A storm lightly spanked the neighborhood. Tree falls into power lines. Transformer goes "Pop." Lights go out.

We love this 1950s house in the 1950s subdivision, but definitively DON'T love the 1950s power lines-- running behind all of the houses on our side of the street, under poorly-trimmed 1950s trees. If a tree falls anywhere on this side, everyone goes dark.

Sitting out back is a Generac portable in its own little enclosure, with sufficient muscle to run the kitchen (fridge-- starting and running-- and lights; the stove is gas and we can manually light it) and a wall receptacle or two. I actually planned for this day.

This is the part where I walk out back... stare at the freshly-fueled, oil-changed generator... walk back in... and stare at the transfer switch.

Problem is, the switch is still in the box. I never got around to calling an electrician in the fall when I picked it up.

Sigh.

I'll go grab some dry ice for tonight. Tomorrow morning I'll drag the fridge away from the wall enough to ghetto-contingency an extension cord from the outside to cycle for an hour or two and at least preserve the food.

Will I call Electric Guy on Monday, the whole Be Prepared ethos? Sure. Or maybe not. I'm a procrastinator and get Karma-kicked in the Procrasti-nuts at least annually, so check this space after the next summer storm to find out.

At least we have plenty of LED lanterns and power banks.

I enjoyed your post.
It made me laugh.

I was going to start a Procrastinators Club to help people with this condition but I never got around to it.

Regards

That's unfortunate that you have the generator but it's not wired in. It'll be ready next time though!

Power goes out for me every year or two for 24 hours or longer and usually from snow/ice or wind breaking trees and limbs on overhead lines. I sure wish they'd start burying them!

When it's going to be out for 12-16 hours or longer I wheel out my small generator which I plug in to the house to run a few circuits including the refrigerator and well pump. It's a bit of a PIA keeping it available in ready to run condition by always draining the carb and keeping StaBil treated non-ethanol gas in the generator along with a 5-gallon can.

I wish I could find a cheap generator to run my girlfriend's oxygen concentrator, and maybe the A/C unit we have in the bedroom. We have a supply of tanks that last about an hour each, but if the power is out more than eight or ten hours we're SOL.

So far it hasn't ever gone out that long, but...

DO IT!

My whole-house, auto-start, auto-transfer generator is absolutely, hands-down, nothing even comes close the best money I ever spent.

I was planning to procrastinate today, but I think I'll do it tomorrow instead.

Do you know the best time to start a diet?
Tomorrow.

I have half a mind to do that right now !

quote:

Originally posted by newtoSig765:
I wish I could find a cheap generator to run my girlfriend's oxygen concentrator, and maybe the A/C unit we have in the bedroom. We have a supply of tanks that last about an hour each, but if the power is out more than eight or ten hours we're SOL.

So far it hasn't ever gone out that long, but...

You're going to want clean power (i.e. inverter generator) too so you don't damage the controls on the oxygen concentrator.

Obtaining, storing, and schlepping gasoline sucks if it's a multi-day outage so fuel efficiency is important too and the inverter generators tend to shine in that area as well. My old portable generator burned 10 gallons per day, and gas station lines were long during multi-day outages so at the beginning of hurricane season I'd fill up four 5-gallon cans. My Dad just bought a huge portable that can power the whole house and it burns 20-gallons of gasoline per day. Fortunately, it's dual-fuel so it can run off natural gas and he's set-up for that.

You'll want to calculate your loads (i.e. look-up start-up and running power for everything you plan to plug in and compare to proposed generator). The guy in the video is using this 3600 watt inverter generator that is $475, and I really like what he has to say on minimizing loads and being fuel efficient. Back when I had a portable generator (I have a whole house stand-by generator now), instead of powering my giant Texas sized HVAC units I switched to a portable AC in one room which saved money on generator size, reduced gasoline storage, and reduced trips to the gas station.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
You're going to want clean power (i.e. inverter generator) too so you don't damage the controls on the oxygen concentrator.

Ugh! See, this is why I live here on Sig Forum -- important information I didn't even know I needed! Thanks, tatortodd! I'll have to check into this issue before I do anything.

I'm on my way out the door now, I'll watch the video when I get back and hope this little generator will work for me.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by tatortodd:
You're going to want clean power (i.e. inverter generator) too so you don't damage the controls on the oxygen concentrator. [/QUOTE

It’s true.

