My father was an Electrical Contractor so I was trained as an Electrician's helper from birth basically and I worked and was paid by my father's business summers from the time I was 12 to 17 and then worked for another company as an Electrical Contractor for about 8 months when I was 21 when I had burned out on programming for awhile because of no RAM yet available for business computers at that time. Then only NASA had RAM and it hadn't yet filtered down to microchip forms mass produced for the masses worldwide. So, I know a lot about installing electrical systems including the fact that by age 17 I could wire any house or business with just a set of Electrical architectual plans and the right parts.
So, here's the thing with Gas and Diesel electric generators. Most people worry about dying from carbon monoxide from gas or diesel electrical generators and yes that can be a problem if you run your generator inside. But, often even in a rain storm or snow storm you can find some place up against your house or garage where you can get something like a 4 by 8 piece of plywood or something to act as a shelter for it while you run it outside.
What I often do is to keep it at the entrance of my garage so if it isn't raining right then I just push it outside and if it begins to rain I then leave my garage door open and bring it in a few inches out of the rain. That's what I do.
BUT, if your garage it connected somehow to the rest of your home make sure your connecting door is closed and you put maybe a towel or something at the base crack in case winds blow the exhaust into your garage and under the door to the living area. This I would recommend. So, if you do it my way you have to keep your garage door open AT LEAST to clear the air so carbon monoxide doesn't build up there and filter into your home somehow and kill 1 or more people.
2nd. You MUST turn off your Electrical Main Switch at your main panel BEFORE YOU START YOUR GENERATOR AND YOUR POWER CORD LIKELY SHOULDN'T BE ATTACHED TO YOUR GENERATOR UNTIL AFTER IT IS STARTED EITHER JUST FOR SAFETY SAKE. And if you have secondary panels maybe turn those mains off too just to be safe. Because if at a random time you have the Grid Power come on suddenly BOTH YOUR GENERATOR AND ALL DEVICES IN YOUR HOME COULD EXPLODE OR SHORT OUT AND NEVER BE USED AGAIN WHEN THIS HAPPENS AT A RANDOM MOMENT!
AND IF YOU ARE NOT PRESENT WHEN THIS HAPPENS YOUR HOME MAY BURN DOWN TOO. SO, IF SOMEONE ISN'T THERE KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT ALL THIS YOU SHOULD ACTUALLY TURN OFF YOUR GENERATOR FOR SAFETY UNTIL A KNOWLEDGEABLE PERSON IS THERE JUST FOR SAFETY AND MAKING SURE YOUR HOUSE STAYS THERE IN ONE PIECE AND SO DOES THE GENERATOR AND ALL MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY!
SO, turning off your main Breakers is the single most important thing you can do to protect your home and family and devices from burning down or the generator exploding or even the lines coming to your home from a power pole potentially melting and dropping into your driveway or something.
Besides carbon monoxide, your home burning down, your generator exploding and killing a pet or child this destroying most or all of your electrical appliances are the biggest problems of not turning off all your main breakers.
Then when you notice your neighbors lights are on, Or you are told by the power company your lights are on you walk outside first and then turn off your gas or diesel generator.
Then you unplug the 100 foot outside power cord you have plugged into the generator. Then you unplug all your devices from the power cord and usually roll up that 100 foot power cord so no one trips on it by accident.
Then you pull on your main breakers and secondary breakers to the main power to your home or business. And you test the lights to see if they go on.
Note:
Most of the time gasoline generators or diesel generators are not that big. But, usually they are big enough to run at the very least your refrigerator. When you buy your generator ask the people there how many appliances you can put on that cord without bogging down that specific generator.
When I ran my house with an Onan from a Motor Home I used to own I only could put (on a 100 foot cord into my kitchen) my refrigerator and one light and wifi and cell phone charger and a computer on it and sometimes my large 60 inch flatscreen as well.
It's also good to have a land line because they have their own electricity separate from the grid usually so in an emergency (even if you can't easily charge your cell phone) you have a land line phone people can call (especially the power company) to tell you what is going on with the power.
Also, if you live in an area like I do that because of a lot of pine and redwood and oak trees near the ocean is going to have some power outages every winter usually, maybe it's a good idea to have a gas stove top and a gas oven and a gas water heater. This way some of your needs are covered because gas doesn't go off. However, if your gas mains in your area are very very old (worth checking) I wouldn't go gas because what happens if a gas main goes like it did in San Bruno. It could take out your home too.
With our very very old (relatively speaking) gas main infrastructure now killing people and blowing up homes pretty regularly this is something to think about too.
