A reality check after Power went out !

[hawkeye08]

well, i thought we were pretty well situated to take care of ourselves but I'll be adding a few more things to the list myself ,I did realize you can't help everybody so what do you tell the ones you can't help ? And how do you tell them to move on ?

Are you going to use LED lighting in your new dream home? We were thinking of converting some of ours...

 

[rmorey]

We bought a 200 acre woodlot in 2002. It is on the north shore of a 2 mile long, 1/2 mile wide lake. Our problem was the north shore has no power. Hydro guys told me that "hydro was $150,000 due south of our lot". We built our retirement home with a complete solar system costing <25K.

Our system has 20 - 180 watt panels, capable of providing >10 Kw on a good sunny day. The panels feed 2 - 4,000 watt inverters providing 60 amps @ 240vac. We have an 8,500 watt Generac gas generator as backup for multiple cloudy days. Its neat to be completely self sufficient. Propane for cooking, wood heat (hydronic floor heat).

There is a local company which provides high speed satellite internet. With Magic Jack, we now have phone. Cab tractor to blow driveway in winter and we're good to go!

 

[user.69169]

Tell you what. You only think you seen idyutts till you seen the brilliant educated fools with Diplomas down around NY City.

All my life, seems like there ain't been a storm or some such coming along and being a problem for me or my family, and every dang one of them times we handled it. Them Island idyutts just stand looking like deer in the headlights with their SmartPhone in their hand cause they got no idea who to call to solve the problem.

About most of them got way too much fancy education packed into too few brains. They more dang dependent than a 3 week old baby, and completely unwilling to do a dam thing to help themself other than whip out a checkbook or a credit card. They dowqnright tribal too, one dang side of the street looks down their nose at the other side, and they get hostile if you don't drop what you doing to solve their problem right now.

Far as I came to be concerned most of em could starve & freeze in the dark after a week of putting up with the childish crap.

I just got some of that LED tape off eBay, and a battery and got this relay box setup and am getting into putting a bunch of the LED tape in my house that will light up soon as the power goes off. What I been experimenting with I figure the LED lights will run around the clock on a garden tractor battery for a week without recharging the battery. That will save a ton of need to run my generator when the power goes off.

Once I get that done I got a plan for a 12 volt blower that will take over for the fan that keeps the attic cool so I ain't running no dang AC machine to feel like I live in a meat freezer.

Truth to tell, I don't much care how my fellow man makes do. He got every chance I have to study up, learn and get ready. After the Island career I really ain't got much giveadam left.

 

[crazyal]

Years ago Northern New England and Quebec got hammered with days of ice storms all in a row. Most people lost power for over a week, some for over a month. Since moving up here into the mountains we have lost power a couple of times, 3 days was the longest. I had to occasionally fire the generator to cool the fridges and run the well pump. People survive. The funny thing is during that ice storm the government pass a law saying we could buy generators and chainsaws and write it off on our taxes. A few months later and the classifieds were full of slightly used generators for sale. If it happens again I'm going to puck up a 10k to 15k stand alone diesel back gen so I'll never have to worry about it again. Another funny thing is that a few months ago the power went out south of us and a number of people who bought solar panels also lost power. Turns out they didn't read the fine print, the mini controllers for the panels will not output power if the line power shuts off.

 

[Ken45101]

For a few hours, we wouldn't even bother starting the generator. We have kerosene and Coleman lamps and candles, but no big deal, you don't need light to go to bed.

I do wish the generators ran on diesel since I normally have a good supply of that here. It's obviously harder to store larger quantities of gasoline.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

This is the home design we have decided on for the property , Windmill for power and pumping water from the well ,Most of the lighting will be led also a water wheel midway down the hill from the house to generate more free power .I have city water and power at the paved road but I don't want to have to run generators for any long term power outage I'm also putting in a 1000 gal propane tank for cooking and emergency heat ,I'm sure there will be many changes to the original plans for lights and heat as we get further into the build . I'll start posting pics when it gets to the interesting parts

 

[SPYDERLK]

For a few hours, we wouldn't even bother starting the generator. We have kerosene and Coleman lamps and candles, but no big deal, you don't need light to go to bed.

I do wish the generators ran on diesel since I normally have a good supply of that here. It's obviously harder to store larger quantities of gasoline.

Yeah, me too. But we are on a well and got horses. They dont know water conservation. One visit to the automatic trough and were out of water. I got a tru sine 240 V inverter on our electric golf cart to bring our well back on line promptly.
larry

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Larry what is your input voltage to your 240v inverter?I have a 2000 MSW from HF planning to use an electric pole saw around the field but have not. I wanted a simple way to get 12v input but that is easy only if I tap 12v out of the 36v bank. Of course with the right cables I could rewire the six so I had three 12v banks connected in parallel but then I could not move the cart.

 

[Downwesttexasway]

Went totally off grid over a year ago, I don't miss power outages at all Where I'm at there are no services except for phone, you end up with a whole different kind of people living around you. Don't miss those yuppies either!!!

 

[SPYDERLK]

Larry what is your input voltage to your 240v inverter?I have a 2000 MSW from HF planning to use an electric pole saw around the field but have not. I wanted a simple way to get 12v input but that is easy only if I tap 12v out of the 36v bank. Of course with the right cables I could rewire the six so I had three 12v banks connected in parallel but then I could not move the cart.

It is a 24VDC to 240 VAC pure sine inverter. Sine wave output is a lot more expensive. About $500 for the 3KW inverter. Ive run the whole house with it avoiding the heavy drains. Everything but the internet connection is very happy. Must be some hash on the output causing a frequency issue. I wonder if a capacitor would absorb that. :confused3: