What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss?

   / What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss? #91  
Torvy said:
That is also a very wise decision. A decentralized grid is much safer overall. Harder for a single incident to have as widespread of impact.
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Well….texas has alot of power loss issues. And then cant get power from another source.
 
   / What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss? #92  
Too many Kubotas said:
That's how mine came programmed, which I quickly changed.

In my mind it's engine cruelty to cold start one that often, and then not run it long enough for the oil to warm up.

Now it starts once a month and runs for about 25 minutes. And I might change that to every three months, or more. After all, if pickups, tractors, backhoes, and other stuff can sit for six months or more without needless cold starts, why couldn't a generator?
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I can understand the thinking here. On the flip side, if there is a problem, such as a battery gone bad, it increases the risk that the problem won't be discovered until the next power outage, and the generator doesn't work.
 
   / What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss? #93  
fatjay said:
In 15 years we've lost power for more than a week 4 times, the longest was 20 days. I have a cheap chinese durostar generator from amazon I bought in 2015 and it has thousands of hours on it by now. We lose power once a month and it's been amazing. It runs 24/7 during outages with me going to fill up the tank every 8 hours.

I'm putting up solar panels to get off the generator and building out battery storage as we speak.
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In Eastern PA? That’s a crazy long time. I’m in SE PA and our longest was 5 days, but I have a whole house gen set, so we breezed through it.

Would like to chat with you sometime on solar/batteries. I’m pushing my chips in on propane for the typical outages and a very large tank and a barn with solar on the roof with batts.
 
   / What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss? #95  
grsthegreat said:
a generator is an emergency backup device. Weekly runs keep all parts lubed up, but more importantly makes sure it runs. I like heating mine fire up weekly. I have units with 1000’s of hours on them fire up weekly and no issues. Then again, ive seen units with 20 hrs with a blown engine. Who can say why it blew….but its nice to fix it in calm summer and not during a windy, raining power outage.
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For years the hospital backup generators exercised weekly.

This changed about 9 years ago when the new air regs stopped the practice so now it’s once a month and we’ll documented at that.
 
   / What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss? #96  
   / What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss? #97  
newbury said:
But apparently all Texans agree with the policy.
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I have a cousin that lives outside austin. Ive talked to her. She, and most of her friends HATE it. On last power outage, their rates went up about 10x normal during the troubled times. Their utilities can charge whatever they want. Look it up, there lots of articles about this.


www.texastribune.org

ERCOT overcharged power companies $16 billion for electricity during winter freeze, firm says

An independent market monitor for the Public Utility Commission of Texas wrote in a letter that the power grid operator kept market prices too high for nearly two days after widespread outages ended.
www.texastribune.org www.texastribune.org
 
   / What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss? #99  
grsthegreat said:
Well….texas has alot of power loss issues. And then cant get power from another source.
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Actually we have fewer issues than many places that are on the shared grid. Our issues just make the news because NY media hates Texas.
 
   / What do you all do to be prepared for long term power loss? #100  
Torvy said:
Actually we have fewer issues than many places that are on the shared grid. Our issues just make the news because NY media hates Texas.
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And the DC media, and the LA media, and the Chicago media…..

Envy is a sin and an ugly emotion
 
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