Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
Life without electricity is not kind to us in our modern hedonistic lifestyles.
That is why I recommend that everyone who can safely operate one get a generator. A basic unit which can run a few lights, fans, and maybe a fridge off an extension cord will run you $500-$1,000. Unfortunately, gasoline is dangerous to store in the home, and has a very limited shelf life. Even if you use fuel stabilizer, you need to rotate it at least annually. And, even if you store 25 gallons, that is only a couple of days of constant running for the 5KW gas powered generator.
If you have $5,000 or more, you can get a whole house model with an automatic transfer switch and hook it up to your NG or LP line. Note that if the power is out for an extended time, the Natural Gas lines will lose pressure when their generators run out of fuel and stop the genset. The LP is IMHO, the way to go, but it is more expensive.
Burning LP to power a 14KW genset at moderate load will use roughly 1.5 GPH of LP, or 36 GPD. That means it will cost about $100 per day to make electricity full time on about half my house (no dryer, range, ovens, water heaters, and only one of the HVAC units). The 14KW genset can, if used continuously, run about seven to ten days on a full 500 gallon tank under normal loads. The power company will provide power to everything for about $10 per day, so this is not something you want to do full time for an extended period. There are about 350 gallons of usable LP in a 500 gallon tank, and running it empty will currently cost roughly $1000 to fill.
You can use it for a couple of hours in the morning, and a couple of hours in the evening, and stretch it for almost two months, if it is full when you start. If we are without electricity for more than two months, we have bigger problems to worry about.
You can also use deep cycle batteries and an inverter to run small appliances like lights, fans, TVs, radios, etc. in the down cycle and recharge the battery bank when the generator is running. Or just use DC powered devices directly off the battery. You can buy most items in a DC version, if they are using a wall wart, or batteries, though some may be specialty items for camping, boats, or RVs.
I had a two tall pines less than 50 ft. from the house hit by a couple of lightning strikes recently. Ran in on the cable line and fried a lot of electronics. I recommend enhanced grounding, whole house surge protection, cable and phone line surge protectors, and point of service surge protection.
Still waiting to see if the trees die and have to be dropped. Hoping that I get to make the call, and they don't come down on their own.
Best of luck to those stuck in the dark and in this heat. Prayers out.
TR
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We went months without power in my patch after a 2nd bad quake last year.
Here's some best practices that worked for us:
While PV may not be very cost effective, we have solar water heating and wetback woodstove heating that we installed quite inexpensively.
Stick N Click LED battery lights like these:
http://www.amazon.com/Ontel-SCN-MC12.../dp/B000J0NL8O
While it may not allow for the greatest illumination in the home, it does the job quite well when the alternative is a flashlight or nothing.
Diesel generators are typically more expensive, but pretty energy efficient compared with petrol.
When it comes to petrol and to a slightly lesser extent diesel, check insurance policies on quantities and conditions for home/garage storage of petrol/diesel. Depending on property layout and location a small external shed away from the house/garage can mitigate a possible insurance fire claim denial risk.
Energy draw on new appliance purchases such as deep freezer, fridge/freezer, and microwave may be worth taking into account to help manage a disaster plan with a gennie to reduce demand for limited petrol/diesel supply.
We mostly used click lights for light(recycling the rechargeable batteries with solar battery chargers) , woodburner/solar water heater for hot water, genset for keeping the freezer frozen(the bottom layer of the freezer containing ice filled containers for efficiency, extra freezer down time, and spare water in a worst case scenario), small lower draw microwave for cooking as well as a single burner LPG camp stove for cooking off of our LPG BBQ bottles.
It was a lousy period made much more comfortable than it would have been without a decent plan.