Stand alone generators are getting more and more affordable. Automatic transfer switches are very nice. I've installed hundreds and occasionally they go haywire but for the most part are great. The biggest thing people mess up on are not exercising there generators when they are home. Everybody wants to let them cycle when there gone and then they call in the middle of the storm and you find out the battery went bad months ago and it hasn't even been running once a week like it was designed. The ones I use keep a maintenance log with time and date. I just want to emphasize on transfer switches for all the readers, buy one! If nothing else buy a manual transfer switch, mount it outside or in the basement and then use your generator of choice. When I hear someone say "oh I just shut off my main breaker" it makes me quiver. When you open up a main breaker on a panel there is a very good chance the contacts may stick or open one side and not the other. The reason for this is because the main takes the most abuse, heat from large amp load, and gets operated the least. By the time you figure this out you may of killed a lineman. Most people don't realize that a transformer works both ways. You will put high voltage back onto a power line, and thus endanger anyone working on that line, if even for a second. So please think twice about cheaping out on a transfer switch when setting up a generator. I'll jump off my soap box now. Thanks