Emergency power.

[UffDa]

I should probably post this in Outdoor Gear, Survival Equipment & More, but I just can't do it.

I have been thinking about a backup power system. At first, I considered a Honda 2000W generator, but my experience with generators has not been positive. My next thought was a solar cell charged deep cycle battery with an inverter to supply 120VAC. When I was active in HAM radio I kept a 25AH battery on a smart charger. I had to use it several times over a 12 year period and it never failed. I was thinking that a couple of 100AH batteries should be able to power my freezer and refrigerator during an extended power outage. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing?

We get power outages infrequently. Usually they only last a few hours. The longest was 6 hours and I would not need backup power for that short a time.

 

[sloth357]

I have a 2500 watt generac gas powered generator. We have a few outages a year, last year we had one for 4 days.

Two years ago I had our electrician put a hookup on the back of our house for the generator that connects to our fuse box. When power goes out, I switch the fuse box main to the new generator "on" setting, and then I can pick which room or rooms to power with the generator. Very useful. I was able to keep our kitchen running, a bathroom (just a few lights) and a den for watching dvds and have light. Also switch over to the utility room and power our hot water heater.

That and our propane stove in the den kept us warm, had hot water, kept our frozen food freezer frozen, and gave us light/entertainment..

I usually have 10gallons of gas in the garage for that purpose during winter especially...

So far generac has been good for me and I don't think going with a "better" brand name would matter...

As for solar, I wish we had better exposure, as I would use this as a supplement as well.

I have several small batteries I use for devices but thats it...

I say, get a generator and make sure it stays clean.. no old gas stored in it.. good oil.. have spare oil on hand.. gas.. Know when to use the choke setting and have a few tools and operators manual around just in case.

Oh, and I would check on the generator every 30mins when awake.. and try not to run it overnight... but I did... so whatever

gl in your quest!

 

[sideways]

A generator works. Those Honda ones have a good reputation. You can also get a generator for a power take off if you happen to have a vehicle that supports it. That would be one less motor to maintain and if the vehicle is something you actually use it is more likely to be operational when you need it. All generators are only going to work for as long as you have fuel... Which in accordance with murphy's law usually isn't long.

If you don't want to mess around with generators you can actually get freezers that run on propane. Couple that with a propane water heater and kitchen stove and your only point of failure will be your access to propane.

An off grid power system is the best. Some sort of solar/wind/whatever that feeds into a household power bank. Tesla has recently started making batteries specifically for homes but people have been using less elegant solutions for a long time. I think the classic setup is to have 8 or so deep cycle batteries wired into one big power bank. Nowadays you can even recycle them when you are done. If you happen to have an electric vehicle there are ways to power a house off that essentially using the car itself as a battery bank for your renewables.

I guess there is also hydroelectric... but that requires you to have access to hydraulic head and the systems themselves are not simple or cheap. I remember staying with a guy who had retrofitted the waterfall turbines from an old sawmill to power his retirement home. That was a pretty sweet setup, not that you could duplicate it even if you wanted to... You'd would have to find a place with a waterfall, a salvageable powerplant and know how to fix it up.

If you want to go full out zombie geek you can dig a root cellar for your food storage and install a masonry heater for redundant heating... Though that is perhaps less appropriate for your coordinates. Solar is probably your best bet. Solar and a good hard look at tried and true passive cooling techniques from the middle east. Solar chimneys are cool.

On an unrelated note a full freezer with lots of frozen stuff in it stays cool better during a power outage and thus requires less frequent cycling of the generator.

 

[gadgetgeek]

You could wait till mr.musk starts selling powerwalls in the US, get a big Lithium ion battery pack, and use it to pay for itself if your local grid can support it. I think with anything else, you need a method that is going to work in with your normal day-to day, so unless you have any other use for a generator, why not start building a solar system? At this point they are probably not going to make you a profit, but if your codes support it, it could give you at least day-time power to recharge stuff and chill a fridge, or start with a small deep cycle lead-acid setup now, and then add to it as you need to. upgrade your appliances to more efficient ones as you can, things like that. Passive solar water heating is another option.

 

[22-rimfire]

I have a 2500 watt generac gas powered generator. We have a few outages a year, last year we had one for 4 days.

Two years ago I had our electrician put a hookup on the back of our house for the generator that connects to our fuse box. When power goes out, I switch the fuse box main to the new generator "on" setting, and then I can pick which room or rooms to power with the generator. Very useful. I was able to keep our kitchen running, a bathroom (just a few lights) and a den for watching dvds and have light. Also switch over to the utility room and power our hot water heater.

That and our propane stove in the den kept us warm, had hot water, kept our frozen food freezer frozen, and gave us light/entertainment..

I usually have 10gallons of gas in the garage for that purpose during winter especially...

