If you had lived a hundred years ago then you would know how horrible it was when the power went out. True the heating and cooling was not as great, so there would not be as much of a difference as today when you heating and cooling goes out, but it was still horrible. Today you have the opportunity to never experience total lack of electricity because you can purchase a diesel generator quite easily.
They are sold in most large appliance hardware stores, and if you can not find one that you like there you can most certainly find a generator online. There ars so many different kinds of generators that choosing one may be the hardest part. You can choose from propane, diesel, or gasoline generators. After that you will have to decide if you want a stationary or portable generator as well as what amount of energy to be produced.
Generators come in a variety of strengths and depending on what you plan to keep running when the power goes out will determine how strong your generator needs to be. Not only does you generator need to be strong enough to run your appliances but it also needs to be strong enough to start them up. Starting an appliance takes more energy then to keep it running thus the strength of running your appliances should be multiplied by two or three for start up.
The kind of generator you use can be based on your preference or on where you live. Some generators tend to do better in cold weather such as propane or gasoline over diesel. If you have a diesel generator in a cold area it will tend to need more tune ups. Also the shelf life of propane fuel is longer than that of diesel or gasoline, so if you do not think you will use your generator much you may want to opt for propane.
If your power goes out a lot you can use diesel or gasoline without worrying about the fuel going bad. Also the fuel gasoline is cheaper than the other two so if you will be using your generator a lot you will want to consider that. Yet diesel is the most efficient fuel, it produces three times as much energy as propane of the same amount. These are just some basic details about different generators, the best thing to do is to make sure you have one.