I keep seeing commercials advertising home power generators. Where do these people live that home power outages are happening al the time?

If you've always lived in a city, power outages probably aren't on your radar much. People who live in places where large trees fall on power lines during storms, as happens at least once a year where I live, can get power outages that last long enough to be inconvenient, expensive, or even life-threatening if you rely on electricity to pump your water, keep a freezer full of food from spoiling, or operate a medical device that keeps you alive. If you live in a city, where there are lots of people and fewer large trees to fall, you usually get fewer outages and if there is one the power companies tend to fix the lines that serve more customers before they fix the lines that serve fewer customers. If you live where the line serves 12 people and a tree takes it out, while there is another line down that serves 25,000 people, you are far down the list of priorities for the emergency crews.

AT THE TIME ..... power outages occur when you have ice and snow OR a hurricane OR flooding AND some needed use for outdoor electric power that is distant from home or commercial power ..... OFTEN,,, you also find that contractors and builders use power generators at the start of building projects or they want to avoid plugging into a home electric system .... Icy conditions and the weight of frozen water on trees will bring power lines down causing outages ==== the sales that you see, even in the best of weather conditions are to encourage home owners to buy ''power generators'' to be ready for NO commercial power == depending on the wattage of ''pow-gens'' home owners can run their refrigerators and limited essential lighting -- ---- when you run that power unit ttrough the home panel it is totally necessary to TURN OFF the big connection BOX that is between the home panel and the power pole at the street -- so when the power is restored you are not taking a chance of an overload to ''pow-gen'' or the home wiring === it is best that you run heavy duty extension wires to those essentials and then you will know when the company restores the electrical service .......

On a regional basis, the upper midwest averages the fewest number of power outages in the US whereas New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey get the most. It depends on several factors: weather, average age of power transmission equipment, and average distance from where your electricity is generated.

Generators are useful not just for frequent outages but also for rare outages of long duration. Hurricanes, for example, are rare but when they hit the coast they can take out power over a large area and it may take weeks for everyone's power to be restored.

I moved from one town in MA that very rarely had power outages to another town in MA that has them multiple times a year. 4 hours or so isn't an issue but being on a well, longer then that screws up the running water, which we take for granted.

Places where freezing rain happens (Oklahoma for example), and then high winds blow, and power lines fail in a large area. Doesn't happen often, but when it does it can take weeks before power is restored everywhere.

Heating of the house requires electricity - even with a gas furnace (must have electric blower working).

Personally I lived in a bushfire prone area in Australia and for safety they switch the power off if it is really bad for safety. We had a generator on standby for that. Also some areas are prone to really bad storms where trees may be blown down across the power lines so a generator is handy.

If your in the county and there is a big outage they fix towns and city first. Several years ago here it was several weeks before all power was on.

**** you