So far generac has been good for me and I don't think going with a "better" brand name would matter...

As for solar, I wish we had better exposure, as I would use this as a supplement as well.

I have several small batteries I use for devices but thats it...

I say, get a generator and make sure it stays clean.. no old gas stored in it.. good oil.. have spare oil on hand.. gas.. Know when to use the choke setting and have a few tools and operators manual around just in case.

Oh, and I would check on the generator every 30mins when awake.. and try not to run it overnight... but I did... so whatever

gl in your quest!

I had the hook up installed as well and don't regret that expense one bit. It provides a lot of security for my wife and I knowing we can have electricity in a power outage. This got installed after a tornado event in my area. I keep at least 5 gallons of gas on hand which would last me about 24 hours. Usually can head to a gas station and fill a few more up in the event of a pending emergency (big snow storm for the most part). A 5500 watt is enough for me, although 8000 watts would be nice. Can run everything except the stove and HVAC. Probably can run the electric stove with it, just never had to.

I would not depend on batteries for anything with much draw.

Added: If you buy a generator, buy one with a Honda engine. I have been using two Honda powered generators for about 8 years now and they ALWAYS start with a pull or two. I find it rather amazing that one can sit unused for months and then start right up. The generator that I use the most is a 2800w (smaller one) that I purchased at Northern Tools (their brand). It can handle a lot more than you think power wise and it is small enough to carry in my pickup with me loading it by myself. The 5500w is also from Northern Tools and is about a year younger. My only complaint with that one is that it is rather wide and hence takes up a lot of room if I haul it somewhere. It has a big gasoline tank on it to last about a half day of constant use. I use generators frequently on my jobs as it is too much trouble to have the electricity hooked up for a couple days of work.

 

[Bufford]

I use a honda 2500W generator for back up and never had problems with it. Routine maintenance between storms is key to keeping a back up generator reliable. Its good to periodically start it up and place a load on it to give the genny a good run. Replace old gas with fresh gas every 6 months if there has been no blackouts. Change the oil as specified by the manufacturer and keep spare spark plugs on hand. Keep a decent supply of fresh gasoline on hand, and rotate the gas by using it in the vehicle rather than letting it go stale. Do these things and your generator will be ready when you need it.

 

[RevDevil]

I use a battery back up on my refrigerator. A 1000VA lasts for a good while, and has not been inadequate. If you decide to get a generator, buy a Honda bifuel, run on gasoline and propane. Easy to use and they have a built in conditioner to provide clean sine waves.

 

[UffDa]

I use a battery back up on my refrigerator. A 1000VA lasts for a good while, andhas not been inadequate. If you devide to get a generator, buy a Honda bifuel, run on gasoline and propane. Easy to use and they have a built in conditioner to provide clean sine waves.

From what I read, the new inverter generators put out clean ac. The old thing I had in the mid 90s was terrible. I took a look at the output on an O scope and it didn't look anything like a sine wave.

 

[RevDevil]

From what I read, the new inverter generators put out clean ac. The old thing I had in the mid 90s was terrible. I took a look at the output on an O scope and it didn't look anything like a sine wave.

I built something like what sloth357 describes above, only it was for a small administrative building. They wanted something that would work to keep the servers going during the monsoon and various power outages/brown outs. I tried a Yamaha trifuel generator (customer purchased) that was completely unsuitable for powering computers of any sort, but the Honda we ended up getting worked perfectly. I put everything (generator and propane tank) into a lumber enclosure at first to keep our packrats and provided some protection from the elements, then we ended up using a crappy plastic enclosure because it was too hard to lift a 15lb hinged lid and stand. The sine wave was perfect on the Honda, the Yamaha not so much.
Computer battery back ups are the inexpensive way to go for a fridge.

 

[Bufford]

I had a similar experience with Yamaha generators when I needed a new one for the remote cabin, going back over 10 years ago. The dealership was offering Chinese made versions of the Yamaha 2800 for half price of the Japanese made. First thing I noticed was a puff of blue smoke when I started it up. The lights TV and microwave worked fine, but the battery chargers for the marine batteries wouldn't budge and sat at idle with no output. Took it back and paid full price for the Japanese built and then everything worked perfectly.

 

[RevDevil]

I had a similar experience with Yamaha generators when I needed a new one for the remote cabin, going back over 10 years ago. The dealership was offering Chinese made versions of the Yamaha 2800 for half price of the Japanese made. First thing I noticed was a puff of blue smoke when I started it up. The lights TV and microwave worked fine, but the battery chargers for the marine batteries wouldn't budge and sat at idle with no output. Took it back and paid full price for the Japanese built and then everything worked perfectly.

We must have owned the same model, the generator was a blue color and had a lot of issues. Cold starting was a rough go. Back in 2012, the temps dropped to 16 degrees and I almost decided it would be more productive to light that piece of junk on fire than to continue starting it. It came with a bad starter, the pull cord broke the first week and I ended up replacing it with 550 cord.

