The Best of All Worlds: Tri-Fuel Generators

THIS OCTOBER MARKS A FULL DECADE SINCE Hurricane Sandy devastated much of the Northeast coast.

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Areas of Manhattan, Long Island, and New Jersey were submerged in debris as the superstorm wreaked havoc on infrastructure and power lines. Electricity went down for thousands of homes as the autumn temperature dipped, causing inhabitants to scramble for gas to power their generators.

Gasoline is the primary fuel used by most single-fuel generators, becoming a hot commodity in times of power outages. In the case of Sandy, it was rationed to just five gallons per car, with some stations banning the filling of gas cans. Long lines mounted overnight as people slept in their cars or on the street just to fill up. Meanwhile, older mom-and-pop stations had gas but were unable to serve it without any electric pump backups. Even six months after Sandy made landfall, the region was still feeling the storm's effects. The hurricane, which disrupted one of the biggest supply chains in the world and affected America's most populated metropolitan area, highlighted just how reliant people are on this one type of fuel in an emergency.

Just 20 percent of U.S. households own a generator to run their appliances when power goes out, predominantly on coastlines vulnerable to hurricanes. Only about 5 percent of those generators are the permanent standby kind used to power an entire home. Since standbys can be overkill for many households, most generators are portable models of different sizes that primarily use gasoline to power appliances. But gas is expensive, goes bad if left untreated for more than three to six months due to ethanol breakdown, and can potentially evaporate. Certain generators can run off of other sources, though. Of them, propane remains stable when stored and produces less harmful emissions but can't reach the same British thermal unit and therefore requires more to produce the same energy as gasoline. Natural gas is often the cheaper and more reliable option and can be supplied on demand from pipes in homes that have hookups.