2nd note. What I usually do because a gas or diesel generators power is less stable usually than what you get from the grid it might be important to use surge protector strips for all your appliances like refrigerators, wifi, computer charges, cell chargers and the like so the power from a local generator doesn't harm or fry them. Surge protectors are build to burn out before the devices you plug into them do thereby saving you a lot of money in the short and long run.
3rd note: Never try to run electricity through the wires in your walls while the main power is off from your generator. This just invites trouble. It is always better to buy a 100 foot or more outdoor power cord (usually orange in color in the U.S.) to run directly from your generator to your appliances. (I usually take the cord directly to my refrigerator first (which is usually your biggest electrical drain in most houses. So, in the kitchen or nearby I place my surge protector with multiple outlets on the end of this 100 foot cord that I run through my garage up the stairs and into my kitchen and under the door from the garage to the stairs. (Every home will be different) For example, if you live in an apartment you might put a small generator on a balcony and run the cord from outside through the edge of a sliding glass door or something like this.
So, you must pull your refrigerator out from the wall to unplug it from your wall socket and then plug it into your surge protector.
If your grid power is off for a week or even 2 or 3 days the amount of spoilage in your refrigerator in food loss costs is likely greater than the price of most gasoline or diesel generators so that one week your generator likely just paid for itself in regard to most families (except for single people who might eat out at restaurants for most meals).
So, this is something to think about too regarding whether buying a gasoline or diesel generator is practical or not for you. But, you really don't want to store a gasoline or diesel generator inside where you live. You want to store it in your garage or else it is going to smell up your house during the rest of the year you are not using it.
4th note:
most refrigerators are on wheels so you can more easily move them out away from the walls and then reinstall them. However, if you have water available on the front of your refrigerator be very careful you don't accidentally sever the water line going into the back of the refrigerator because often those lines do not have water shut offs and you might be forced to shut off the water to your whole house until you can somehow get this repaired. So, be very careful moving out and in your refrigerator.
What I usually do is to move the refrigerator out just enough so I can see sort of behind it what is going on with the cord and the water source before I take it out as far as I actually need and the same when reinstalling my refrigerator to it's normal place.
another thing with refrigerators is they usually cool up the back of their design so you need to leave enough space for the hot air to come up the back and over the top. If you clog the air spaces your refrigerator can overheat or not cool properly because the air needs to be free to come up the back of a refrigerator easily and come out the top over the top of the refrigerator for the cooling process to work right.
Freon sucks the heat out of a refrigerator but then that heat has to go someplace else and where it usually goes is up the back of the refrigerator and out over the top of the refrigerator and into the kitchen. So, find ways not to block this heat from doing this when you re install your refrigerator.
When you move your refrigerator out far enough from the wall to reach behind and unplug it you then plug it into your surge protector plugged into your orange outdoor cord which is coming from your generator outside. I usually just leave my refrigerator out far from the wall so I can plug it into the wall easier when the power outage is over. This also makes it less likely to somehow smash or break the usually copper water line coming into the back of some refrigerators.
So, Good Luck with all this all over the world wherever you are!
Last note: devices are built differently worldwide like refrigerators and other devices. Also, in europe you have 220 volts instead of the 110 we use for safety in the U.S. for most appliances. So, these instructions of course are going to be more useful in the U.S. than other places for a variety of reasons but most principles I mention here are mostly universal. Just remember that if you have a power outage with 220 volts like in europe it is potentially more fatal than 110 if you make a mistake.
But even with 110 if you are standing in water could potentially kill you if you not thinking carefully what you are doing at the time. So be careful always and know what you are doing.
I was trained to work Hot (with circuits on) so I have been shocked many times with 110 and once in a while even with 220 or 440 volts. However, the reason I'm okay now is that I wasn't standing in water at the time or holding onto large pieces of metal grounded in the ground with my other hand at the time I received all those shocks.
The reason electricians are often trained to work hot is you are working at homes or businesses that have to be up and running while you are doing electrical work. So, it is just one of the hazards of the trade many times. Only with unmanned new homes or businesses or some remodels do you have the luxury or working on a Cold circuit without electricity running through it at the time.
SO HERE ARE THE STEPS IN AN EASY MANNER:
1. TURN OFF ALL YOUR BREAKERS AT THE MAIN PANEL AND SECONDARY PANELS.
BEFORE YOU PLUG ANYTHING INTO THE GENERATOR.
