I live in an area with a history of power outages. The situation has improved and for many years the outages have been few and of short duration. A lot of people buy generators and never use them.

I bought a 5 KW generator for $200. It looks and runs like new. I opted for a conventional generator because I think they are more reliable than the inverter type and they produce 220 which I need.

Bought it last fall, tested it, changed the oil and haven't used it.

Check Craig's list - always some for sale.