Inverter / portable generator
 

Can anyone help me determine if I need an inverter or just a portable generator?

I live on the gulf coast of Florida in the US and we are sometimes impacted by hurricanes that knock out power for many days so I've been thinking about buying an emergency generator for my home. I cannot justify the expense of having a whole house, automatic backup system so I was thinking about buying about a 6000 watt portable generator from one of the big box home improvement centers and have an electrician wire in a bypass switch so I can connect the generator to my home. I was pretty set on what I wanted however I read an article about inverters and I then started questioning if I needed a inverter or just a portable generator. The article I read said that devices that have electronic circuit boards can be severely damaged if run off a regular generator and that one should buy an inverter instead.

My concern is that I have sleep apnea and I have a CPAP device that I use at night to keep my airway open in case I momentarily stop breathing. Since this device pumps air up to the mask and regulates the air pressure I need I'm really concerned about the ruining this CPAP device off of a regular portable generator. In addition to my CPAP machine I was also concerned about my satellite TV receiver, my LED TV and my computer equipment being damaged as well.

So can anyone know if I'm being overly concerned or whether I really need an inverter instead of a portable generator? Thanks.

A spinning rotor generator may not keep good freq control, and the voltage may wander, but it makes sinewave AC.
Only the very expensive high end brand inverters put out sinewave AC. Most cheap ones are squarewave and the name brand are modified squarewave https://invertero.com/
If you need to run sensitive electronics, then a GOOD quality generator or a very high end, expensive sinewave inverter will both do the job. Both will cost about the same, you just choose which power source you will use to operate them.
CNG/gasoline/diesel or solar/battery-powered.