Automatic emergency house generator question

I'm looking for info about backup generators, the kind that sit on a slab and automatically kick in when needed. What kind is best and what size?

We have one that's on wheels that we keep in the barn, but can't get to in the middle of the night in a winter storm.

Re: Automatic emergency house generator question

What is the purpose of what you're looking to do? Just keep the fridge and a few lights running for a few days? Run most of the house for a week or more? Enough power to finish watching your favorite TV show?

I was contemplating a backup system, but realized that the power on LI is pretty reliable. I haven't lost power long enough to run a generator even if I had one, since the huge outage along the entire east coast in 2003. In the last 6 years, I've never even thought about needing one.

The big ones that sit on a slab are thousands of dollars....

(No recommendations, just a sampling of prices for whole house generators...)
http://www.nextag.com/whole-house-generator/search-html