There are so many different ways to have a back-up system, it's too much to stick in one of these posts. But Lou, don't you have tractors or crawlers with PTOs? If so, probably you're best buy would be a used PTO generator. Nice thing is, it has no second engine to worry about. They can often be bought in the $500 range.
Second to that is buying a used, older, full-size water-cooled genset. I get many chances to buy them cheap. That because they are not portable. These are usually built very durable. I paid $100 for my Fairbanks-Morse 17KW unit that's powered by a four-cylinder, water-cooled, Continental gas engine.
If you really have fairly long-term backup in mind, you have to use something that runs on fuel that you can get, when you need it - or have on hand. If you have propane or heating oil on-site, then pick a propane or diesel powered unit. No genset does you much good without fuel.
For me, nothing beats solar-panels and battery back-up. Takes over automatically, no noise, no fuel to worry about, etc. But, you've got to buy new batteries around every 10 years along with the initial cost of the electronics. Right now, you'd get a Federal tax-break if you did it before the year ends.
In regard to ground - if you use a PTO generator, you can have a small shed built over it for weather protection, and tie it into your house ground system - OR - put in a separate ground system with two rods if a building separate from your house.
One thing to keep in mind. Any AC powered generatort that is big enough to supply the power you need at high amp-draws (like running an electric stove), is going to be a dog on fuel when electric demand is NOT high. That is the curse of AC generators. They have to run at full speed to make the proper Hertz-cycle.
To the converse, a DC generator can run at any speed. So, it only has to rev up enough to meet electric demand. DC generators make DC power at the generator head, and then convert to AC though a good inverter. Thus the title of "inverter" generators.
If you really want to get quality for you money, but an older AC-Delco diesel power genset. You can pick them up for $2500 and they are the most rugged gensets ever built in that size range. Detroit-Diesel powered, water-cooled, and they run very slow at around 1300 RPM. 13KW to 20KW size. With a good load, they use 1 gallon per hour of diesel fuel.
By the way, you are probably going to get many angry comments and doom-stories about "back-feeding" your genset into you panel. The truth is - linemen are supposed to treat all wires as "hot, ground suspect wires before working on them, and . . . if you ever actually hooked a 5000 watt genset to a wire actually hooked to the grid, it burnt out or pop a breaker immediately. It CAN be done safely, but has no fool-proof safeguards built in. So, yeah, like many things, can also be dangerous.
Again, pick a fuel that you think you'll have on hand, and work from there. Propane is one of the most in-efficient ways to go, but . . . if you have a large propane storage tank, it may be worth you while anyway.
On a side-note, I know of several people now that have converted old gasoline gensets to run on firewood. That's going to be my next project. Any genset with a true HD long-stroke gasoline engine can be converted to run on wood-smoke.
One more comment. If you worried about running a genset and not knowing when the power comes back on?? Here's the "poor man's way" to do it. Wire an outlet into the power-company's side of your main entrance panel. That is, on the grid-sice of power before your main breaker. Then leave a radio plugged into it with the volume turned all the way up. Even if down the basement, you'll hear it when the grid comes back on. We did it for years. We have no neighbors, so we were clueless when the power came back on. This way, we DID know, and would shut the generator down when the radio started blasting.
We use battery backup with solar now, and it's seemless and quiet. We also have 1000 gallons of propane and 1200 gallons of diesel on site. So, if I ever had to, it would be very easy to make power with fuel.
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Today's Featured Article - The 8N and the Fox - by Zane Sherman. Dec. 13 1998, Renfroe, Alabama. Last niht I dreamed about the day that I plowed the field of about 10 acres over on what Jimmy and Dandy called the Ledbetter field. I was driving the 1948 8N Ford tractor that Jimmy bought in 48 new This was prebably in about 1951 and maybe even befor the house was built. This would have made me to be about16 years old and I drove the tractor for nothing and would have paid to drive it if I had had any money which I didn't, but neit
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