I have a generator and decent supply of fuel for it but I am starting to think about alternatives such as solar, wind, etc.
What are your thoughts and experiences?
I to have a “jenni” 5500watt. Would love to do something with wind if I could afford it…
Problem with a generator is in a bad situation they are nosey and you will have to have someone guarding the sucker as “they will come”.
Rule #1 = Never have a generator running at night if you can avoid it. If you crank it, believe me, they will come. (Katrina taught me this)
Rule #2 = Only run it if/when you have to, to keep the fridge/freezer cold (couple of hours per day is more than enough). Don’t worry about lights, fans or A/C, we did just fine before all that, so we’ll manage to survive. Rechargeable Batteries are great too. ( This coming from someone in southeast, LA)
I have this quiet little Yamaha genny.
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/products/modelhome/444/0/home.aspx
I am hoping Nanosolar will start offering consumer thin film solar panels soon.
They should be very cost effective.
http://www.nanosolar.com
My fiancee’s parents have been telling us to get a generator like they have. Might have to look into it when my ar list gets taken care of.
I just recently did some work for a couple who made the investment in an automatic back up, that runs on nat. gas. When it sences the powers out, it starts on its own. It runs tests on itself once a week, uber cool. I think it was something like 30,000 watts/30KW, I dont really remember. It was bad-as though, the entire cost was well under $10,000.
A small homebrew genny. Problems with it are fuel storage limitations, and I still need an inverter or more big batteries to charge with it.
I have the following wired together as an “emergency” circuit…
Fridge
2 Kitchen counter plug ins
master Bedroom ceiling fan
2 Bedroom wall plug ins
Window AC in Master Bedroom
1 Master Bath counter plug in
LED lights in the Kitchen, Bedroom and Master Bath
All of these are hooked to a dedicated breaker box, which can be fed via city power, my gennie or a pig-tail.
I’ve got a regular portable generator and 2, 15watt panels hooked to 2 car batteries. I’ve got a 750w/1500w surge inverter. It will run some small stuff for some time. I’d like to go larger with more watts on panels and inverter.
What is good is I can keep my secuity system up at night.
Northerntools had the 15 watt panels on sale at one time for $75 ea.
For me and the small watt panels I would suggest a few diffrent inverters. Large as you can afford a med and a small. I like to almost match my load. The inverter uses less battery on the small one if it can power it.
Boss302(NICE), can you elaborate about “they will come” please? I realize the genny noise will attract some unwanted attention.
I have a Honda EU2000 and a Coleman 5000 watt generator. I have a switch panel that I can switch from the line power to the genny power. It is wired to run our refrigerators, furnace, lights in the kitchen, microwave, outlet in the kitchen, smoke detectors and the well.
I too would love to have a solar power system though. A hundpump for the well and or a small solar system to run the well and refrigerators and I’d be satisfied.
The battery back up systems have improved much over the last few years. They would go good with any solar system you were considering
What would you suggest?
care to expound?.
I have a 220 receptacle (30a) in my garage that I use to backfeed the whole house with a 6300w portable. The most important thing to remember is open the incoming main breaker, in my case a 200a service breaker to ensure you don’t put power back out onto the poles and kill a line worker.
I can run almost everything in my house, I do have to shed loads to run my electric hot water tank or electric stove. It is truly amazing how much power a toaster oven draws.
As far as the running at night issue, marine supply and RV stores have exhaust/muffler setups that you can use to run the generator inside a garage or shed and exhaust outside safely to minimize the noise and attention it brings.
Multiple options.
All are loud and diesel. Need to get my noise shelter in this summer if $$ and time permit.
I live in Jefferson parish and received about 20" of water. After the first couple of days when Broussard finally brought the pump operators back (that’s a story for another day) the wate went right down. I immediately cranked up my genny to salvage what I could out of the ice chests and get the items back into my remaing fridge and deep freeze. The first night, I made the mistake of leaving the genny running, and let’s just say that was a long night. After the first couple of knocks on the door we turned it off, but every couple of minutes we would see someone try and hop our fence. We had a couple of windows broken out, and one guy tried to kick down our side door…until I stuck the business end of a 12ga in his face.
My point is, most of the high RPM genny’s are loud and can/will attract some unwanted attention. Just be aware of that is all I’m saying.
Let’s just say that the experiences I went through during Katrina were a real eye opener.
Those little Honda (EU series) and Yamaha (forget the model, blue colored) generators are on the quiet side - have used them on camping trips in the past. As long as you have fuel, you’re set - in eco mode they are very quiet compared to your typical/older generators…
Aray has the right idea about housing it in a shed or other “muffling” device to keep it quiet at night (if you must run one at night, that is). I’d also keep it (running a genny) very limited at night, if at all.
If one could afford it I think that the way to go is off of battery back up. Have multiple charging methods. In town both solar and generator, and if in the country add to those two a wind generator of some kind. All of this would help minimize the run time of a a noisy generator. Differing types of generators might also be handy , so you could have the ability to burn different types of fuel,just in case one becomes harder to come by that another. All of this of course would be VERY pricey, but I think that it would work out the best
After the first couple of knocks on the door we turned it off, but every couple of minutes we would see someone try and hop our fence. We had a couple of windows broken out, and one guy tried to kick down our side door…until I stuck the business end of a 12ga in his face.
that’s crazy.
I spend quite a bit of time reading through various survival forums and the general idea is that noise = problems in a SHTF situation, but this is the first time I have personally read or heard about it actually happening. definate reality check.
you guys that had to deal with Katrina should start a thread DPP associated thread.