Everything you posted is consistent with my experiences ( propane generator) and solar and power wall and rolls battery backup research. Your concerns about the Power wall are correct, 2 days on 7kwh?, my fridge uses that.

edit: I have a ups for the desktop computer, modem, and television: for both outages and surges. The ups is fast enough, when the power “flickers”, I don’t loose power to the tv, computer, modem. When I looked into a Power Wall, they were sold out and not taking orders, thus I looked at Rolls Batteries. I went with a propane Generac. Yes, it should be serviced: check the oil, air filter, belt. If you drive a car, same thing.

I'll start with a disclaimer -- I'm not an expert on these matters. I've looked into them some with the idea that someday I'd like to have an off-grid or at least partly off-grid house, but I'm not there yet.

A battery backup grid-intertie PV system is the elegant way to go, IMO. It's silent, it's clean, and its fuel will never run out. (Not in our lifetimes, anyway.) Its main downside is the cost.

There's also the fact that most utility companies hate intertie. They don't like buying your power, and they resent your using the grid as a giant battery. More and more, they're finding ways to discourage intertie systems -- monthly surcharges, stringent up front requirements, making you carry million-dollar insurance policies, and paying wholesale prices for the energy you produce and selling it back to you at full retail.

Parenthetically, if and when I get my own system, I plan to keep a small part of the house on the grid, and power the rest of it totally off-grid. But that's me thumbing my nose at the utilities. A lot of my tech-savvy friends think I'm nuts, and they're probably right.

I don't really know anything yet about the Powerwall, so I can't help you there, except to say that you need enough battery capacity to carry you through nights and possibly long periods of overcast skies. You also need enough PV capacity to meet your average needs during the day and still store enough for the low- and no-production times.

Old-school PV users maintained backup generators for this, so they could have smaller systems -- fewer panels, fewer batteries. However, PV costs have declined greatly in recent years, making larger systems more affordable.

Generators are a generally cheaper source of backup power. You could consider them the mainstream solution. However, in addition to the noise and exhaust, they need regular maintenance, which is an ongoing cost. They need to be run monthly, power cut or not, which IMO is a waste of fuel and again of some money. And after some number of running hours, it's time to rebuild the engine.

But for some people and situations, backup generators are no doubt the right answer.

If you go with a generator, I'd suggest a natural gas powered one. Again, I'm no expert, but I've been in several workplaces that had backup generators, and my observation was that the NG generators seemed to be more reliable and generally less hassle.

As a NG bonus, you won't be shut down by the inability to get diesel fuel pumped during a prolonged and widespread power cut. If your natural gas service is down too, you have a lot bigger worries than drying your hair and keeping the television and computers going.

I'll be interested to see what the expert suggest.

Fridge, 3kwh/ day

Thanks everyone! A little more info:

We don't have solar, but we would install with this project. We do have enough roof space and sun to run solar. I've gotten some quotes through EnergySage, and the installer that gets really good reviews around here is offering a 6.60 kW system with 20 Panasonic solar panels wtih an Enphase microinverter. Estimated production is 9,844 kWh. They are also an authorized Powerwall installer, and they have Powerwalls in stock.

I don't know much about solar, so I would welcome any thoughts on that as well.

I checked my fridge, and based on the Energy Star rating from when it was produced, it should draw 1.67 kWh/day.

Roughly how much was that generator (with / without install)?

Thank you, most helpful. Was wondering about the propane tank as well, so you saw all my q's in advance.

jalarse, why does your generator run for only 18 hours? Runs out of fuel? I have two homes, one on Long Island and the other in northern NY. Power outages on LI are fairly common and, since I have lived here, twice they have lasted for over a week (remember Sandy?). Fortunately, I have natural gas there and can run my heating on gas without any electricity. For the other house, my heat is purely electric. Power outages there are (so far) rather short, never more than 5 minutes. I think I could live for 24 hours without heat in the winter, because the house is very well insulated. I've been thinking about a generator and/or solar (with or without batteries) backup. I do have a 200 lb propane tank to fuel our cook stove; I selected that size in case I wanted to fuel a generator. I have resisted purchasing a solar system because of the cost (even with rebates), but maybe I should bite the bullet. However, as I understand from the solar installer I dealt with, grid-tied solar can't be used as backup.

I can't help with the solar and battery issues except to wonder how much extra it is to replace a roof with the solar. I have also worried about people steeling the panels.

However I certainly have opinions on the generator side. First, you appear to only need a small generator. A regular gasoline generator like I have IS noisy. I think propane or natural gas wouldn't make a difference. My generator is 7000 watts. Most of these portables are 5 or 7000 watt units. I am in the country on a well with regular HVAC downstairs and a heat pump upstairs. When using my 7000 watt unit, I can run one of those heat sources or AC if needed but if one had only a single unit drawing more power, I doubt even 7000 watts would work for AC.

