Onan 10 kw diesel gen set hooked up to a transfer switch . Powers house and out blds in emergency .

It depends. Where do you live. It is near a vital facility, and are you on the same circuit? Fire/rescue department, police, hospital, etc these facilities usually get the power turned on first. Do you have a need for electricity to power the medical equipment

If you know it is going out, then you can prepare; put water in the bath tubs for the toilets, pack your freezer, (We used newspaper in the top part of the freezer to increase the insulation), make sure you have a portable radio, and batteries. We use the 5 gallon collapsible camping jugs for drinking water. If you are into camping you already have the stove, lights, etc.

If you have a fireplace have plenty of wood. If it is gas keep the tank full. Some gas fire places will light and keep things from freezing without electricity.

If you are prone to prolong outages, then a professionally wired generator would be a good option. Definitely power backup systems on your computer equipment even if you don't expect outages

We lived on the Carolina coast for nearly 20 years and went through several hurricanes. We found that our freezer would keep the food frozen for about 3 days, or longer depending on the ambient temperature.

Once you are prepared find a good book and enjoy the lack of interruptions. Go to bed early, and remember the urban myths about what happens after power outages.

One urban myth is you cannot watch cable tv. It turns out I have a separate cable signal power, so all I need is my generator to run the fridge, freezer and a couple cable boxes, tvs and lamps. LED lights are less load also.

You cannot be too comfortable? My wife lit a kerosene lantern. I told her to save it for a real problem. I probably destroyed her idea of ambience, but it was an SEC Saturday.

Get a generator and some extension cords. Lots of sites out there that you can use to add up loads to determine size of generator. Bigger genset and auto transfer switch, most expensive, but very convenient. Less expensive, generator lockout switch and backfeed loadcenter through 2P30A breaker. IF you do get a genset, fill with gas with Stabil, etc. once a year siphon gas, put in your vehicle and refill with gas with stabil, etc.

That is exactly what I do..minus the fuel additive. The rig supports 4 20 amp circuits. Now in the summer, when you cannot have a big HVAC, I would add that you should own a window unit, or small heat pump unit, because our houses are not built to use airflow to mitigate humidity and it is miserable in the south without dehumidity in some form. Unless the wet night sweat is good for you, of course.

I have a 7000 watt manual gasoline unit that is hooked to the main box thru a lock out switch/breaker combo. This required an electrician to reconfigure a few breakers to make room for the lockout, but it is far less expensive than a transfer switch and more useful besides. As long as I don't overload the system, I can run anything I want. With a transfer switch, only certain circuits are connected and you are out of luck if you need another.

I am fortunate that our home has separate HVAC units on each floor. We have propane heat downstairs that draws almost nothing. In summer, we could run one of the AC units. If it was one large unit, the starting draw would likely be too much for the generator. I always shut the gen set down at bed time. One winter taught me not to try to start our upstairs heat pump in the cold house because it was trying to run the Heat strips. I have never tried to run the oven but since the heat strips almost worked, I'll bet it would run. The wife said she ran the clothes washer without issues.