My first generator that I used to keep the lights on and the refrigerator working was an Onan built into my motor home that I owned at the time. It was pretty easy to use because the gasoline that fed it came directly from the motor home gas tank which was 25 to 30 gallons I think of gasoline.
However, eventually we sold that motor home and then things got more difficult to control.
At first I went to Orchard Supply and bought a 500 dollar generator one day and that worked okay as long as when it was raining or blowing wind outside a lot that I put it in my garage while running it. However, my garage is connected by a door up to our kitchen so unless I kept this door closed carbon monoxide might find it's way into our kitchen and living room which can be fatal if you don't know what you are doing. However, if it's raining especially you don't want your generator to be rained on because it is electrical and can either be dangerous or the water can kill the engine eventually too or cause other problems.
So, over the years I went to several different generators until I bought a Yamaha generator that I bought at a nearby motorcycle shop. This appears to be the best idea so far because the motorcycle shop will also service this generator if I need it too. They told me to start it up about every 2 weeks for a about 10 minutes because the little carburetor jets tend to clog otherwise so I have been doing this and so far it still starts up so it can be ready for the power outages that tend to happen here on the coast between January and about March some years.
The latest addition to all this was to by a plastic storage shed for my back yard to keep the generator and the carbon monoxide further away from my house and my lungs. This has really been a good idea because now there is noise but it is further away from the house and I no longer have to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning like I did before.
So, I would recommend for most people something like my smaller Yamaha generator that I bought from a motorcycle shop where they can service it for me if I need them to. and Also getting a plastic shed you can buy from most hardware stores for your back yard too and one of those 100 foot orange outdoor cords to put between your generator and your refrigerator and a surge protector with many plug outlets built in so you can plug in in addition to your refrigerator, also your wifi and a lamp and your flat screen TV too hopefully. HOwever, it's important to note that most generators will NOT run heaters too. So, you will have to figure out how to stay warm with either your fireplace or in some other way when the power goes out or just go to a nearby hotel or a relatives place or a friend's place to stay to stay warm enough when the power goes out (for whatever the reason) where you live in the U.S. or around the world.
Later the next morning after Hurricane Helene in Florida:
another refinement for my wife and I this last winter was to go to a hotel because we got too cold after about a week freezing in our house. The fireplace just wasn't keeping us warm enough. so, we moved into the nearest Hyatt to us for about 3 or more days until the power went back on. However, how I handled this WITHOUT losing 500 to 1000 dollars or more of food in our refrigerator was to keep the gasoline generator running by going there every 4 hours or so at least from 8 am in the morning until around 10 pm at night. This was enough to keep the food okay in the refrigerator. Especially over night from about midnight to 6 am usually the house is cold enough if NO ONE is opening and closing the refrigerator at all that most things in their will keep okay until 6 to 8 am the next morning when you start up your generator. However, it all depends upon many thing like what temperature is it in your home and many other variables. So, make sure your food is safe to eat, especially frozen items when you do something like I'm talking about here in an emergency in order to stay warm enough and showered because if you have an electric water heater the generator likely isn't going to work for that or for heating your home or your electric Oven or range either. One way to make this easier is to have a gas stove top set of burners that will light with a match in an emergency. Because many gas stove tops you cannot do this with anymore. So, you have to specificialy ask for one that will light with a match in an emergency otherwise you cannot do this
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