PREP: How the Honda EU2200i Generator Is Getting Me Through Hurricane Florence.

I’m currently on day 4 of Generator Life and I’ve learned a few things along the way. Now that I have some authority on matters of portable power generation, allow me to enlighten you on the finer points of generator selection and operation.

Inverter generators can automatically increase or decrease rpm in response to load. So instead of sitting there chugging along the whole time at 3,600 rpm (the constant rpm that spits out 120-volt AC at 60 Hertz), they can ramp up when a fridge kicks on and then idle back down. That means they’re quieter, use less fuel, and produce much cleaner power. Because the power is essentially filtered through the inverter (AC to DC and back to AC), the sine wave is clean and constant.

Electric devices, especially microprocessors, like clean power. It’s not that a standard generator will fry your TV, but that big Samsung will be happier running off an inverter generator.

This little Honda EU2200i looks like it would fit in a carryon suitcase. From a sheer wattage perspective, it seems dinky. But how much electricity do you need to run, really? Turning on every LED lamp in your house might draw a couple hundred watts. A refrigerator kicking on will momentarily require a lot of power (say, 1,200 watts) but then settle into a constant 200-watt draw.

Depends on whether you want air conditioning.

Plus: “Every time there’s a big storm, people get killed by generators. The main culprit is carbon monoxide: People forget that generators are internal combustion engines and run them in enclosed spaces. The tricky part is that storms that knock out the power also tend to bring precipitation, and you can’t leave a generator out in the rain (see: high voltage).”

You want a battery operated carbon-monoxide detector.

And I have a whole-house generator, but I also have this little Yamaha as a backup.

And as the article says, the time to buy a generator is well before you need one.