When it is 116 degrees outside the issue is air conditioning. It takes a hefty generator to supply A/C units in that kind of heat. Larger houses here have several large A/C units. Most generators are derated significantly with NG verses propane as the input. In my previous house I had a 500 gal buried propane tank just for the 40 kW backup generator. I also had NG for heat but I didn't use it for the generator. I also figured the propane tank was much more likely to survive an earthquake.
Propane is hard to beat... mostly because it never goes bad. I am currently trying to decide whether one or more tanks up in the holler. Started out trying to figure out how to drag a 1k gal tank up there. Thankfully, that is impossible. So I started thinking of smaller tanks and a distributed storage - I may lose a line some time, and 200 gallons is way less hit than 800... So several 250s used one at a time is safer storage. And since I have to bring the propane up myself, a five hundred in a pickup box trailer for transfer is the first step.
As to AC, up to you. either a jenny big enough to run the AC, or less AC and close up part of the house.
I am kinda in that jamb myself right now... I am betting we are going up in smoke this year. By fire season, we are gonna be drier than I have seen in thirty years. If the valley is full of smoke, I can't open the house up at night to take advantage of the cool night air, and so, the choice is either to open it up and let in the smoke (and quit breathing so much), or leave the place closed up and turn it into a pressure cooker.
The proposed solution was AC - Particularly a portable unit, because it draws from inside the house and only exhausts outside. I wound up with a 10.5k BTU AC... And it seems to provide a workable solution. My place has been locked up tight as a drum for three or four nights now.
But IF indeed I need it, I will have to sleep in the living room, because it is not enough to cool the bedroom wing sufficiently for sleeping. Sacrifice and making due is typical in emergency situations. I ain't done messin with it, but I am well satisfied with the solution, even if I don't get my bed.
