My power outage/ balck out kit

[turbodog]

Now this is pro level ! nice

The rocks prevent creeping and absorb vibration. The base keeps the mower/weedwacker away from expensive stuff.

And if things get _too_ bad:

 

[Poppy]

I wonder, are those whole house units inverter generators? Do they throttle down depending upon the load, or do they run like construction site gennies at 3600 RPMs regardless of the load?

 

[idleprocess]

I wonder, are those whole house units inverter generators? Do they throttle down depending upon the load, or do they run like construction site gennies at 3600 RPMs regardless of the load?

No, as far as I know they're constant-RPM units. 3600 RPM is one of the more common ratings. They do have some tricks to maintain a reasonable AC waveform: some claim THD figures of ≤5% - not as good as inverter generators but better than the ~25% that's common for jobsite generators.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

Good list HOF. Thoughts coming from one who actually had to bug out is meaningful.

Thanks, I actually had to bug in after bugging out right after my Mom died from cancer. We had a service for my Mom the night before the Witch Creek fire in 2007. The day of the fire, we we evacuated from Ramona, CA to the Escondido mall. By morning the flames had reached the mall. Had to drive our separate vehicles down the I15 to get Grandparents to the airport. We drove through flames and smoke around Mira Mesa. Fire jumped the freeway. Walkie talkies came in handy to communicate between cars. About a million people were evacuated so cell phones didn’t really work at the time with use prioritized for emergency services. Spent some time sleeping in car in a Lemon Grove church parking lot. Had to. Red Cross showed up and booked all the Holiday Inn rooms in the county. Couldn’t get a motel. Finally got a motel in Chula Vista. Took us 5 days to be allowed back home. When we got home, water was shut off for about another week. The water department’s primary and backup systems failed and had to wait for parts to fix before water could be turned on. When it was finally turned on, they started shutting it back off because there wasn’t enough pressure. When we finally had water, it was green from a double dose of chlorine. All the stores donated their bottled water so you couldn’t buy it anywhere. You could only go where it was being handed out and rationed. Most of the power lines were burned down so some around town had to wait 2 weeks for power to be restored. We were fortunate to still have a home to come back to. Many weren’t so lucky.

Lessons learned: Have the ability to be mobile and adapt to a changing situation. People trying to help people can cause bottlenecks and shortages that can make your situation worse. Don’t rely on help actually helping you. Expect everything to go wrong, plan ahead, but be able to work things out when your plan fails. When things go wrong expect problems with water, power, communications, fuel, and transportation.

 

[turbodog]

...

Lessons learned: Have the ability to be mobile and adapt to a changing situation. People trying to help people can cause bottlenecks and shortages that can make your situation worse. Don’t rely on help actually helping you. Expect everything to go wrong, plan ahead, but be able to work things out when your plan fails. When things go wrong expect problems with water, power, communications, fuel, and transportation.

Sounds suspiciously like the red cross's action during katrina. Took a lot of hotel rooms. Would not give out food because 'we only server X meal each day'.

And also, fix a flat and the rubber stringy repair things you can use yourself.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

I had a generator on my list, but obviously have a can of fuel, not just for the generator, but for your car as well. When the power goes out, not all the gas stations have backup generators and are open. At the start of the Witch Creek fire, we had some friends that were going to evacuate with us out of town but they needed to get gas for their r.v. first. While they were waiting in line to gas up, the fire blocked off all the exit roads out of town. They had to ride things out in town the entire time during the fire. Luckily, they survived, but I’m sure it was plenty scary for them. A little gas goes a long way in preventing these types of scenarios.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

+

Great visual on wiring K..

add; What kind of runtime w/ normal daily usage?

The system is 24 Volts. Each battery is 6V so 4 are in series with 3 series in parallel. The small bundle of cord upper left in the box is extra length for the temperature compensation sensor. This is to optimize the charging profile depending on the ambient temperature. Though AGM batteries do not vent nearly as much as standard lead acid, the box still needs to be ventilated, with the fan turning on when the brains of the system detects charging.

If a person purchases quality batteries, and limits discharge depth, they will last longer than standard specifications advise. We run a 350+ feet deep water well, satellite internet and the basic stuff that modern life offers, but we do not waste, other than not really worrying about son leaving the bedroom and bathroom LED's light on. The aquarium heater is about 35 watts. It can add up but this system, and our mostly sunny climate (said to have more than 300 sunny days a year in nearby Albuquerque) usually gets less than 20% discharged a night. Really, when we get 3 days of clouds, using the old busted up generator is more for being gentle on the battery bank (more than 30% discharged) than any real need. We will also refrain from using the modest big screen TV during those cloudy times. We do have a 1500 watt electric heater in the bathroom, an induction cooktop, and a medium sized toaster oven but use an old school 2 slice toaster for bread.

WAY too much information but wanted to convey that many things about our family are normal. Local solar and electrical storage are not without environmental cost and expense. A backup generator can make a lot of sense for stopgap measures, but it is hoped that more people will adopt distributed energy production and reduce the significant line losses, as well as other factors related to the bureaucratic monopoly so many people are living under now.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Interface with the source of all physical life. Perhaps less than some thought?

 

[orbital]

The system is 24 Volts. Each battery is 6V so 4 are in series with 3 series in parallel. The small bundle of cord upper left in the box is extra length for the temperature compensation sensor. This is to optimize the charging profile depending on the ambient temperature. Though AGM batteries do not vent nearly as much as standard lead acid, the box still needs to be ventilated, with the fan turning on when the brains of the system detects charging.

