The Generator Quandry

I admire the woman in our small writer's group here who lives in a cabin completely "off the grid," meaning they don't have running water or electricity.

Not only am a spoiled by modern conveniences, I found out that this winter, after two power outages and one lightening strike, that I can't effectively run a business without electricity for my computers and phone lines to interview sources.

I told my husband, after the most recent power outage (a relatively small 5 inch snow storm), that no matter what, we'll have to factor in the cost of a back up generator when we do the addition to our home.

I recently read a good article in Mother Earth News regarding propane generators. We also looked at a house last week with a large back up system, powered by propane, that kicks in as soon as there is a power failure - and had the capacity to power everything in the house.

As I was doing more research, I learned that propane is also the most expensive. However, it is (behind solar power) the best on the environment.

Gasoline generators that I've seen (such as the one that kept our fridge running during this last storm), are noisy. As well, you can't store gasoline for as long as propane, nor as safely.

However, as my aunt said last week, you still have to be able to afford propane should you need it.

With regards to the solar generators, I couldn't find one above 40 watts, which doesnt' seem like a whole lot of power to me. I'm not sure how much could be ran on 40 watts and for how long.

Also, if it is cold and dreary with heavy cloud cover, will it even work?
As are most decisions with regards to going green, its all a bit confusing and I'll have to do more extensive research to sort it all out.