Generator or power station for UK power cuts?

Fuel-burning appliances and engines can make carbon monoxide. The NHS lists portable generators among the causes, alongside barbecues and camping stoves used indoors and engines running in an enclosed space such as a garage.

A generator is only as good as its fuel, and the HSE limits what a household can keep without telling anyone: up to 30 litres at home in suitable containers (plastic up to 10 litres each, metal up to 20 litres), and never in your living accommodation. Storing more, up to 275 litres, means notifying your local Petroleum Enforcement Authority and following its requirements.

Thirty litres runs a small generator for a while, but petrol also goes stale and needs rotating. A power station needs none of that: you top it up from the wall before the storm.

Never plug a generator or a power station into a wall socket to "feed" the house. That back-feeds the house wiring and can put power onto the network outside. If you want to run house circuits, such as a boiler on a fused spur, that is a changeover installation for a qualified electrician. Otherwise, plug appliances directly into the generator or station.

A generator is an engine, and because it has to run outside, your neighbours hear it too, all night if you need the fridge-freezer through the night. Battery stations are near silent: EcoFlow, for example, quotes under 30 dB for the RIVER 3 Plus on its UK page. Their fans speed up under heavy loads or fast charging.

• Flat, terrace or no safe outdoor spot: a power station. A generator needs somewhere outside, away from every door, window and vent, including your neighbours'.
• Fridge-freezer, router, lights and phones for a day: a 1,000–2,000 Wh station. The calculator sizes it for your appliances.
• Rural home with long cuts and a workshop's worth of loads: a generator outside can make sense, with a changeover installed by an electrician and a station indoors for the quiet hours.