 

[gadgetgeek]

My dad has a little genny, can't remember the brand, one of the better ones, and for love nor money it will not start in cold air. Pull the cord once in the front porch and it fires up, walk it out into the -40 and it will run all night on a tank of fuel. but even hot, it won't start in cold air.

 

[Sid Post]

Honda and General make good generators for low use gasoline options. 10 days of no power is expensive and where do you get more gas? I did that with no well water and no gas pumps after Tornados in Alabama ~5 years ago.

Solar is good but expensive. I have used, currently using, a 48VDC system with big solar panels. Minor shade outs kill the voltage and power. Tracking the Sun is important too. Currently I have about 3600W of solar panels running which seems to work out okay to run two heaters and a battery charger. A solar controller, inverter, batteries and, solar panels gets expensive fast.

 

[Charlie_K]

I can't comment much on generators for emergency situations. All I know is that when you have a generator for power, all of those neighbors who you can't stand suddenly want to come over and visit. Not exactly the ideal sort of situation to find yourself in, if you only have enough for yourself and your family. Especially if it's during the cold and flu season. That makes a bad situation even worse in very short order.

 

[sideways]

You also need to have a way of securing that generator. Bolt it down or padlock it. There have been cases of them walking off when left out during a power outage.

 

[sloth357]

So, I am giving my generator a go today to make sure all is well.

I made a mistake by saying I had a 2500 watt.. It is a 6500 watt Generac.. That makes more sense as to what I was able to power.

Going to let it run a few hours on a light load and go get replacement plugs for "just in case". And double my gas supply in the garage.

Emergencies ARE expensive and they are EMERGENCIES.. so being ready with some extra cash on hand as well is important. Not to mention water, gas, and some food.

I'd rather be running my "expensive" to run generator than not have any power or cold food.. heat.. lights at night.. (besides the plethora of candles we have)...

Start your engines!

 

[RevDevil]

Sloth, I'm sure you know but for those that don't. If you plan to store fuel for an extended period consider buying a small bottle of fuel stabilizer, it keeps water from building up in the container. I've used STA-BIL and it worked well when I had a vehicle parked with a full tank for 4 months. I didn't want to drain the tank and it was recommended to me.

 

[gadgetgeek]

Another trick that I've heard from some motorbike guys in cold places where the bike sits often. Carbed engines are more prone to shellac build up in the carbs, so a little in-the-tank carb cleaner can help (not full strength obviously) and if the fuel is a bit old and smokey, a little octane booster can get that fuel to run a bit better, probably not an ideal solution, but it can get you over the line, and both products are shelf stable. I've had fuel sit in dirt bikes for 6 months with stabilizer and no problems. Besides plugs, a fuel filter or two might be handy, as the station tanks get pumped to the bottom, you might get grungier fuel.

 

[sloth357]

All good stuff... Don't forget about the choke setting... too many times I've been forgetful and suddenly remember to adjust the choke and the damn thing starts..

This happens to me with the chainsaw, string trimmer, and mowers.. You'd think I'd learn one winter...

Oh also, make sure the damn gas line is connected.. mine was just loose enough gas wasn't making it to the carb. sigh.

Just purchased another 5 gallon gas tank and some fuel stabilzer... Anyone has large tanks or pump systems?

I'm more and more curious about the propane or bi-fuel generators. We have a large propane tank on our property.. I'd be great to be able to tap into that for times when gas isn't attainable or short on site...

 

[RevDevil]

All good stuff... Don't forget about the choke setting... too many times I've been forgetful and suddenly remember to adjust the choke and the damn thing starts..

This happens to me with the chainsaw, string trimmer, and mowers.. You'd think I'd learn one winter...

Oh also, make sure the damn gas line is connected.. mine was just loose enough gas wasn't making it to the carb. sigh.

Just purchased another 5 gallon gas tank and some fuel stabilzer... Anyone has large tanks or pump systems?

I'm more and more curious about the propane or bi-fuel generators. We have a large propane tank on our property.. I'd be great to be able to tap into that for times when gas isn't attainable or short on site...

The bifuel generators are awesome. I tested one with a small load, it was a single PC with a 600 watt power supply, a 23" monitor, a desk lamp with a 18w compact fluorescent bulb, an electric pencil sharpener, all in a power strip going into a generator outlet. It was connected to propane, one of small tanks you use for BBQ grills. The tank rested on a scale so I could see the weight of the tank since there was no gauge. Full it weighed 29lbs, after 2 full days it used about 4 lbs or slightly less of gas. According to the scale weight that is. A friend of mine did the test with gasoline, I don't recall how much fuel was left after his testing, but it sipped fuel sparingly.