And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Monday, May 23, 2022
With threats of blackouts coming, this might not be a bad idea
As one who has lived through at least 10 total PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs and other outages over the last 3 years I might have a suggestion that will help people short of a SHTF scenario.
I have two generators. A Honda 2200 inverter generator that's used to keep the house lights and fridge on and a Kohler 5500 watt gen set, for powering the well pump when needed. The Honda sips fuel and can run almost 12 hours on about 0.8 of a gallon. The Kohler uses a fair amount of fuel but is only needed occasionally and for shot periods of time. I can go through a 2 or 3 day outage on about 5 gallons of fuel, which really isn't much more that it would cost to pay PG&E for the juice. ($10/day for fuel as opposed to $6/day for PG&E).
Granted, it's not as cozy as having a big standby generator but when you're a low income couple on a budget it ain't too bad.
Just extension cords. It's kind of a pain in the neck until you get 'er dialed in. Then you get the routine down and get pretty good at it.
And PG&E gives me plenty of practice. Our power went out at noon on Saturday and didn't come back on 'til 11:42 yesterday morning. Now it's back off again, but this time they say it will be back on by 5 tonight. At least this time Xfinity is still working so I know what's going on.
Last weekend they said the power would be restored by 7pm Saturday, then it was 10pm Saturday, then it was 10am Sunday, then it was noon on Sunday.
PG&E is the California Employment Development Department of power companies. Only difference being CA EDD can kiss off a 31 billion dollar loss. PG&E can't do that.
I have an 7K Westinghouse hardwired into the house with a manual switch. Power went out for 9 hours one week after installation, runs the entire house, well, furnace, septic pump, two fridges, all the lights, microwave, and other stuff. With everything turned on for a test, max draw was only about 4200w. All for 6 times less than the nationally advertised brand. I couldn't be happier.
A genset is nice...if you know the outage is temporary AND you can get fuel. Odds are that's not what the future portends. I just decided to bite the bullet and committed $50K for a 10Kw solar system that will allow me to live for weeks without needing the power company.
OK generator. Note that it's 3600 watts, more like 2800 on propane. Wen also makes a good one, slightly bigger, for 2/3 the price. If you do buy a new generator, get dual fuel, NEVER RUN IT ON GASOLINE. Regular gas will rot the carb in a season; 100% gas is better, but still has problems. Both have limited storage life. Both harder to start than propane. Propane is clean, stores forever. If you have house propane, get hoses and run off your big tank, run forever. If you have nat gas, you can probably run the propane side off your nat gas (or add a bigger jet)- and again have essentially unlimited run time. Even better: find a garage sale unit and add a dual fuel conversion kit. Nat gas on a 5kw unit is about 25k btu/hr, or -in my area-25 cents an hour. Propane is twice that, and gasoline is 6+ times that. If you get electric start, a battery maintainer is absolutely required. Deltran makes good ones. And keep at least 2 extra oil changes around, too.
Your think that you will be able to afford fuel?
ReplyDeleteThis is Carter 3.0. Will you be able to find fuel?
DeleteAs one who has lived through at least 10 total PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs and other outages over the last 3 years I might have a suggestion that will help people short of a SHTF scenario.
DeleteI have two generators. A Honda 2200 inverter generator that's used to keep the house lights and fridge on and a Kohler 5500 watt gen set, for powering the well pump when needed. The Honda sips fuel and can run almost 12 hours on about 0.8 of a gallon. The Kohler uses a fair amount of fuel but is only needed occasionally and for shot periods of time. I can go through a 2 or 3 day outage on about 5 gallons of fuel, which really isn't much more that it would cost to pay PG&E for the juice. ($10/day for fuel as opposed to $6/day for PG&E).
Granted, it's not as cozy as having a big standby generator but when you're a low income couple on a budget it ain't too bad.
Very good advice!
DeleteDo you have a switch set or do you run cords?
Just extension cords. It's kind of a pain in the neck until you get 'er dialed in. Then you get the routine down and get pretty good at it.
DeleteAnd PG&E gives me plenty of practice. Our power went out at noon on Saturday and didn't come back on 'til 11:42 yesterday morning. Now it's back off again, but this time they say it will be back on by 5 tonight. At least this time Xfinity is still working so I know what's going on.
Last weekend they said the power would be restored by 7pm Saturday, then it was 10pm Saturday, then it was 10am Sunday, then it was noon on Sunday.
PG&E is the California Employment Development Department of power companies.
Only difference being CA EDD can kiss off a 31 billion dollar loss. PG&E can't do that.
I have an 7K Westinghouse hardwired into the house with a manual switch. Power went out for 9 hours one week after installation, runs the entire house, well, furnace, septic pump, two fridges, all the lights, microwave, and other stuff. With everything turned on for a test, max draw was only about 4200w. All for 6 times less than the nationally advertised brand. I couldn't be happier.
ReplyDeletemicrowaves really make my gen grunt hard.
DeleteI thought Newsom made gas generators illegal. Happy I left CA for the wilds of Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteA genset is nice...if you know the outage is temporary AND you can get fuel.
ReplyDeleteOdds are that's not what the future portends. I just decided to bite the bullet
and committed $50K for a 10Kw solar system that will allow me to live for weeks without needing the power company.
over price weak set for commies to buy..3600 Rated Watts & 4650 Peak Watts
ReplyDeleteDuel fuel? Do you have to start it with pistols at 20 paces?
ReplyDeleteOK generator. Note that it's 3600 watts, more like 2800 on propane. Wen also makes a good one, slightly bigger, for 2/3 the price. If you do buy a new generator, get dual fuel, NEVER RUN IT ON GASOLINE. Regular gas will rot the carb in a season; 100% gas is better, but still has problems. Both have limited storage life. Both harder to start than propane. Propane is clean, stores forever. If you have house propane, get hoses and run off your big tank, run forever. If you have nat gas, you can probably run the propane side off your nat gas (or add a bigger jet)- and again have essentially unlimited run time. Even better: find a garage sale unit and add a dual fuel conversion kit. Nat gas on a 5kw unit is about 25k btu/hr, or -in my area-25 cents an hour. Propane is twice that, and gasoline is 6+ times that. If you get electric start, a battery maintainer is absolutely required. Deltran makes good ones. And keep at least 2 extra oil changes around, too.
ReplyDelete