Generac sells a natural gas fed generator that will run the whole house. You're looking at a $12k to $15k investment. My buddy owns one and it kicked on 30 seconds after he lost power.

http://www.generac.com/Default.aspx

You can go for a cheaper diesel model, but you would have to be concerned with fuel storage...especially for 8 days worth of continuous service.

I feel your pain. We just went thru Gustav and were without power for 4 days.

I really like the souns of the Generac unit but $12-$15K is a bit steep.... The house is only about 2,700 sq ft with one AC unit so I can probably get away with something a little less.

I found a Yamaha that is a tri-fuel.... Gasoline, Propane or Natural gas... seemed like an interesting way to go. It isn't a stand by unit but might be a good solution considering a lot of areas around lost gas service too. I'll have to find some reviews because I'm a interested in how the engine holds up when switching between 3 different fuel types.

Check with Northern tools as well. They have natural gas models running from $6K to $15K.

First of all you need to check the Power rating that you need.
A quick way to ascertain this is to decide what appliances you might want to run. Once that is figured out, you then need to buy a plant that will provide the Power(Watts) rating to meet your need.

I got mine from Lowes for $800, and it is rated for 5.5KW. I was able to carry my fridge, freezer, fan, other appliances. You should avoid over loading it, as that will lead to shut down and potential damage of the system.

I avoided running the Gen through the House electrical system. What you may want to do is run some extension cords to the units. Something else you need to know about the cords, ensure that they are rated for 1.6KW.

Good luck. What part of Houston are you in?

If you have the funds for it, I would consider getting an automatic standby unit big enough to run the house. But you should also look up the average gas usage of one that size under load and figure out how much it would cost to operate per day. The gas usage by cubic foot is on their "full specs" PDF file linked on generacs page KrimsonX posted a link to.

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We live in The Woodlands area. My dad had an extra 3.5KW generator so it was enough to pull the fridge, small AC unit, and TV. While it got us through I'd like a larger unit for future outages. I need to check the house AC unit and see what it requires. I'm guessing a 8-12 KW unit should be enough.

I connected our little generator to the house via the 110 outlets with the guidance of my elctrician neighbor and it worked well but we were very careful with what we tried to use. I figure in a few weeks there will be a large supply of used generators on the market but not sure I want to touch just any used one.

What part of town are you in?

That is one thing that concerns me about the larger gasoline powered ones is being able to store and get enough fuel for it. The natural gas one can't be cheap to run but at least I wouldn't have to sit in gas station lines for 4 hours either.

Our situ is different, as we don't have piped nat gas up here on the
Mtn; most of us run on propane from a big buried/hidden tank.

But, nearly all of us up here have a Generac brand, stand alone,
whole house generator, as we lose power for hours/day, several
times per year. Ours is 7 yrs old, and other than a couple
of glitches, runs like a top: it comes on 20 sec after loss of power,
runs 85% of the entire fooking house, (you will probably only need
to power <50% of your house, imo), turns off seamlessly and
comes on once per week to exercise itself. It is "hard wired" into
our elec. system.

One neighbor has a diesel version, which is quite economical in
terms of fuel usage, and that diesel version offers the ability to
run 24/7 almost indefinitely vs. our air cooled version which
shuts down for half an hour every ~10 hrs or so, to cool itself.

I would look hard at the Generac site; lots of good info.
Some friends have gasoline powered Hondas that run like
tops, but gasoline storage is a slight consideration...

Good Luck in your search. mD

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Sugar-Land/Harris County. 8-12KW should be enough.
Mind you a lot of used Gen sets will be almost brand new as people only used for them for max of 3 weeks. Do your home work and you might get one at a bargain.

Do you guys have power yet? How bad is it over there?
Good luck with the recovery.