A number of years ago, I thought I was going to be in good shape during the power outage: “I’ve got a generator and a pellet stove! I won’t be cold!”

Well, the controls on the stove did NOT like that ugly square-wave power coming from the genny, and went kapoo pretty quickly. So… um… I went cold for a bit. And embarrassed. And about a hundred bucks lighter, after replacing the stove controller.

Just experienced 19 hours without power. My Yamaha YG6600DEX generator kept things tolerable.

The steps required to safely power much of the house with this portable generator are too much for my wife. I am ready for a real whole house generator with automagic transfer switch and a modern breaker box.

I used to be a crastinator, then I turned pro.

Sorry
Rod

Living in rural America, the power goes out for a bit every year. If it's a couple hours, no big deal. But our livestock need water and we have 4 freezers full of food so if it's out for more than half a day, I'll drag out the generator and connect it.

That said, I've become a fan of the modern battery boxes. They don't need gas, and are ready to go at the flip of a switch. Since I'm often gone woring overnight at my EMS side job, it's easy for my wife to use. Just plug in with a properly sized extension cord, turn it on and she can run some lights, power the fridge in the house, run the oven on the gas range and power the fiber internet and her computer. For $500 on promo you can get a decent sized unit that will do all we need for a couple days. We can charge it off the generator or take it in to town which is on a different system and rarely is ever out for more than an hour. Eventually, I want a second one so we can rotate. However, it's perfect for the times I'm away from home and she wants some power while our local power is down.

It's also great to take to fish camp to recharge devices or run some light strings around our camp.

Link

I have a 9500 watt Harbor Freight inverter that I run most everything in the house off of except our central A/C. Transfer switch wired in so I take the inverter outside, a couple of plug ins and I’m done.

I had a 20+ year old Coleman 6500 watt generator with “dirty” output that smoked the controller board in our furnace and the hot water heater, gave it to a friend’s son that does handyman work, it suits his needs well.

We looked into a whole house Generac but after reading many complaints of reliability combined with the prices to set one up has made me question those.

Well, we got a whole house generac a few years ago, and it has been needed a few times since then, luckily, longest time was maybe 8 hrs, and we are rural. The company that installed did everything, from permits, to gas line hookup, to electric. We also are on a warranty program, they will come out once a year to do maintenance on it, and if we have any issue, will come out under the warranty. We figured it was peace of mind so we didn’t lose any food or heat if it was winter. I think it cost around 11k at the time, but with them taking care of everything, we didn’t have to do squat but pay them, figured it was worth it.

I would think that installing a propane tank for a whole house generator would be best. The lines for gas were a mile long in the few gas stations that had generators. What thoughts do you have?

quote:

Originally posted by Appliance Brad:
Living in rural America, the power goes out for a bit every year. If it's a couple hours, no big deal. But our livestock need water and we have 4 freezers full of food so if it's out for more than half a day, I'll drag out the generator and connect it.

That said, I've become a fan of the modern battery boxes. They don't need gas, and are ready to go at the flip of a switch. Since I'm often gone woring overnight at my EMS side job, it's easy for my wife to use. Just plug in with a properly sized extension cord, turn it on and she can run some lights, power the fridge in the house, run the oven on the gas range and power the fiber internet and her computer. For $500 on promo you can get a decent sized unit that will do all we need for a couple days. We can charge it off the generator or take it in to town which is on a different system and rarely is ever out for more than an hour. Eventually, I want a second one so we can rotate. However, it's perfect for the times I'm away from home and she wants some power while our local power is down.

It's also great to take to fish camp to recharge devices or run some light strings around our camp.

Link

Thanks for the link. Do you have any experience in how long it holds a charge when not in use? This would be for my parents since their generator crapped out in the last hurricane and I’m a little concerned about their ability to pull a generator out of their storage for use anyway. This looks easier and far simpler to store.

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:

Thanks for the link. Do you have any experience in how long it holds a charge when not in use? This would be for my parents since their generator crapped out in the last hurricane and I’m a little concerned about their ability to pull a generator out of their storage for use anyway. This looks easier and far simpler to store.

It's just a big battery pack so switched off a long time. Can't say how long that is though. However, you could get one of the optional solar panels which would amount to a trickle charger to keep it topped up.

You are correct in that they are much simpler and easier to use than any generator.