But you don't need any of that and could run everything you need on 5000 watts easy. I had an electrician readjust breakers in the panel so that an Interlock breaker set could be added Instead of adding a Transfer switch that is far more expensive and partially inconvenient. The Interlock is a manual breaker that I must throw to disconnect the main line so the generator can't feed it and instead goes to the house wiring only. A transfer Switch box does this automatically which is nice but it only allows the specific added wiring in the Transfer box to be working. If the electrician doesn't wire in a basement or attic light or almost any suddenly needed circuit, you won't have it. With interlock, I have access to all circuits without all the transfer wiring cost. I just can't let everything run at once. I just shut down unneeded heavy loads while I am switching the Interlock Breaker.

I have had my unit for about 12 years. I have had some issues but I am handy. I have changed the oil several times and unfortunately had a failure of a voltage regulator during a potential long outage that fortunately was only about 12 hours. I have been casual about starting the generator monthly and doubt my inattention has caused me extra trouble.

Re noise: I hear that there are new 'generators' that are quieter. They are called 'Inverters'. They are more expensive or less powerful, but again, you don't need much. If you did go the portable Generator route: COSTCO is selling a multi option unit with electric or manual pull start that uses gasoline or Gas. I don't recall if the gas was propane or natural gas or maybe both. Very inexpensive too. My unit is a Briggs & Stratton Powerboss (no longer made) with a B&S generator and a real Honda engine that was $900 at COSTCO 12 years ago. This one is a Chinese unit for ~$750 today. I have no idea of life range.

Soft water in excess impacts not only your whole body, but also your individual cells. When your cells become dehydrated from high sodium levels, it restricts water movement through cell walls.

The reason most people put in water softeners is to prevent scaling builds up on faucets and kitchen appliances, not to treat their drinking water.

Unfortunately, no solar power for us - the weather is too unpredictable.

We have a couple of portable generators that we can use for back-up (and use in our camper occasionally). One is a small Honda 2000 watt generator (specs) that only runs on gasoline. The other is a dual fuel (gasoline or propane) that is about 8500 watts (specs) and I only use propane in that one.

The Honda cost me about $1000 and the 8500 watt generator cost me only $599 when on sale at Costco. Our power went out only once last year for about 10-12 hours at max and I ran the propane generator overnight and it worked well but was very loud.

I would definitely recommend a generator that either runs on propane or natural gas as those fuels do not degrade over time as gasoline does.

After a lot of procrastination, the Dec31 reduction in Federal rebates forced me to act, so we are in the process of having solar installed. Our roof can hold 56 panels (15kW), so that's what we're doing. The installer is going to connect to the grid externally to our meter panel.

Our grid power comes from the street to the meter panel, which is mounted on a stand about 150 feet from the house; from there, the power comes to the house underground. The solar installer is going to run their line in another trench to that same stand.

I am hoping to eventually get a propane-powered generator located in roughly the same place. We have a propane tank there now; it supplies gas to the stove top. How can these two additional systems be integrated? Is there anything we need to do when the solar system is installed to accommodate a future generator connection?

There are control boxes to accomplish your goal. I would not install a generator in combination with solar, I would use batteries, first choice would be a Powerwall, second choice would be Rolls or similar. A Powerwall may cost twice as much as a standby generator. I have a propane generator at the cabin, not enough sun for solar....someday I would like to install a battery backup.

My controls are manual. Turn off grid power, start the generator, turn off high draw breakers; well, water heater, fridge, furnace, turn on generator power, then turn on the fridge, then other items as needed. My generator is 6kw, I need 10-12kw to use everything.

@mtvhike - I won't claim expertise on this but I did look into something similar. The differences were an inverter and controller system spec'ed to handle generator (or battery) as well as grid - basically extra connections and programming. It's possible they've already scoped that in but check. Manuals and specs for the inverter may have info and diagrams on connections that could help you confirm the inverter and related gear can incorporate easily.

There are invertors out there that have a relay in them to signal when to start a generator (loss of grid, loss/lack of solar, low batteries).

15kw is a little over 60 amps continuous. That's a fair amount.

we installed two powerwalls this year, adding to our rooftop, gridtied pv system, vs adding a generator. it's seamless. I never know when the power goes out. And, of course, it's silent.
I'm in Florida, with abundant sunshine to power my home, so that does make a difference. and, two 13.5 powerwalls, plus install, was significantly more than a gas generator, but I'm looking at long term savings, and eco considerations. It seemed foolish to me to add a fossil fuel generator, when I already had pv panels enough to power my home.

I think everyone has a slightly different situation, which means one solution or the other may be a better fit. For example, I have quite reliable power, but it sucks when it goes out during a cold snap (usually broken lines from an ice storm) or other inconvenient time. In most cases I just need emergency power for no more than 12 hours.

I have considered breaking out about six circuits into a sub-panel and using a disconnect to allow that sub-panel to be switched to a small inverter generator for my infrequent emergency needs. If I powered my heating system (gas boiler with electric pump), sump pump, a few lights on each floor, and receptacles for the refigerator and a few convenience items like cell phone chargers, I could live off that power for several days. If the generator was NG it would run for any amount of time, but I might just use a propane generator so I wouldn't have to tap into my gas lines. I would not need to run the generator 24/7, so the typical duty cycle for small generators should not be an issue. YMMV.

Bruce