie on Netflix, and slept in a warm bed.
I live in a small home and use a little Honda generator. Powers they whole house with a feezer and a fridge, as long as you don't use dumb stuff like the vacuum cleaner.
Just run the 120 plug into a extension cord and run all your stuff, except the oven
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Yes, buy all of this after April.
Look into a generator transfer switch and get a generator that can also runs on propane. Propane has no limit to shelf life. Natural gas is risky since you are reliant on being supplied a source.
there's a Westinghouse I'm looking at that is "dual fuel" and you can easily switch back and forth between the two
I started looking into this and have a friend who just installed a 7,500 w generator for his boss recently. Somehow they were able to run an extension over to their neighbors house to run his heater I should ask how that worked. So you might be able to connect your heating supply if you know what you're doing. That being said my peak usage in any given hour this winter has been 6kw and my peak average for a billing cycle was 1.3kwh so I could easily run my whole place off of a 7,500 w generator which only cost about $2k for the natural gas ones. If I just ran my heat pump, water heater, fridge and some lights I would only need like 3kwh for peak hours which by [this estimate](https://learnmetrics.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-run-a-generator-on-natural-gas/) is about $7 a day in gas. There's variable speed ones too but they're much more expensive it's probably way cheaper in the long run to just waste a little gas few days a year.
Dual fuel generators are a good solution for emergency use. I have an extra 30 lb propane tank that by my math should run the gas furnace and refrigerators intermittently for a week or so. After that I can pull the tank from the BBQ or start siphoning gasoline out of our cars to stretch it another week.
We have a 3200w generator for our travel trailer but keep it at our house. We connected it to our furnace and then could power other small electronics but not a whole house. Our meat thermometer showed our garage was the same temp as a fridge should be, so we just treated that as a giant walk in fridge, with a cooler outside. Our thoughts are in the summer months we want the fridge to work, in the winter months we want heat. We have rechargeable lights and power banks and candles and a gas stove so the rest of everything is managed.
I've been planning on doing the "RV generator powering the furnace" trick at my house. Did you have an electrician install a transfer switch? Do you mind sharing what the cost of the electrical work was?
So my husband is really good with electrical work, comfortable replacing wiring, outlets, lights etc. He rewired our trailer and has updated a lot of our house with overhead lighting, new outlets and switches and stuff. We have a lot of the electrical stuff just at our house like a volt meter, splicer tools, caps etc. This time around it was more a “fuck we have 3 small kids, plus parents here, and can’t leave” so our friend who did the same thing called, sent him a YouTube video and he wired it with cutting an extension cord just to make it work. We will come up with a more permanent solution with a switch and better back up but it worked for us and a bunch of friends. You can have more stuff wired on a full back up panel with a normal generator, which is what our friends have. But the pricing varies a ton based on your house and what exactly you want prioritized I would guess.
Ahh. The suicide cord method. Hopefully you remembered to turn off the main in your breaker panel so some line worker or neighbor doesn’t get electrocuted. Tell your husband to order this for the furnace instead https://ezgeneratorswitch.com/product/ez-generator-switch/
Yeah. He knows. He turned off a bunch of things in our breaker panel so when our power came back on, it didn’t actually register for a while. And he knows about that part now too (or something similar) but we didn’t really have a safe option for leaving so we just had to do what we needed at the time.
I get it. We all cut corners during the first emergency, but hopefully learn and plan for the next one.
We weren't impacted by this storm, but my setup has several layers: * Tri-fuel generator (runs on gasoline, natural gas or propane) * Transfer panel with critical circuits routed through it (furnace, refrigerator, water pump and some lights) * Mr Heater indoor safe propane heater - was used to thaw my water pump house a few times * Having access to three safe locations within walking distance that are on different parts of the electrical grid When a storm is in the forecast, I grab some various fuels and find reasons to use it during the rest of the year. We're in an odd spot being rural (land with lots of trees, well water, overhead power lines, etc), yet urban (large housing development across the street with city services, buried power and no trees). When things happen here, it's going to be a very long time before service is restored as it will only impact 1-4 houses.