If a person purchases quality batteries, and limits discharge depth, they will last longer than standard specifications advise. We run a 350+ feet deep water well, satellite internet and the basic stuff that modern life offers, but we do not waste, other than not really worrying about son leaving the bedroom and bathroom LED's light on. The aquarium heater is about 35 watts. It can add up but this system, and our mostly sunny climate (said to have more than 300 sunny days a year in nearby Albuquerque) usually gets less than 20% discharged a night. Really, when we get 3 days of clouds, using the old busted up generator is more for being gentle on the battery bank (more than 30% discharged) than any real need. We will also refrain from using the modest big screen TV during those cloudy times. We do have a 1500 watt electric heater in the bathroom, an induction cooktop, and a medium sized toaster oven but use an old school 2 slice toaster for bread.

WAY too much information but wanted to convey that many things about our family are normal. Local solar and electrical storage are not without environmental cost and expense. A backup generator can make a lot of sense for stopgap measures, but it is hoped that more people will adopt distributed energy production and reduce the significant line losses, as well as other factors related to the bureaucratic monopoly so many people are living under now.

+

Thanks for your time on that, all good info 👍

In the last 7~8 days, we had one sunny day, not the norm, just a really stormy stretch.
So you see, it would be hard to do a huge solar setup here.

Over the winter , I mainly used my three biggest panels (one 320w & two 200w)
Just got my electric bill today,,, and for the last five months, I averaged a hair over $60/month in electricity/
not terrible.

btw, you live in a beautiful part of the world, been through making my way back up to CO

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

Interface with the source of all physical life. Perhaps less than some thought?

View attachment 25554

So that’s where babies come from. I must have been misinformed.

 

[idleprocess]

Local solar and electrical storage are not without environmental cost and expense. A backup generator can make a lot of sense for stopgap measures, but it is hoped that more people will adopt distributed energy production and reduce the significant line losses, as well as other factors related to the bureaucratic monopoly so many people are living under now.

I've pondered solar for more than a decade, but the payback in my region for solar is questionable with all the weird conditions, fees, and exceptions imposed by the distribution companies. And all the advertising is making impossible claims about performance - both in terms of generation and financials.

The broader argument for microgrids and distributed generation is ... complex.

The cost of running on generator power is steep. Quick math on my inverter generators suggests they're rated at 5.95 kWH/gallon of fuel at 50% load. Assuming the local station is down to $4/gallon the fuel alone will run $0.67 / kWH or about sixfold the price of retail electricity.

Interface with the source of all physical life. Perhaps less than some thought?

Looks like about 1000W of panels. Smallest array I've pondered for my place is ~4kW DC, which should handle winter loads under the blithe assumption the distribution company doesn't require something asinine like two meters and plays accounting shell games with production credits.

 

[parang]

I have a solar panel and a couple of car batteries, plus all the gear in my sig with their lithium batteries, plus heaps of AA, AAA, C and D NiMh batteries. I also have plenty of candles, methanol for alcohol stoves, a couple of PB tanks and dry firewood.

 

[electrolyte]

Of course for the portable generator route you're going to want a soft start for any HVAC compressors

Not if you have a VFD compressor. They are becoming more and more common. With a clamp-on meter, I see virtually no start-up surge on my mini-splits (20 and 24 kbtu). I know, relatively small capacity, but still -- no surge. In addition, my bionic surge meter (ear) detects less bogging of the genset beyond what would happen when switching on a steam iron or electric griddle. The other advantage, of course, is that with a relatively small genset, you can judiciously choose a limited number of indoor units to run and stay reasonably comfortable in a room or a few rooms without cooling the whole house.

My prediction is that we will soon see very few bang-bang refrigeration compressors. Even residential refrigerators and freezers will have them. They are much more efficient because they can be in a sweet spot of output/power usage that is lower than full for much of the time.

 

[RWT1405]

This works for me.

This was after a 28hr outage

You can see in the background all the tree limbs, etc down, after the storm that caused the outage

Best money I've ever spent

 

[The Hawk]

We just bought a Honda 2200 Watt generator. We also bought a couple of 12 gauge extension cords. I also (like everyone else on here I bet) have a good assortment of flashlights and batteries.

 

[[email protected]]

• Various USB powerbanks
• A large selection of torches, lanterns and portable area lighting
• A good supply of AA (primarily for gaming controls)
• Candles
• Portable camp gas cook top
• Portable AM/FM/SW radio

 

[Rossymeister]

Ive got 3 of these around the house. They provide power to Tv, lights, internet, phone chargers, and a few other things. . Believe it or not but one of these can power a 55 inch tv for over 2.5 hours. When we had the rolling blackouts back in december these done very well. We dont lose power here very often, so i havent really seen the need for a generator yet.

 

[Poppy]

During Hurricane Sandy, we lost power for 3 1/2 days. I had a generator, and we could watch TV, but after, or during the first day, the cable went out too. We stayed in our immediate community, and didn't get any outside news, except for radio reports.

Now I have a electric amplified digital TV antenna. I'm only 10-15 miles as the crow flies from NYC, and can get about 40 over the air channels. In the past few years, I've used it a few times when we didn't loose power, but when we did lose internet/cable. I think it only cost about $20.

 

[sween1911]

Some years back before they updated the electrical components into our neighborhood, we'd get frequent blackouts. I bought a 4D Coleman LED lantern for those blackouts. (that reminds me, I want to set that up with some spacers to take Eneloops). I still have pictures of my infant son wrapped up in the dark during one of those.

A couple boxes of Cyalume lightsticks are always handy in a blackout. Crack it, set it on the trim above a door and forget about it. My beloved green Glo-Tube, veteran of many blackouts and camping trips, also gets pressed into service with an Energizer Lithium AAA as do any of the cheap Energizer headlamps we have.

 

[ampdude]

I have my blackout lights scattered all over, this thread makes me think I need to consolidate things into one kit so that it's not so disorganized.