How do you prep for future power outages?

[Larry Caldwell]

I also have a whole house generator that is powered by a 1000 gallon propane tank. When the power goes out, the generator is up and running within seconds.

I don't need a whole house generator, because my house runs fine without electricity, but I do keep a portable and a couple hundred pounds of propane around for various reasons. I can go years between needing a generator, so propane removes the bad fuel worry. I do have a little camp generator that will run the fridge or freezer. It runs 4.5 hours on a gallon of gas, so a couple cans of lawnmower gas will last for days.

 

[fried1765]

Only once have I had to run a generator because of a power outage which was Hurricane Ike in '08. We were three days without electricity then. Generator ran the refrigerator, freezer, tv, lamp, and couple fans. Got lucky and was able to get enough gas to run it. How many generators do you keep? How many cans of gas? How long will the gas be good?

Ethanol free gas has a much longer storage life than gas containing ethanol.
Automotive ethanol free gas... "may not be dispensed from a pump"... in my state, so for the storage reason, I must buy very pricey 100LL at the local airport, for my generator.
I keep 10 gallons on hand, for my little 3500W Honda powered Porter Cable generator.
The 3,500W unit is kinda small, but I figure I just need enough power to run basic items, on an alternating schedule, during a relatively short term outage.
I think I could go for 5 days with limited generator use, on my 10 gallons.
We had coal heat, and didn't even have ANY electricity when I was 7 years old!

 

[cqaigy2]

Propane/gasoline generator, runs essentials. Led lanterns, led flashlights, wood stove. When a major storm is forecast, check supplies. Propane campstove for cooking. Water 1000 gal cistern, up the hill from the house, so gravity fed to the house. We live in timbered area and lose power many times in a year, mostly for 3-4 hours when a limb or tree gives up on gravity. Longest time without power was 15 day, i think, we actually got money sent to use from the power company, so had to be over 2 weeks without service. During the same time period, there were so many trees down on the main road, could not get to anywhere for 1 week.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have four Diesel Generator of various sizes. All sow runnning except for my 3.7KW air cooled Yanmar Screamer. I prefer smaller rather than larger. 3.7 - 12 .5 KW. Call it a hobby.

Power didn't as much as flicker all winter!

I also have a 3KW Telecom Inverter that runs off my 48 Volt Gator. One thing is for sure. I believe in redundancy in a lot of systems and things.

 

[coobie]

Whole house backup generator and 1000 gal propane tank filled before winter. Also 2 portable gas generators. Have a 55 gal diesel tank and 20 gal non ethanol gas.

Same here

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[ericm979]

Last year we ran the generator for > 3 weeks. We get outages in the winter due to storms taking out lines, "public safety" outages in summer fire season, and last year we had a bunch of additional outages due to PG&E updating the lines and poles (which should help for the winter outages). In past years it's been more like 1-2 weeks/year.

A whole home generator that runs off propane would be idea. But it'll be a lot of work for us to set up so we have been getting by with the Honda gas generator that we bought when we moved up here. It can run everything in the house except A/C and ovens. I keep some 5 gallon cans which get rotated through pretty quick as the gas is also used for lawn mower, UTV, chainsaws etc.

 

[RjCorazza]

Only once have I had to run a generator because of a power outage which was Hurricane Ike in '08. We were three days without electricity then. Generator ran the refrigerator, freezer, tv, lamp, and couple fans. Got lucky and was able to get enough gas to run it. How many generators do you keep? How many cans of gas? How long will the gas be good?

I have (3) generators. 3k inverter primally for our RV, 2k inverter for projects around the property, and a 15kw PTO whole house generator.

My previous partial house generator was a Generac gas powered unit. At that time I stored 55g of treated gas for 2 years at a time before using it in my truck and walk behind mower. I kept the drum in a small remote shed for better than 15 years without issue.

Currently I store about 100g of diesel that is available for the tractor PTO generator. I'll use up the remainder of the gas in the drum this summer and use it for diesel.

 

[Jstpssng]

I'm the last of 3 houses on a mile long line, so when I built here I thought the power would be out frequently, and for a long time. Every fall I would change the gas and oil in my 4500 watt Coleman generator and run it for a while... then I wouldn't look at it again until the following fall. (That was in pre-ethanol days.) Since I built in 2003 there has only been one time when the power was out for more than a few hours; that year I happened to be caretaking a place on the lake a few miles away and it was cold enough that my freezers didn't need to run so I waited a week to call it in, while they got everybody else's power turned back on.
I don't mind not having internet and don't have TV; on the rare occasion my power goes out I read a book and go to bed. My spare battery is a deep cycle which can run a 12 volt bulb for a few nights if needed.

I have two old gasoline generators, one was my father's Lincoln 150 Welder-Generator, the other is an old Coleman. I keep 5 gallons of non-ethanol on hand for my small engines, and in winter the 11 gallon tank on my snowsled is always full. I have a transfer switch, someplace I have all of the parts to make a cord. I should put it together, someday we may have a real outage.

 

[RalphVa]

We put in a 12.5 kw Isuzu diesel generator in Nov 2012 and redid the two 200 amp breakers with one on automatic start of the generator. It pretty much runs the whole house exclusive of the 4 ton main floor heat pump and one of the hot water heaters. Even the electric clothes drier is on it. Its 60 gallon tank will run for 10 days.

Ralph

 

[Popgadget]

I rely on electricity to pump water, power the geothermal heat pump as well as refrigeration, lighting and sump pumps.

My primary backup is a 22kw propane automatic. The secondary is a 25kw PTO generator powered by my tractor. Third tier is a 2kw Honda inverter generator and the 10kw generator output from my engine driven welder.
I keep generous amounts of propane, diesel, and gasoline on hand as well.