John, Don't mean to offend here but I think there was alot of advice on the technical aspects. Not sure I have anything to add but my own two cents worth and you know what that is worth.
However your main question was a two part question: an economic one as it relates to your finances and needs and wants. With no information such as an income statement, balance sheet, and budget, (and none of us want you to provide it), none of us can tell you what the best financial fit is for you. The other part is what kind of comfort level you want to maintain in an emergency and can you go without a/c for a week or more.
You probably already know the answer depending upon if you are rich, are poor, or have children who could use a few extra bucks thrown their way.
The technical aspects are all a quality crap shoot anyway and a coin toss. You have to consider the costs of running them. During our last week long power outage, the farmers with ptos didn't want to spend the gas their tractors take to run 24/7. Those of us with portables didn't run them 24/7 either as you are looking at hauling 35-40 bucks worth of gas everyday (in a bunch of cans) and pouring gas into a little tank all the time. About $300 a week for gasoline assuming anyone can drive in a blizzard or hurricane and find a station open with gas available with the refineries shut down. I wish they had a propane powered generator for a good price that could hook up to the main tank. If you have natural gas, that may work unless the gas plants get knocked off line. Since you may not get hit with a hurricane for another 10 years, you may have another engine to take care of that may not work when you need it most. You can't run these in the house and basement and the big ones can't be moved around so you may be stuck with storing it outside in the elements and mice and other stuff that gets into engines and gums up the works. If you always have a running tractor for other things, a pto generator fits the bill. If I had my druthers, I'd like to find one I could easy on and easy off mount with a belt off my pickup.
I got by with a 2200 watter. Powered a few lights, 42" lcd tv, and the furnace fan/blower (furnace runs on propane) and it still ran the reefer and box freezer in the basement although we unplugged them and only ran one at a time till it quit and it ran the microwave too. Run the heater in the morning till it maxed out at 90 degrees. Ran it in the evening to warm it back up and watch the tv. Then ran it again up to 90 at bedtime. My 90 year old mother in law wouldn't leave the house. Unplugged the barn and chopped ice for a while.
In an emergency situation, we don't expect to live like kings. Any available emergency generators first usually went to those with health problems and you haven't mentioned that need. In the towns without power for a week, those with generators were moving theirs up and down the street everyday so the neighbors could run their heaters and reefers long enough to survive and not let their meat spoil. Same for the farmers with pto generators were running all over to run wells and such to pump water for snow bound cattle. In a major emergency like with a hurricane or tornado, you may want to think about the humanitarian aspects of what you could do with a generator to help the dirt poor who don't have one. My conscience wouldn't allow me to live like a king while a neighbor was freezing and losing his food. I saw one guy with a generator in his driveway with extension cords running to three houses.
The bulk of your budget should go the the electical switch so you are at least up to code and avoid a fire hazard.
Sorry, I just recalculated and my advice here isn't even worth 2 cents. Zippo in fact.
Good luck and let us know what you decide to do. You did help the rest of us by providing us with a number of different options with price research and I thank you for that.
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