Added insurance to a new home.

[crazyhorse]

When I build my house I am going to add 2 items that I didn’t plan on adding. A storm shelter and a generator. That way I can keep warm/cool on, water flowing and some lights on. The extra cost is worth the insurance of either freezing in the winter or burning up in the summer. I also plan on wiring the generator to the shelter to have some lights in it.

[Erick]

Check out the natural gas generators. They are pricey, but they can run your entire house and turn on automatically.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=228044-24212-5338&lpage=none

[bleedorange]

Safe room is not a bad investment. Especially since you get some other uses out of the room. It's a storage room, panic room, fire safe, and tornado shelter all wrapped up in one.

As far as going to a lot of expense for the generator and special wiring to a shelter room, it's really not all that necessary.

Just have the electrician put in a 50A outlet in the garage that you can use for a welder or RV hookup, and if you ever need to, you can plug in a portable generator and flip on whichever breakers you need, including the shelter & heat etc. $100 bucks tops, plus the cost of a generator.