Home Generators

Keeping your own lights on has gotten a lot easier in the past five years. The every-man-for-himself mind-set that swept through America in advance of Y2K spawned a new demand for home electrical power systems that hasn't gone away since. After California's rolling summer brownouts three years ago, in Central Valley tract homes, home generators are as common as hot tubs. With the rise of a home market, portable home generators are no longer built and sold as construction-site gear. Now they're brightly painted consumer appliances to park next to the lawn mower in the garage. When the lights go out, you find your way to the home generator via flashlight, pull its starter handle to bring its gasoline-powered motor to life, then run an extension cord into the house to hook up lamps and appliances. Many retailers sell several gasoline-powered home generator models for under $500, as do most hardware or big department stores these days. That can get you up to 6,000 watts of short-term power, although your neighbors may think you've fired up a chain saw to cut up the furniture for firewood. If you've got a house full of computer gear and other sensitive electronics, it's worth springing the price of a good laptop for an upmarket home generator that delivers power that won't fry your Dell.