We live in a redwood forest and every winter there'll be a wind storm that knocks out power - sometimes for a week! We finally got a generator last winter. It's probably not as bad a PHX in the summer, but NO CA in the winter gets pretty cold. Having a generator was a huge help - just having a few lights on makes things better - and we can run our fridge, our fish tank and now our heater since we had it hooked to the main house line last month.