Storms, Generators, and the Mystery of Why We Make Using Better Things Complicated.

Up front, some transparency. This blog supports technology that a company we’re affiliated with uses as part of its product. If you buy their product through the links here, we may get a commission. This disclosure is at the end too, but we figured starting with it was the grown-up thing to do. But honestly, this isn’t really about selling anything. It’s about a technology that solves an obvious problem and, for reasons that remain slightly baffling, isn’t encouraged as logic would expect. 

A week or so we enjoyed a spectacular blizzard. If you had nowhere to go, and I mean absolutely nowhere, it was beautiful. Peaceful. Snow falling quietly, trees wrapped in white, woods looking like a postcard, fire going in the hearth…basically a scene straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. (I can’t believe I wrote that sentence, I’m not entirely sure what came over me, I apologize.) 

Before the storm, our crew of friends group text thread confirmed the essentials: we all had food, supplies, and generators. We all did the traditional pre-storm ritual—fill the gas cans, check the propane tanks, and buy new flashlights because the batteries in the old ones had crusted through to the bulbs, they had sat unused for that long.

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Storms also follow a very predictable emotional timeline in Anywhere, U.S.A, one of my favorite places to be. The days before the storm is planning stress, the day before the storm last minute slightly louder preparing stress, during the storm is resigned to whatever is going to happen will happen destress. Afterward, assuming you made it through fine, life resumes, followed by the discovery that you panic-bought enough eggs, milk, and bread to open a small breakfast restaurant in Vermont specializing in French toast.

My personal stress trigger is power outages. As long as I’m home with electricity, I’m good. Without power? Not so good. 

Rain, snow, wind, eventually a tree meets a utility line, the dominoes start falling, and the power goes out. Power might come back in an hour. Or a day. Or three days. Or weeks, depending on how big the mess is. (Side note: the crews who fix this stuff are amazing.)

Generators are the universal backup plan. Reliable, familiar, and loud enough that the neighborhood starts to sound like a small regional airport. They’re also funny products when you think about it. You buy one hoping you never actually need it. Ideally it just sits in the garage for years, like an insurance policy with a pull cord.

In my case, I committed to an $1,800 propane generator and keep around $100 worth of dedicated propane tanks ready to go, which when you add the grill and the patio heaters tanks, put me, in short, storm-prepared to a slightly fanatic degree.

And it works…mostly. When the power goes out, I plug a cord into a special outdoor outlet and run it about 100 feet to the generator, with the generator a good distance from the house. If the battery works, great, it starts with a button. If the battery doesn’t work, ok it never works, I pull the cord a few times until it fires up. Success! Electricity returns. Civilization resumes. And I can go inside dry off and warm up.

But, there's still the weather conditions that caused the outage in the first place. Snow, rain, wind, freezing temperatures—basically nature reminding you who’s in charge. And every few hours, you head back outside to refuel or swap propane tanks. It’s a wonderful experience that really makes you appreciate indoor plumbing and central heating.

At some point, standing outside in a blizzard setting up and refueling a machine, you start wondering: humanity has managed to put our entire lives into a thin rectangle we carry in our pockets…couldn’t we have figured out an better way to keep the lights on? 

As it turns out, we have. If you haven’t invested in a generator yet, it’s worth paying attention to what’s happening in newer energy tech. We’re at a point where backup power can be quieter, cleaner, far less annoying, and it comes with free fuel.

Systems now store energy in batteries that are charged using solar panels. So instead of hauling gas cans through the snow or changing propane tanks in the dark, the system quietly creates its own power.

During the day, solar panels recharge the batteries while you’re using the stored power. In other words, your generator politely refuels itself while you stay inside reading by the light of the sun, as it were.

Even better, these systems can sit in your garage as they run without fumes, noise, or midnight refueling missions. This isn’t futuristic anymore, it’s already here.

Now, I’m not trying to make this political. My point is simpler: when something makes sense, we should probably encourage it, and this is the part that confuses me.

The tax incentives that encouraged buying this kind of technology have just stopped. Stopped. That raises a basic question: shouldn’t we be encouraging new ways to produce and store energy? Especially since the future, AI, data centers, electrification, everything we’re building is going to require enormous amounts of power.

That part isn’t controversial. Everyone agrees demand is going up. The puzzling part is why we’d disincentivize adopting technologies that can help produce and store energy more efficiently, cost people less, and actually, after the initial purchase, the fuel is free.

That feels like a slightly odd long-term strategy, but again, I’m just the guy standing in the snow pulling a generator cord.

So tax credit or not, it’s probably worth looking at the options out there. Backup power that’s quieter, cleaner, easier to live with and comes with what is basically free fuel from the sun is a pretty practical upgrade. Especially when the next storm shows up and reminds us how much we enjoy electricity and not having to go outside to keep it flowing.

An old friend once said something that has held up surprisingly well over the years: “When something doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t make sense, so look behind the curtain.”

If a technology lowers costs, simplifies life, and keeps the lights on during a storm, it begs the question of why we’d discourage rather than encourage that technology.

Please share your thoughts!

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BTW, the irregular spacing is because I have no clue how to un-irregular it. All suggestions welcome here.