2. START IT UP FIRST IN A SAFE PLACE USUALLY OUTSIDE AND SEE IT IS RUNNING PROPERLY.
3. WHEN YOU ARE SURE IT CAN MAINTAIN RUNNING THEN PLUG IN YOUR 100 FOOT OR MORE POWER CORD INTO THE GENERATOR IN THE RIGHT PLACE (MAKE SURE YOU ARE PLUGGING INTO A 110 OUTLET AND NOT A 220 OR 440 OUTLET ON THE GENERATOR.
4. WHILE THE GENERATOR IS RUNNING AND YOU HAVE PLUGGED IN THE CORD (BUT NOT YOUR APPLIANCES YET, RUN THE CORD USUALLY INTO YOUR KITCHEN SINCE YOUR REFRIGERATOR LIKELY WILL BE THE BIGGEST POWER DRAIN NORMALLY.
5 PLUG IN YOUR SURGE PROTECTOR SET OF OUTLETS INTO YOUR POWER CORD USUALLY IN YOUR KITCHEN OR NEARBY.
6. PULL YOUR REFRIGERATOR OUT FROM THE WALL SO YOU CAN PLUG IT INTO THE POWER STRIP SURGE PROTECTOR WHILE MAKING SURE YOU DON'T DAMAGE THE WATER LINE WHICH MIGHT BE GOING INTO THE REFRIGERATOR. (I USUALLY LEAVE THE REFRIGERATOR OUT TO LESSEN POTENTIAL DAMAGE TO WATER LINE OR WALLS WHILE ON EMERGENCY POWER)
7. PLUG IN ALL DEVICES YOU NEED THAT YOUR GENERATOR CAN BEAR AND LISTEN OT THE SOUND OF THE ENGINE OF THE GENERATOR.
IF THE ENGINE MAKES STRANGE SOUNDS OR GOES OUT YOU HAVE OVERLOADED THE CAPACITY OF THE GENERATOR OR IT HAS RUN OUT OF FUEL OR YOU DIDN'T TURN THE CHOKE OFF SO IT COULD RUN NORMALLY. LISTEN TO YOUR ENGINE WITHOUT BEING PLUGGED IN FOR AWHILE SO YOU GET USED TO WHAT IS NORMAL BEFORE GOING FORWARD IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS. SPEEDING UP AND SLOWING DOWN FOR SOME GENERATORS ENGINES IS NORMAL BUT JUST DYING USUALLY MEANS BAD FUEL, CHOKE ON TOO LONG OR ELECTRICAL OVERLOADING OF THE CAPACITY OF THE GENERATOR.
IF YOU OVERLOAD THE CAPACITY OF THE GENERATOR FOR TOO LONG IT WON'T WORK ANYMORE (EITHER THE GENERATOR PART OR THE ENGINE OR BOTH CAN BECOME DYSFUNCTIONAL FROM OVERLOADING. SO, CAREFULLY READ INSTRUCTIONS TO GENERATOR SO EVERYTHING WORKS SMOOTHLY.
NOTE: IF YOU JUST BOUGHT THIS GENERATOR IT MAY NOT HAVE OIL OR GAS IN PLACE FOR USE (LIKELY DOESN'T). SO, IF YOU START IT WITH NO OIL IN THE CRANKCASE IT WILL LAST MAYBE A FEW MINUTES BEFORE IT FREEZES UP AND IS USELESS TO ANYONE EVER AFTER.
SO, CHECK BOTH OIL AND GAS LEVELS BEFORE STARTING YOUR GENERATOR AND MAKE SURE THAT NO WATER GOT INTO YOUR GAS SUPPLIES DURING THE YEAR WHICH WON'T WORK EITHER.
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS SMALL PLANES CRASH A LOT TOO WHEN PILOTS DON'T CHECK FOR WATER IN THEIR FUEL TANKS FROM WATER CONDENSATION OR LEAKS INTO THE FUEL TANKS ALSO.
PART OF THE CAUSE IS LIKELY ALTITUDE CHANGES OR PLANES SITTING IDLE FOR TOO LONG ALSO.
THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN CAUSES FOR CRASHES DURING TAKEOFFS BY THE WAY.
Last note: Electric Heaters and Electric Stoves take just too much electricity unless your Diesel or Gas Generator is the size of a small trailer. So, one of the easiest ways to destroy your generator is to plug in any kind of heater or electric Stove into your Gas or Diesel Generator. So, be very aware of the electric drain of larger things like Electric Heaters or even refrigerators. IF you can only plug in one or two things, plug in your refrigerator and one light in the kitchen. IF you have these two things plugged in (you save immediately about 200 to 500 dollars of food) and you don't stumble over the cord in the dark and fall down the stairs into the Garage. At certain points I've done both so I'm just cautioning you regarding safety and saving money on food and injuries.
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