Q: I have a Sony CDP-302 CD player that has been unused for 25 years. It is not hooked up to anything, so I don't know if it works. Is it worth having it looked at to see if it can be sold, or do you think it is too old?

A: Just put a CD in it and press play. The display will tell you if it is working or not. This is a good vintage player worth $150 to $200.

A powerful suggestion

It's storm season, and that means that this is a good time to remind everyone that a generator system that can power a good part of your home may be less expensive than you might expect.

Years ago, a storm left me without power for three days. Afterward I pondered installing an automatic standby generator, but the expense and complexity dissuaded me. Then I found a solution that made sense practically and financially. I had a manual transfer switch professionally installed into my home's electrical panel and paired it with a Briggs & Stratton QuietPower Q6500 Inverter Generator. The key here is the inverter technology, which provides clean power that is safe for use with electronics such as computers and televisions.

The generator keeps coming down in price, and now they are widely available for under $1,300. The transfer switch is about $400. So after paying for a few hours of an electrician's time, you can have a system for less than $2,000.

Now when the power goes out, I flip the transfer switch, wheel out my generator and connect it to the outdoor inlet box. The transfer switch sends power from the generator over the home's electrical wiring, just as if the power was coming from the electric company. I'll confess: It's pretty cool to be the only person on the street with the lights and TV on.

There is a caveat: Running a large home AC system might be beyond the abilities of the generator, so if you are worried about summer storms, you might want to look at something more powerful. My biggest concern is winter storms. I want to run the furnace and water heater to keep the house (and me) from freezing, so I did not have my central air conditioner circuit connected to the transfer switch panel. If the power goes out in the summer, I figure I can open the windows and run fans.

On the soundadvicenews.com website, I have a review of my system with generator and transfer switch. I encourage you to check it out if you like the idea of whole-house power at an affordable price.

Send questions to Don Lindich at donlindich@gmail.com. Get recommendations and read past columns at soundadvicenews.com.