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Is a generator feasible for my needs?

M

MaryL

Jan 1, 1970
0
I live in East Texas, and I lost the contents of my refrigerator and freezer
for the second time in 2 years (this time from Hurricane Rita -- which also
caused a power outage for 1 week, so air conditioning was off in all this
heat). Can anyone give me some advice about home generators -- cost,
safety, ease of use, etc.? I would need to set it up myself if I ever lost
power, and I have some arthritis in my fingers. Therefore, I think I would
need to get one with an electric (battery-powered) switch instead of one
that has to be "cranked up." I read about several deaths from carbon
monoxide poisoning caused by an generator, so I know it would need to be
wheeled outside, and I understand that appliances would have to be connected
to it by long extension cords.

How heavy are they and how difficult to wheel around? (There are *none*
available in this community right now, so I haven't had a chance to actually
look at one, but I would like to be prepared "next time.") I know they come
in different sizes. I was thinking of one that would handle an upright
freezer, a large double-door refrigerator, a lamp, and a fan. The house has
central air, so that is out of the question, but I would like to get a fan
that is powerful enough to make life more livable if I lose power for an
extended period again.

Thanks for any help!
MaryL
 
S

samc

Jan 1, 1970
0
MaryL said:
I live in East Texas, and I lost the contents of my refrigerator and freezer
for the second time in 2 years (this time from Hurricane Rita -- which also
caused a power outage for 1 week, so air conditioning was off in all this
heat). Can anyone give me some advice about home generators -- cost,
safety, ease of use, etc.? I would need to set it up myself if I ever lost
power, and I have some arthritis in my fingers. Therefore, I think I would
need to get one with an electric (battery-powered) switch instead of one
that has to be "cranked up." I read about several deaths from carbon
monoxide poisoning caused by an generator, so I know it would need to be
wheeled outside, and I understand that appliances would have to be connected
to it by long extension cords.

How heavy are they and how difficult to wheel around? (There are *none*
available in this community right now, so I haven't had a chance to actually
look at one, but I would like to be prepared "next time.") I know they come
in different sizes. I was thinking of one that would handle an upright
freezer, a large double-door refrigerator, a lamp, and a fan. The house has
central air, so that is out of the question, but I would like to get a fan
that is powerful enough to make life more livable if I lose power for an
extended period again.

Thanks for any help!
MaryL
there are now avalible solar/gridtie/backup with very good efficency
figures and you can allso cut your electric bill as well . most of the
grid tie inverter co's produce thease systems .
 
V

Vaughn Simon

Jan 1, 1970
0
samc said:
there are now avalible solar/gridtie/backup with very good efficency
figures and you can allso cut your electric bill as well . most of the
grid tie inverter co's produce thease systems .

Solar, especially grid-tie batteryless systems, is not normally a
logical choice when the goal is just emergency power.

Vaughn
 
S

samc

Jan 1, 1970
0
Vaughn said:
Solar, especially grid-tie batteryless systems, is not normally a
logical choice when the goal is just emergency power.

Vaughn
if you read my post corectly you would have noticed that I mentioned
grid tie with batt backup .
 
S

Sugarite

Jan 1, 1970
0
Robert Morein said:
Of course. Why spend a grand when you can spend $30K ?

How much have you spent so far Robert?
 
A

Antipodean Bucket Farmer

Jan 1, 1970
0
Figure that you've now spent about $750 now to be marginally
comfortable for five days. If you are protecting property (including
the generator), you also need a gun and the ability and willingness to
shoot it. That brings the cost up above $1,000.
....

If your system does work as planned, how will you handle less prepared
neighbors and friends that expect you to help them out? Will you turn
them away and realize that they will forever remember? Or will you
share your food and cool space and turn your home into a motel and
restaurant?


It won't be, "a motel and restaurant," because those
places charge money. It would be more like a "free"
homeless shelter and soup kitchen. With exactly ZERO
gratitude or reciprocity from the leeches. Ever. They
will drag you down, and then become enraged when you
set any limits, even limits on your *ability* to give.