Small, 950 sq ft house here. I have a newer upgraded panel, that I put an interlock into. Then, I have a single Honda EU2200i generator feeding via outdoor inlet into the circuit breaker on the interlock. Overall, I am able to run basically all the crucial 120V loads I need (including my gas furnace), so long as I am careful about not having them simultaneously starting (especially any devices with motor loads). My constant load on the generator was about 600-700W. There are some appliances I didn’t try to use, such as coffee pot, electric kettle, etc. I was able to use a single burner 1000W hot plate as a substitute for range, as well as to heat water. Given my average load, I was getting approximately 5-6 hours on a single gallon of gas. I keep about 7 gallons of unleaded in a couple cans, which was more than sufficient for the approximately 30 hours I was out of power. Whole setup was about $2300 in 2021. That was about 1000$ for the generator and balance for the electrician to install an inlet, dedicated circuit and interlock. The setup is a bit manual, as it requires refueling every 5-6 hours, but overall, very happy with the cost and effectiveness of it
I did the same at my cabin near Lake Tahoe. Manual Interlock at the panel was a couple hundred installed. It’s a minor effort to manually hook up the generator, but waaaay cheaper than a whole house generac. I keep a handful of gas containers filled fresh at the beginning of the winter, and then come spring I slowly use them up in my truck. Plus then I can pick what circuits I want on. Nowadays with LED lights the load is pretty small. Just make sure it’s up speed before you turn on the furnace. We were out for 6 hours on the tail end of the storm last Weds. Also, have a look into buying a generator tent (seriously!) to keep the rain/snow out.
I have a GenTent, and that worked pretty well! I’m also considering getting a fuel extender cap and extra tank for my generator. They have models that essentially attach a big auxiliary tank, and allow for much longer run time to the Eu2200 without powering down to refuel.
They told me it was "cruel" to keep six dozen hamsters in my basement. That I was a "nutjob" for planning to power my house with critters running on wheels. That it was "financially unwise" to spend so much money on food pellets and vet bills. Well...WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, ASSHOLES? My hamster buddies have been running their asses off for days while I've been enjoying three--count 'em--three luxurious 12W lamps AND cooking on a hot plate set to medium. Because I am a GENIUS.
For electricity I have a Honda 900w generator, that feeds a 70 amp battery charger into a 280 amp hour lithium iron battery. It can also be charged by solar, but that isn't great in the winter. Three hours of run time on the generator powers my battery pack for 24 hours. I don't use electricity for heat because it's inefficient, instead I have a $100 diesel heater that's a Webasto knockoff. 5 gallons of diesel will get me about 2-8 days of heat depending on settings. The generator was $1k, the batteries and charger were about 1k, the heater was $100, and an inverter is needed if you want to use house appliances. I can last pretty much indefinitely with enough gas and diesel. I want to get a bigger generator and an interlock someday, but this is just my bare minimum survival and camping setup.
Rad setup!
I’m imagining your 280 amp hour lithium ion battery looks like a car battery how do you get electricity out of it? I feel like Derek Zoolander
Yes it looks just like a car battery. For anything 12v, it can be wired directly to the battery. This is pretty much anything that you would plug into the cigarette lighter in a car. One of these can also be wired to the battery. https://www.amazon.com/Cigarette-Extension-Perforated-10FT%EF%BC%88Send-Insurance/dp/B07TTNF118/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2DH8G4M8DZ6Z6&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dqbUeBaUy1XaepA6IRY_mEAr5WnF95A6hR2h8HkYAI3P5vFDDiBL_Iv07jF02ZHUP4n6cJS4-OvBWuknza2__paC_kouBcfg8reLA7bUT7J3sqWo2zaTxy-swK90DOZSfYZJYF3pRTmXhGzwIs-uNop8EOPk4xJrRemHkKag0rNME0h1HAJvISIc26MW1dmlNs3wOgte2pDrTmS9_4tfPEU2MFZ-4loytWRlYxB0Re4.BNdB0pnHXfsbjEclSytiXnUFZiGZH0BZFoaDY5aeGf0&dib_tag=se&keywords=12v%2Bcigarette%2Boutlet&qid=1705451134&s=instant-video&sprefix=12v%2Bcigarette%2Boutl%2Cinstant-video%2C222&sr=1-2&th=1 In order to run anything that uses a regular house plug, a power inverter changes the 12v to 120v which is what a house uses. This also can be directly wired to the battery. Follow a guide if you don't know what you're doing because you do need a few things like a fuse in between the connections for safety. You can also just buy one of those battery power stations, which is the same thing. You just get more bang for your buck if you buy the battery by itself.
I’d love to hear from anyone in Portland who has a battery backup/solar system. I am curious if it works here where we often don’t have sun for days. I need to figure out something to do. I can live through these power outages but I want to be able to save my elderly parents from the cold.
Get them a mister buddy INDOOR-safe propane heater, the CORRECT adapter for large tanks specified by its manual, and a 20 lb propane cylinder. That will heat 220sqft for several days, which is usually enough.
Three raccoons in a trenchcoat
Generator, actually two of them. One for the barns (basically running heaters on water pipes a small Honda and a Cummins 25KVA for the house. If you buy one go bigger than you think.
We had a transfer switch put in by West Side Electric. They did great work and I could buy my own generator. Works like a charm to power the whole house and costs a fraction of the price of an automatic one like Generac. I use TruFuel 4 cylinder for gasoline storage which has a shelf life of 5 years.
