A few years ago, remnants of a hurricane came through Ohio (yes, Ohio!) and we were without power for 9 days. A neighbor had a portable generator that he brought to us once a day to run our fridge and freezer, so we didn't loose any food. After that, we bought a portable generator. During the past year, we have been without power once for 2 days and once for about 20 hours. My DH put the generator in the back of his truck and we shared with neighbors - 2 hours at a time - so no one lost any food. All these outages were in warm weather, so heat was not a problem. But we occasionally loose power in the winter, so I love the idea of having the generator. I think ours was worth the money!