I count on my motorhome that is parked in my back yard for emergency back up.
It has a 10,000 watt diesel generator and 2000 watts of solar panels on the roof. They are both tied into 10, Lifeline L16, 6v batteries that are 400 amp hrs each.All tied into Victron equipment. There is 180 gal of diesel fuel and 100 gal of fresh water on board. I have 1100 gal of fresh water in the swim spa on my deck.
I can easily run power from the Motorhome to the house or just retreat to the motorhome.

For long term survival I think you must have a lot of solar bank along with a large battery bank to store that energy.You can't have just one.

It does make you think about putting in a full solar system to run your house and Tesla style battery walls, with the batteries you can charge all day and run off them at night and be self sufficent.

You should have a 240v generator if you are connecting to your house’s electrical panel. The small inverter generators are all 120v as are the smaller RV generators.

You should also actually do whatever it is you plan to do before there’s an emergency. We had a non disaster related power outage and I figured it would be good practice. My generator was store elsewhere and that’s when I learned the our gated community’s gate did not have a battery backup. Back to the house to grab some wrenches to undo the bolt that allows the gate to swing freely. Get to the place where the generator was stored and the garage door opener doesn’t work because the power was out there as well, so back to the house to get the key for the emergency pull. By the time I got the generator to the house the power was restored, but learned some things.

Another experience at a different location:
Power went out, sump pump stopped pumping, sump pit started to over flow, small generator didn’t have enough power to start the sump pump. No problem, pull the RV close to the house, but don’t have a long enough extension cord. I go to the nearest hardware store 25 miles away, their power is out, they can’t take credit cards, and I didn’t bring cash. 100 miles of driving for an extension cord.

Don’t be stupid like me, physically run through your plan ahead of time.

After being without power for six days due to an ice storm, with temps falling into the single digits, and us only having a small 1800 watt generator that we ran during those six days, we recently purchased a Westinghouse Tri-Fuel 9,500 watt generator from Lowe’s for $879.00. We also purchased a 25’ natural gas/propane quick connect hose.
Our plan is to only use this unit on propane or NG if possible, knowing this will eliminate the need to run this unit to ensure the carburetor does not get gummed up with gas residue.

My generator is gasoline fueled, with a 13 HP Honda single cylinder motor. It's a portable unit, 7200/8600 watts, 240 volt. It will run almost everything in the house. It is thirsty.
I store it with the fuel tank empty. Several times per year when in storage, I will pull the recoil start rubber handle and splash some lubrication oil around inside the Honda motor.

When I am finished using it and grid power is restored, I drain the fuel tank on the generator back into an empty fuel storage can.
It's easily done with the rubber hose between the bottom of the generator fuel tank/shutoff valve and the carburetor.
The carburetor on that Honda motor has a steel needle valve/drain screw on the bottom of the float bowl.
I ALWAYS drain the fuel tank and the carburetor float bowl after using the generator.

I have owned that generator for about two decades now, and it always starts easily. The carburetor has never gummed up.
I don't fool around with fuel stabilizer or non-ethanol gasoline.
It can't gum up the fuel tank or carburetor jets if the gasoline is gone when it's sitting in storage.

I burn the stored gasoline after about a year of storage in one of the daily driver vehicles and then refill the fuel storage cans.
So it's perfectly fine to burn 10 % ethanol regular gasoline in generators and other small engines, you just can't leave the ethanol gasoline in them when they are stored.

I also park a daily driver vehicle in front of where the generator sits when it is operating, and I chain the generator framework to a trailer hitch. It hasn't vanished yet.

Good idea to secure your generator. I do the same. I run a portable Generac 8000/13000 Watt unit. Loud - but lot's of crank to my switch panel. (I think it's almost 20 years old now)

I have a Honda EU2300 for more "discrete" tasks.

I've got dual Ecoflow battery units totaling 7200 watts wired into my panel through an unused dryer outlet with the panel main blocked off. It'll run all but the central A/C for about two days. I'd like a whole house generator but they charge a stupid amount of money here to install them and the neighbors assured me when we moved here that they don't really lose power. I thought about getting a tri-fuel and feeding it off the gas main but don't really want to take up garage space storing it. I have a couple 100 watt panels that I've tried and they do charge but it's slow enough to be of minimum use.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:


You should also actually do whatever it is you plan to do before there’s an emergency. We had a non disaster related power outage and I figured it would be good practice. My generator was store elsewhere and that’s when I learned the our gated community’s gate did not have a battery backup. Back to the house to grab some wrenches to undo the bolt that allows the gate to swing freely.

Side note, that is an issue that needs to be addressed. Hopefully the gate operators have battery backup ability (I think most all do) and the batteries were just bad or missing. That is a public safety issue that is dangerous and a liability to the HOA if not addressed. Think fire and police access in an emergency. Although our gates by code have a very expensive fire department approved padlock on the opener arm that the fire department has a key to. I have been told that generally in an emergency they are going to use bolt cutters or rescue saw for speedy access. Not sure what the police department will do unless they carry bolt cutters too. This post reminds me I need to order new batteries for all our gates as preventative maintenance that I like to do every 5 years or so.

Also for those of you who have battery backup garage door openers it is a good idea to test them periodically and proactively replace that battery every 5 years or so if it appears to be going bad.