This applies to non-crisis times, as well. And can
involve anything from money to emotional baby-sitting.

A fundamental part of being prepared includes setting
boundaries NOW, to avoid irresponsible, non-prepared
induhviduals thinking that you will be their personal
sugar-mommy anytime they feel deprived.
 
V

Vaughn

Jan 1, 1970
0
samc said:
if you read my post corectly you would have noticed that I mentioned grid tie
with batt backup .

Actually, I saw nothing about a battery. But regardless, there are many
reasons why PV makes little sense for backup power. I like PV and have a modest
system myself, but PV makes damn expensive, complicated, nonportable,
storm-vulnerable backup power. Also, where I live, storms are the biggest
factor that cause power failures, yet clouds often accompany storms...giving the
least power just when you need it the most. I find that generators are a far
more practical solution for 99.9% of normal domestic backup power situations.
There is a good reason why you find generators in Home Depot and no PV.

Vaughn
 
A

Arnold Walker

Jan 1, 1970
0
Living in East Texas as a steam and diesel fanatic....that is a hard
question in a sense.
For the short term outage ,your neighbors went down to Lowe's and got a gas
generator.
good for 24/7 of about 3wks to a month for $600.00.
As to me....I went steam(wood fired chips like the Temple,
International,and Champion plants
near your house...no matter what part of East Texas you are in.) off gird
and thinking about a
diesel backup generator.Mother nature has sort generated a supply of fuel
everywhere for me.
And folks will even, pay me to haul it off at the moment.Don't know where I
am going put the surplus .....

On vehicles did you notice that there was diesel all thru Rita when the gas
pumps were dry.
And when hearing folks waiting upwards of 12hrs in the initial rush from
Houston/Beaumont.
Figured it might be nice to know as well.
 
A

Arnold Walker

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hopefully you are not commerical ......more than a few resturant owners
found that
the inventory coverage did not include the refrigerater.
So,like Greg Randolf of Dominoe Pizza in Lufkin,Nacogdoches, and Palestine.
He lost $3000 to $4000 worth of food at each of two locations,that could
have been covered
by a cheap generator plugged in into the "reefer".
I wonder why transfer switches are a hot ticket item at East Texas
restuarants?
 
M

MaryL

Jan 1, 1970
0
Thanks for the help, everyone. You have provided *very* useful information,
even though the end result is that I have now decided that a generator
really would not be very practical for me. I had not considered
maintenance, the necessity to keep fuel available, etc., and I am also
concerned about safety and whether I could physically handle the process
since I would not have anyone to help me. The cost is a big factor in
practicality. I have lost the contents of my refrigerator and freezer twice
in two years. Before that, I had not had a power outage long enough to
cause loss of food for about 12 years. So, I really could afford to lose
the amount of food I store (for one person) several times over before paying
for a generator. The extreme discomfort from lack of air conditioning is
another factor, but a generator that I would have bought would not be large
enough to take care of that, anyway (although I would have been able to run
a fan). Two years ago, I simply packed up and moved to a motel for a couple
of days! This time, I was without power for a week, but there were no
motel/hotel rooms available for many miles because of hurricane evacuees.
However, a friend learned that I still didn't have power and invited me to
stay with them. Their power was back on, and they had air conditining. So,
I spent the last two days in relative comfort ("relative" only because it is
never quite the same when staying at someone else's home -- but they were
wonderful to think of me).

Thanks, again. All of you have been extremely helpful.

MaryL
 
Two years ago, I simply packed up and moved to a motel for a couple
of days! This time, I was without power for a week,

So have you concluded that its best for you to just bug
out vs trying to stay somewhere?

I'm in same dilemma as you.... no resources or money
to buy equip to stay..... so have decided bugging out
is best for me.

Agree?
 
M

MaryL

Jan 1, 1970
0
So have you concluded that its best for you to just bug
out vs trying to stay somewhere?

