A 8500W sustained 11000W surge generator from Northern Tool that’s enough to power my whole house for 3 days or so with two 5 gallon jerry cans was another $1300.
If you do go generator shopping, sizing is important, but it’s also important to look for a generator with low Total Harmonic Distortion (<5%) if you plan to use it in your house else your sensitive electronic devices may be damaged. Surprisingly, a large majority of generators on the market, including the ones sold by Costco, don’t have low THD. GeneratorBible website is a good resource for comparison shopping and education.
We mainly made the purchase for peace of mind after last year’s “incident” (even knowing that it was a once in 30 year storm).
Transfer switches are another alternative, but are more expensive and can only handle the 4-6 breakers you assign to them. Interlock kits can use any breaker. So at higher expense you get less functionality in exchange for a solution that is slightly more foolproof.
With any electronic device built after the 90's, this will not be an issue. Everything that uses a switched mode power supply doesn't care about the waveform.
The waveform shape will likely only affect devices from before the 90's with inductors trying to do clever things, such as florescent lights.
With a very poor waveform, classical induction motors will run hotter. That includes fridge compressors and fans in furnaces, pumps in dishwashers, etc. I doubt any will fail though - they normally have a decent thermal margin.
Be careful out there!
https://www.walmart.com/ip/FR-4-2-Pin-Style-Power-Connector-...
Edit: this one has three prongs, for safety :)
https://www.amazon.com/Linmunster-%EF%BC%8CDouble-Extension-...
That could be done by having a keychain-style device that clips around the incoming electricity cable to your house and sends a signal that would be detected by the 'improved suicide cable'.
Big mistake! The breakers in your service panel are to protect your wiring from overheating by drawing too much current. The 10ga wire he used is only rated for 30A, so it should be on a 30A breaker. Having more current than that could melt the cable or damage the generator. Bigger isn't always better when it comes to circuit breakers
In general and excluding inductive motors, your advice is correct.
It's a transfer switch that installs behind the meter, so not a lot of work to enable selecting loads using the main panel.
I guess it is comparatively expensive for the load it supports (my use case would be the furnace and some lights though).
