Re: Generator Livin'

Stormin Mormon wrote:
Take two thousand watts, and call me in the morning.

Please write some more, of how you coped with various things. We can learn from your experience.

I guess I have exactly enough background, quite by accident, to make it just an inconvenience. My sons and I fly to the big air show in Oshkosh every year, where we 'camp' in a tent and get by on a 35 watt solar cell charging a pair of 12V-12AH sealed batteries. So I get a lesson in energy conservation every July. Of course, here at home I'm not limited by how much things weigh. I have a 3500 watt gasoline alternator (1979 model) that I keep in the shed, just in case. It's how I'm powering the house right now. My biggest dog has a job now patrolling the back yard. I have gone to great trouble teaching her not to bite but I guarantee you she will go bat shit crazy if anyone comes over that fence. There is no natural gas here so the procurement and management of gasoline is a factor. In the beginning I got caught with little fuel in my cans. I have been cutting and chipping a lot of brush and I let myself get low. The one gas station that I found open the day after the power went out (long lines) was the closest I have been to a riot since the Who concert where people were trampled to death. Anyway, they were limiting you to $75 worth and the guy told me they were nearly out. At that point I had enough to last me for a few days. Due to a coffee addiction and more camping with the Cub Scouts than I would prefer, I have a small propane burner and a camping percolator. We also have a propane grill that never gets used and had a nearly full tank. I have one 100 ft., one 75 ft., one 50 ft., and two 25 ft. extension cords, all 12 gauge, plus lots of lesser gauge extensions. I have an Explorer that gets driven once a week and I put the biggest battery it could take in it last winter. I have a good sized 1200 watt (continuous) inverter and a smaller 80 watt unit. I harvested the battery from the Explorer and I would have gotten the fuel out of it too, one way or another, if I had to. I bought a few CFL bulbs at Harbor Freight and they are nice at night. I also have a DC to DC converter that will let me run and charge my laptop from either that small 12 volt batteries or any car battery. I have two coolers and am used to draining the water and replenishing them from camping. I also have a Diblasi scooter that claims it will go 100 miles on 3/4 of a gallon of fuel. After that it's bicycles. I have a plane full of fuel (50 gallons) a 20 minute drive from here. But it's leaded fuel and not going into the cars, though anything is possible if it were a worse disaster.

Job one was cleaning all firearms and locating every spare round. I know this may be controversial but I had no idea how long this was going to go on and I have no intention of peacefully turning my place over to looters. But to each his own. Next, how do you get ice? It disappears quickly in this type of situation. For the first couple of days we powered the refrigerator from the generator, at least during the day. The ice maker is a joke. I do believe it is intended for convenience and not throughput. I found that by filling small plastic cups with water I could make more ice than I needed. For news we started with battery powered radios. Then I dug up the antenna for the 13" TV and that let us watch over the air TV news. I'm not sure it was worth the trouble but the family enjoyed it. Getting power into the house was a bit challenging and I quickly tired of having to disconnect everything just to close and lock the doors every time I left. I finally took some of that insulation for hot water pipes, taped it into the jamb for the sliding door, cut a foot long piece to go over a (now precious) extension cord, and cut a 2x4 with my cordless circular saw to hold the door against the insulation. I'm sure there are better ways. I don't know if a generator can wet or not. I drug two saw horses and a sheet of plywood out of the shed and that's now my fancy generator roof.

Here's my impression of the whole deal. This started 8 days ago and I still am not back on the grid. It's an inconvenience but boo hoo. We still have water to drink and the toilets still work. We never ran out of food. It could be a whole lot worse. I was a pretty handy guy once upon a time but I have spent the last couple of decades as an office person. I've lost my touch on a lot of things. I broke a lot of things. I melted a few things. I invented new curse words when the old standbys seemed insufficient. Again, boo hoo. When A doesn't work you try B. Maybe you'll figure out how a better way to do A when you're trying to sleep. You stay at it, find things that work, and abandon the things that don't. Don't count on the kindness or competence of others and you won't be disappointed. It really doesn't take a hell of a lot to get by if all you have lost is electricity. I don't know how well I would do with in a total loss situation like the people we are seeing in Texas, but I would approach it the same way. Keep trying things and don't give up.

I'm not going to reread this one because it was a stream of consciousness effort, but that's my take on the power going off.
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