You’ve seen it before. Hurricanes, flooding, thunderstorms and other natural calamities knowing down power transformers in your community. The end result is always a power blackout that could last hours or even days before the utility lineman can get in and do some repairs to restore power. In the first half of the 20th century, you can get by with just your battery-powered transistor radio for news and entertainment, some lighted candles at night and a coal-fired stove to cook your meals. For heating, your fireplace is always ready with just some dried burn.
Electricity forever
These days you can’t. The modern household is chockfull of electric and electronic conveniences that have defined 21st century lifestyles. The computer and the Internet just can’t run without electricity. In prolonged power blackouts, you just have to be online, not only for current affairs, but for your social networking and even office work. Your cellphones, Nintendo and PSP game consoles and mp3 players, while self-sustained with their batteries, cannot last more than a few hours without charging their batteries. It would be great if you had spare batteries, which is a good practice. But what if the black caught you without them or in the midst of charging some batteries?
Electricity has always been something we take for granted as it’s always there. Until some calamity knocks down an electric post or a transformer serving your neighborhood. That’s the time you realize you can no longer live without it. As they say, you’ll never realize the value of anything until you lost it. Even for a short while.
Generators to the Rescue
A suitcase generator comes in as an indispensable home accessory. Though it’s rarely ever considered when building your home, you’d be glad you have one when you need it. If you are about to build your home, don’t forget to include a shed or room that has good noise isolation from the rest of the house, preferably near the kitchen area or basement. Fixed standby generators are fine when you want to power the entire house seamlessly bridging utility power with generator power. That’s very ideal. But most households and even commercial offices can get by with just a suitcase generator with sufficient capacity to drive the bare necessary appliances to get things done. After all, you don’t expect the blackout to last longer than a few hours or a few days at the most.
Suitcase Generators
Modern generators come in this form factor. They typically range between 1000watts to 4000watts that can, with some power management skills, allow you juggle the appliances that need to be powered in times of blackouts. And what’s great about them is their quieter operation. Generators are noise pollutants that can be annoying when you need some silence around. Suitcase generators are well encased to offer some sound isolation to make them anywhere from 6 to 10db quieter. They are neat and smart to lug around as well as compact enough to be stored without looking cluttered.
Suitcase generators come from various makes and in different capacities. Whichever you choose for the home, you won’t regret having one. Do a little research on the net on the various fuel used as well the how to match generator capacity with the total power needs of the appliances you want powered in times of emergency. Every home should have a suitcase generator.