Harbor freight 4000w generator, an extension cord, and an electric heater in one room. Cooking on a camp stove out in the shed. It’s suboptimal, but our house is all electric. We haven’t lost power during this storm (or the last) but suspect it’ll happen one day. Thinking about getting the new elec Volvo this year, so probably will look into a power wall type of situation this summer.
Interlock was around $200 installed. We run 2 Honda 2200i generators in parallel, we already owned these but are round 1k each. We had everything we needed on including running 2 furnaces. Of course you to be mindful about turning every light on in the house at the same time and running the microwave etc… but for that price you can’t beat it
I'm thinking interlock and a honda 2200 for my 1600 sf house with gas is going to be the way to go. Thanks!
Some utilities help with the cost of energy efficient heaters and such. Look your utilities info up, they might help a lot. YMMV
I got a 2kW Honda generator, its enough to power the freezer, fridge, gas furnace, a few lights, internet, and a USB charging hub. If I unplug everything for a couple minutes I can use the microwave. Cost me around $2200 for generator and heavy guage extension cords.
My neighbor has one of those Tesla roofs that collects and stores solar energy
I sat in the dark.
Kohler 20kWh whole-house generator. It was $15k all-in, but having previously lived in CA with the power issues there we wanted to feel really well protected for these types of outages. We lost power for 55 hours and our generator worked flawlessly the entire time. We also have a GoalZero Yeti 1400 (lithium ion) that provides backup power to our alarm system, internet equipment, etc. along with a 200 watt solar panel that will recharge the GoalZero battery. It can chain multiple solar panels for even faster recharging but we just have the one. It’ll power a full-sized fridge, alarm, internet, and a few LED lights for about 24 hours without needing a recharge and saved me multiple times in California during the wildfire outages. That whole setup was about $2k.
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Westinghouse igen4500DF - runs on propane, good for 3700 Watts on propane or 4500W on gasoline - these are $1220-ish dollars. **The key is that its an inverter generator and can generate more than 3000W.** A 30lb propane tank runs it for 24 hrs under half load. This runs everything I've thrown at it (running propane) directly without any trouble. I also use the battery system below, but its not necessary. Today is day 4 without power. Bluetti AC300 - This is a "solar generator" and power station \~$1500. It can generate 6000W surge and 3000W sustained. **This absolutely requires an inverter generator to charge.** It can charge on up to 30Amps from your generator and charges a battery in an hour at that rate. You can put a hell of a lot of solar panels on it (for whatever that's worth in a storm). Bluetti B300 batteries - 3000Wh batteries. \~$2000 each. You can plug up to 4 into a Bluetti AC300. They run deals if you bundle, and can find the AC300 and 2 batteries for \~$4500 pretty typically. I am currently running off of extension cords, plans for a transfer switch in the summer. The generator is putting out between 250 and 1500 watts depending on demand at the time. I calculated that overnight I used about 3000 watts in 8hrs running my furnace, water heater, fridge/freezer, and a small server/wifi router. The fridge/freezer uses about 100-150 W on average. The network stuff, various lights use 50 W average. Furnace uses 600-ish watts under load. Much less when idle. I estimate 600 Watts whenever my Ecobee says its on and blowing hot air. It ran for about \~3hrs last night while 18 degrees out. Usual Portland weather this is more like an hour a night. **Most new furnaces require an inverter generator (or clean power station like the Bluetti). They require a bonded neutral in order to fire up.** You also typically need to modify your furnace to run it off of an extension cord (which violates code). The water heater (power vented gas) uses a couple hundred Watts when active, maybe 100W a day as it heats really fast. **This also requires a bonded neutral.** With 2 batteries for the Bluetti you can run this full load for 8 hours or so. The Bluetti can soak up the startup for just about anything (even major power tools). Fire up the generator to top up the batteries over 1-5 hours, repeat. You can go on for weeks with a couple of propane tanks. I literally have a spare extension cord right now I use for running my gas cook-top and exhaust fan, garbage disposal when needed, TV, garage door, etc. With a transfer switch it will be almost like normal. Also, these are "portable" so you can take them camping, tailgating, to unlucky friends/family. You are limited to 120V with one AC300 (but you can buy 2 and they can be set up for 240V). I solve the bonded neutral issue with a neutral bonding plug when using extension cords. This isn't a problem when using a transfer switch as it uses your home panel for the ground and neutral bond. Pricey, for sure. That said, yesterday I (and my family of 4) had a hot shower, cooked meals in our 70 degree kitchen, came and went from the garage, played Minecraft with the kids on our server, watched a movie on Netflix, and slept in a warm bed.
I live in a small home and use a little Honda generator. Powers they whole house with a feezer and a fridge, as long as you don't use dumb stuff like the vacuum cleaner. Just run the 120 plug into a extension cord and run all your stuff, except the oven
What would I use as an apartment dweller?