I had a power outage today for almost 3 hours, someone took down a pole.  I thought, no biggie, I just started up the generator.  Generator battery was dead, but two yanks on the cord, started up, another no biggie.  I plugged in … nothing to the house.  checked all the circuit breakers, nada.  I even plugged a 110 cord into the right outlet.. still nothing.  Called my handyman son.  We ended up dragging the gennie into the house so he could pull the housing off out of the rain and skeeters.

I haven’t needed the gennie in over a year, but I’ve started it up every six weeks or so, just never plugged it into the house – didn’t need to.  The motor to start it is fine, but the generator itself isn’t delivering power to the outlets.  Something has frozen/ seized/ rusted… inside the motor that generates power (even though it’s always covered from the elements).  The unit cost me $1200 many years ago; a Honda, a good engine and very reliable.  Looks like some intense repairs will be needed to the tune of several hundred dollars.  A smaller unit might suffice for the same several hundred dollars brand new, or do I repair this seldom used larger unit for the same price?  either way, for now, I can’t afford it.

Lesson learned:  keep everything CHARGED (I couldn’t even use my Tablet for Kindle reading!)

Lesson learned:  use things!!  perhaps if I had plugged in and used the generator portion of the gennie I would have kept it from seizing up.

Lesson learned:  the right equipment isn’t any good if you don’t use it regularly.

Lesson learned:  I was fine.  I started a lantern, found a paperback book and read until I needed to start dinner, which I did with a match to the gas stove.  No biggie.