My most recent set up uses Ecoflow battery generators. I don’t have to worry about anyone but me, and as a former Boy Scout leader, I don’t need a lot of creature comforts like constant AC. The set up I have allows me to run both my deep freezer and a large camping refrigerator for two days between recharges on battery. I use a cheap Chinese knock off 1,000 watt inverter generator (that cost $150 )to charge the batteries in two hours. What is great is the batteries will still pass-thru power the freezer / refrigerator during the battery charging so there is no interruption. Basically, a half gallon gas gets me two days of freezer refrigerator and also powers a kitchen set up where I run a small TV and some LED lightbulbs.
I have a gas stove, which is great. The only thing I lack is constant AC For Hurricane Ida I would use my 2500 W champion dual fuel generator to run my 12,000 BTU window unit in the same kitchen area where I lived. I would turn it on in the morning for two hours. During those two hours, I would make breakfast, take a shower, cool off and watch the morning news.
I then ran around helping neighbors with their various issues and checking on the elderly during the day, and napping in the afternoon. When it got around 6 PM, I would turn the gen on again for three hours. During this time I took another shower, cooled off, and made dinner and cocktails. I watched some more news or a Blu-ray movie, and went to bed in a pull out single chair bed that was also near the kitchen. I have several small fans that runoff USB power that can run 12 hours after an hour recharge. The kitchen was still cool when I went to bed, and the fans kept be cool throughout the night
I usually got 17 hours gen run out of a 20 pound propane bottle for the Champion, or at least three days of 5 hour gen run time under my system. I have six of those 20lb propane tanks - which is 18 days of propane generator supply. I also have a 30 gallon standup gas dispenser with a handle crank pump for dispensing into smaller gas cans, and another 20 odd gallons of no ethanol gas sitting around. if the champion dies, I can use one of the Chinese knock offs to run a manual control 5K BTU window unit that only uses 470 W on Eco setting.
I have not had to use them, but I have 1000 Watts of various solar panels that can charge the batteries I use for the freezer and refrigerator in case I ever run out of gas or propane.
I cannot have 24/7 AC, but I have cold drinks and ice and non-spoiled food with two long AC breaks to recharge and relax during the day, a fan at night, and I can keep to this schedule for months.
If I had a wife demanding the AC run 24 seven I would evacuate to a motel rather than put up with a month of shit.If you are willing to downsize your lifestyle a tad, it is a very easy way to survive for months if the worst happens and you lose power for a lengthy period of time.
At $150 I have two new small gens sitting in a box in my garage in case the outage goes months - or one of my neighbors gets in the situation where they need their freezer to have power, but their home generator crapped out.
I hope you all get back to normal soon and that your families are all doing fine