Talk about getting spoiled by Hubitat and all that it handles for us on a daily basis. I mean...I had to walk around to all of the doors and turn those little 'locky things' each night. That's not my job now mannnnn...HE handles that! Haaaaa Not to mention GH telling me that she needs to turn the heat up because the house is getting chilly. Or...that someone left the laundry door open. Or Arlo tripping and telling me someone was coming up the driveway. SPOILED SPOILED SPOILED! When the power came back on after 2 days I ran around the house checking on all of my little gizmos and bulbs, checking their statuses in device monitor, testing this, that, and the other. All is good....but whewww....SPOILED SPOILED SPOILED!
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2 day power outrage? Wow, that's gotta suck.
Was like camping for me so could have been worse. Wifey and the youngster were HATING life. No hot water for showers and no X-Box...Ohhhh Nooooo!!!!!
We had a bad ice storm in Tulsa back in 2007. We lost power for 12 days. My friend 18.
Just kill me now. 12 days.
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That’s why I have a little generator 
Just enough to keep the lights on
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Am shopping for a Generac as we speak.
If you have natural gas, whole house is the way to go. If not the Habor Freight predator 3500 super quiet is a great choice as it doubles as an RV / tailgate generator.
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I highly recommend the Honda eu3000is. (3kw, 120v only) Set up a backfeed 30a SP breaker in your panelboard and re-position your "must have" 120v circuits so they are all on the same bus as the backfeed breaker. May require some manual 'load balancing' but it works well. The Honda is super-quiet and will handle extended runtime.
This is similar to what I did.
Separate breaker panel to feed essential circuits (like all my server ups) then a connector and a big manual break before make switch
‘Mains/Generator’
So I have the oprion on what to feed the circuits with.
I also use a 60 amp voltage ‘smoother’ so I could even run sensitive equipment directly from the feed without a smoothing ups.
I run my business from home so power is essential for me.
That’s why I have a 42u rack full of ups/batteries.
Andy
I hope by "backfeed 30 SP breaker, you are talking about a transfer switch. Otherwise, you are feeding current into the power grid. That could be fatal to anyone making contact with a downed line. Transfer switches are not cheap. However, they are legally required if you are feeding power into your house's wiring.
https://www.planetgenerators.com/transfer-switches-is-it-necessary-for-your-portable-generator/
This https://www.amazon.com/DuroMax-XP12000EH-000-Watt-Portable-Generator/dp/B01M0N8256/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=duromax+12000eh&qid=1554780884&s=gateway&sr=8-1 is my best investment ever in these situations and about 1/4th of the cost of Generac Standby Generators installed, big enough to power my entire house
So now when a long outage comes, I open the bar b que propane bottle hook the power cord from generator up to my house meter shown here https://www.homedepot.com/p/GenerLink-40-Amp-Meter-Mounted-Transfer-Switch-with-75kA-Per-Phase-Surge-Protection-MA24-S/301962200 Start the generator and flip the switch!
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Square D Homeline panels have an OEM UL- & Code-approved mechanical backfeed interlock that negates the need for a transfer switch. I have them installed on the main panels for the 6kw generator.
It may work on their "QO" panelboards as well. I should check on that, as the QO series is what I use for my main distribution sub-panels (with 200a main CBs).
I have a 400amp split main (2 x 200a) service with dual mains, dual (2 x 200a) subs, a dual (2 x 100a) sub-subs, with over 100 branch circuits overall. So for my home's system transfer switches are massively large and massively expensive (I own an elecitrical & plumbing wholesale company - retired). I've now all but abandoned the large generator setup in favor of the 3kw portable powering one sub-panel and I'm doing it the "bad" way --but you are correct, I should install an interlock on that panel's main.
Interesting idea, but it requires a generator that has a 240V output which your Duromax generator has but which most small inverter generators lack.
We wound up picking up one of these back in January. It's a little smaller than yours but seems like a solid generator for our bare necessity requirements for now.
Ya, I never was much on the idea of spending the money to only accomplish half (or less) then the intended purpose of what I was spending the money for (having electricity just as you did prior to an outage), If I were to do that I would just get a small portable, and run extension cords, rather than the costly expense of tying it into your breaker panel, with interlocks and transfer switches ONLY to just be able to have a limited power supply, just as you would have with extension cords and a smaller portable generator......
That is what I did during our most recent power outage of about 2-1/2 hours. We only have one generator, a Generac iX2000. I had run it for some lights. If it were a longer outage, I would have connected the refrigerator or the freezer, one at a time to help keep them cold. We do have our camping trailer that we could have used for stovetop cooking as it is a gas stove (electric in house). We also have the gas grill, but that would depend on it not raining.
My UPS did last for the power outage so HE kept operating. That is one reason I have more than one UPS in the house.
The real trick is getting the power transfer process simple enough that someone who isn't familiar/comfortable with electrical services can do it.
SqD does now make an OEM mechanical interlock for UL-compliant backfeeding of a panelboard buss. I've ordered it and a Nema L5-30 flanged receptacle to make my 30a/120v backfed setup plug-n-play.
The second link I posted in comment #11 couldn't make it anymore simpler, no electrician needed, no interlock needed, you literally plug your generator cord in, start the generator, flip the switch on the generator and the meter automatically switches over, disconnecting you connection from the grid, and only (automatically) will reconnect once you shut the generator off..... The only "install" needed is a phone call to your electric company provider to have "them" install it which was free and takes less than 5 minutes as they pull your meter, snap the gernerallink in where your meter was, hook up the ground, then snap your meter in front of the generallink.....and you're done.
Home Depot sells 4 different sizes of the Generallinks for those only wanting to power only a small amount of items, I posted the largest one, which I have and use to power EVERYTHING in my house.
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