I'm in same dilemma as you.... no resources or money
to buy equip to stay..... so have decided bugging out
is best for me.

Agree?

Basically, yes, although I would go to a motel *if* rooms were available.
In the most recent instance, we already had lots of evacuees from Katrina
and Rita, so there were literally *no* available motel or hotel rooms in
town.

MaryL
 
A

Arnold Walker

Jan 1, 1970
0
MaryL said:
Basically, yes, although I would go to a motel *if* rooms were available.
In the most recent instance, we already had lots of evacuees from Katrina
and Rita, so there were literally *no* available motel or hotel rooms in
town.

MaryL
Angelina county.......doubled in size from the storm.
Still got folks at the UP Campgrounds and half the churchs in town.
Hearing the same from other areas as well.
 
Basically, yes, although I would go to a motel *if* rooms were available.
In the most recent instance, we already had lots of evacuees from Katrina
and Rita, so there were literally *no* available motel or hotel rooms in
town.

I see

If you had to do it all over again what would you do
different?

Since there was no motels would you have just got on a
plane and left?
 
M

MaryL

Jan 1, 1970
0
I see

If you had to do it all over again what would you do
different?

Since there was no motels would you have just got on a
plane and left?

No, I would have done just what I did this time -- suffer through a week of
intense heat with no electricity, which means no air conditioning and no
lights (except for the last 2 days, when I stayed overnight with friends).
I got pretty good at dressing by flashlight, but I don't recommend it.

MaryL
 
V

Vaughn

Jan 1, 1970
0
MaryL said:
I got pretty good at dressing by flashlight, but I don't recommend it.

Treat yourself to one of those fluorescent lanterns. A set of batteries
can last up to 20 hours and you have almost a normal amount of light. Coleman
makes several varieties.

Vaughn
 
S

samc

Jan 1, 1970
0
Vaughn said:
Actually, I saw nothing about a battery. But regardless, there are many
reasons why PV makes little sense for backup power. I like PV and have a modest
system myself, but PV makes damn expensive, complicated, nonportable,
storm-vulnerable backup power. Also, where I live, storms are the biggest
factor that cause power failures, yet clouds often accompany storms...giving the
least power just when you need it the most. I find that generators are a far
more practical solution for 99.9% of normal domestic backup power situations.
There is a good reason why you find generators in Home Depot and no PV.

Vaughn
yes you are right , arfter I posted I realised panels will take most
weather but huracanes as long as nothing hits it or thay get ripped off
mountings so I had an idear : would it be posable (not cheap) to use
rollor shutter doors to protect the install ?
 
M

MaryL

Jan 1, 1970
0
Vaughn said:
Treat yourself to one of those fluorescent lanterns. A set of
batteries can last up to 20 hours and you have almost a normal amount of
light. Coleman makes several varieties.

Vaughn

I do have one of those, made by Ray-O-Vac. I liked it a lot because I
could use it more like a table lamp (although much more limited in light
output). However, it eventually stopped lighting. Now, I need to determine
if I need to replace the batteries or the fluourescent tube. I suspect it's
the batteries, but the base that opens seems to need some type of tool
(again, something I need to check out). I have already to decided to get a
couple more of this type because they really are much more functional in
extended power outages than flashlights.

MaryL
 
Z

zenboom

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ron Rosenfeld said:
Mary,

How much do you want to spend for this?

Depending on how much power you require, for about $3,000 - $10,000 plus
electrician installation, you can get a good quality, liquid cooled
automatic system that uses either natural gas or propane for fuel. If you
don't have natural gas, you can have a propane tank full of enough fuel to
handle your projected longest outage. This price would include an
automatic transfer switch, which can regularly "exercise" the generator, as
well as start it up automatically when there is a power failure. You will
have to change (or have a small engine tech come in to do it) the oil from
time to time. The system sits outside in a sound dampening box that looks
like an air conditioner.

See www.norwall.com for some ideas.


-- ron (off the grid in Downeast Maine)

hey! what about a gas fridge & freezer?
 
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