Whitfield Advantage II generator usage

First:  it was about 55 degrees the week after Sandy.. had the weather gone down to 40 or below.. things would have gotten really bad !   If this was a below freezing storm.. there would have been many more deaths.

Second:  My son bought a generator.. 5K just before Sandy hit Oct. 2012.  He was nearer to Sandy's eye, but never lost power (nor did anyone below Cherry Hill, NJ). So after a few days here waiting for power (and gas and food or anything) we visited him for 3 days and brought back his unused generator.  (P.S the terrible gas lines.. did not exist in South Jersey)  It had four 120v outlets AND they had ground plugs.  I plugged the long extension cord into a 6 outlet surge protector and the "green" ground light came on !   Plugged in the UPS and it went on (it was my "more power" 1994 UPS model) and tried the stove (which was still plugged into the UPS) and the stove worked for the 2 1/2 days until the power came back on.   No ill effects, so if you get a small generator that has a ground.. get a good surge protector.. your stove should be happy.   I did not tie the generator into the house ground.  I have not tried the DC converter by connecting  it to the house ground.  I know the UPS would not run on the DC due to "no ground".  None of the UPS units will turn on if there is no ground.   One guy used a DC converter with his Prius car.  It ran some 5 days at idle (he must have turned it off at night) so he had light and stuff.

So I answered my own question.  And yes, there are a few "digital safe" generators if you wish to use computers and microwaves in a "safe" environment.  They start at $1500 and go up from there.   I guess you should keep your PC hooked up to the USP as the UPS should have no problem with a grounded generator.    The UPS should  "smooth" any bumps.  With any generators, when they are off to be filled you must unplug everything.  After starting again and waiting a minute, you start plugging in your items.   There was one generator with a remote start and it would automatically wait a minute before the outlets worked again.  That way you don't get a surge and power drop at startup.

Something really interesting is the first two nights.. I hooked up my DC converter to my tractor with a small ,standard size tractor battery.  At idle it ran for 6 hours on 3 gallons of gas.  That gave us lights and a TV to watch what was on the DVR, then DVDs.

Our cable and internet died as the entire town had no power which powered the cable's system.  Hopefully what NJ and NY learned is gas stations and other "needed" places need to have a generator system.   A way of hooking up the pumps to a generator, the cash register.    Hopeful this was a 100 year storm.   We have been out for hours at a time.. but never this long. P.S our phones worked.. but just that.. after the first day no phone Internet.  You could text but no Facebook, Amazon.. nutting...