I'm at day 7 in Cincinnati off the grid - which is nothing to cry about considering the carnage in Texas!
I have a 30 year old 3500 watt generator from Sears. So far, it's working fine. But I've been reading some of the threads about inverter generators (which I had never heard of) and I would like to get some opinions. I pulled the battery from my Ford Explorer and I use it at night along with this:
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During the day I recharge the car battery using a separate 12V output on the generator that provides up to 8 amps. Funny, I used to wonder why the hell I would need this. Anyway, today I am going to have to run my business desktop PC for a while. Would I be better off hooking the car battery to the generator 12V to keep it charged, then also hooking up the inverter and running the PC off of it? I realize that I have a cheap inverter but would the power out of it be less likely to feed a spike or low voltage to my PC than this tired old generator? Or maybe just charge the battery for a few hours and then just use the battery and the inverter and do my work quickly?
This is the best photo I've found so far of the generator and the guy has the engine partially disassembled:
Are the local big-boxes open? If so, go buy a cheap UPS unit, and put that between your PC and your power, to clean it up at least a little. This isn't a table saw- you are not only putting the PC at risk if a power glitch happens, you are putting your data at risk, like if you happen to be in the middle of a disk write when it all goes dark or spikes. Laptops are better this way- they have some power filtering built in. If the big-boxes are closed, inverter from battery, with no running engine involved, is the safest. When picture starts flickering, save your work and shut down. My agency has lost a lot of PCs and other computer equipment, over in the sandbox, due to running them off dirty generator power.
If you're running on dirty generator power and you want to have a UPS, you should go for either low-end or high-end. Don't get anything in the middle. The low-end UPS won't be very picky. It will let anything through. It could be rough on your electronic equipment, but that's another issue. The high-end UPS might have the ability to clean up the power, but you should read the accompanying literature first to make sure it's recommended for use with a generator. The middle-range UPS will go into a frenzy, switching back and forth between battery and mains every few seconds - or it might just get so horrified by what it sees that it turns itself off altogether.
Hint - you can stabilize the generator output a little bit by putting a steady inductive load on it - assuming it has enough capacity to carry that load, along with its other loads. I always run a dehumidifier at the maximum setting when I'm on generator power. It's not a perfect solution, but it does help - and the basement smells so clean and dry and fresh afterward.
I've been watching the deal sites for a good price on a quality UPS for a while now. Eventually I will have one.
The battery from the Explorer with the 1200/3600 watt inverter got me through my critical processes. But I may be teetering on the brink of insanity here on day 8. I skip right over ads that have models in skimpy outfits and drool over the Honda EU2000 pictures.............
While you didn't ask me, I'll be glad to share some lessons learned.
I had a generator and five gallons of stabilized gas. That should, I thought, get me through the onset of any disaster.
Then came Ike.
NO ELECTRICITY to over 2.1 million customers, including EVERY FRICKIN' GAS STATION for sixty miles in any direction. The stations HAD gas, but no way to get it to your tank! Even today, ten days after the hurricane, 34% of customers in the Houston area (767,000 users, about 2.4 million people) are without power.
Next hurricane, I'm gonna hoard gas, just like beer and strawberry pop-tarts!
Strangely, our legislature passed a law mandating gas stations on evacuation routes stock up to 85% capacity in advance of an impending emergency, but the law says nothing about emergency power generation for these stations.
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There was at least one report of fatalities due to running the generator in an attached garage. Paramedics found a family of four dead and a generator with an empty gas tank in the garage. That's four people dead out of tens of thousands who used generators. Expect legislation mandating CO detectors to be sold with every generator (like trigger-locks on pistols).
I had mine running outside, in the rain and wind. Inclement weather didn't bother it a bit. Remember, these things are DESIGNED to be used in hostile environments - a little moisture or leaves or wind shouldn't bother the sucker.
A side benefit of the generator being louder than the Hinges on the gates of Hell is that the noise encourages the user to keep the door and windows in its vicinity closed.
you are insan if you want us to believe that you are running 1200 wats of your Explorer batttery and never mine 3600, learn how to use volt and amp. meter Tony
He didn't say he was, just that the inverter COULD make 1200/3600 watts. If he's running a desktop computer that's maybe 200w, plus a monitor, so maybe 275W total. That battery will do it easily. It has at least 10X the capacity of most small UPS's that run a computer.
You are confused. The computer draws 275 watts at 120 volts. The power source is a 12 volt battery.
a quick and rough way to guestimate power consumption for things in a
12 volt system, as found in an RV or boat is that 10 watts equals 1 amp draw. So if your computer draws 275 watts, that works out to a
27.5 amp draw on that poor battery. If you had a high quality deep cycle group 27 size 12 volt battery, it may have as much as a 100 amp hour rating. You cannot draw it down more than 50% of capacity without seriously shortening it's service life. So you have about 50 amp hours to run your computer. That's less than 2 hours running the computer, ON A HEAVY DUTY DEEP CYCLE BATTERY.
He doesn't have a deep cycle battery. It probably has less than 100 amp hour capacity, too. If he runs that truck battery down to 50%, he'll be shopping for a new battery pretty quickly. It won't do that more than a few times before it's ruined and loses most of it's capacity permanently.
I remember once, the owner of a hardware store commenting on all the people coming to his store during a week of heavy snowfall looking for snow shovels. He said they should have thought ahead and bought one before they needed it. I gently pointed out to him, that if he had so much better foresight, he should have stocked enough snowshovels for the anticipated rush.
Meanwhile, I'll bet part of the reason they want those gas station tanks full is so that FEMA and other emergency vehicles can pump it directly out of the underground tanks using a portable pump.
Can't do that cost effectively...by the time it's certain there actually will be an unusual event it's too late to get additional stock in. And, if over stock, that's simply unsold inventory eating up operating capital. I'm w/ the owner...stock based on long term history.
Possibly, but I think they tend to bring their own fuel reserves rather than relying on local supplies except for very unusual circumstances, at least in the very short term.
Well, I'm certain I'm not on the first as a general premise of operating a retail operation cost-effectively and pretty sure on the second (by watching FEMA and National Guard in particular in action locally).
I guess I have exactly enough background, quite by accident, to make it just an inconvenience. My sons and I fly to the big air show in Oshkosh every year, where we 'camp' in a tent and get by on a 35 watt solar cell charging a pair of 12V-12AH sealed batteries. So I get a lesson in energy conservation every July. Of course, here at home I'm not limited by how much things weigh. I have a 3500 watt gasoline alternator (1979 model) that I keep in the shed, just in case. It's how I'm powering the house right now. My biggest dog has a job now patrolling the back yard. I have gone to great trouble teaching her not to bite but I guarantee you she will go bat shit crazy if anyone comes over that fence. There is no natural gas here so the procurement and management of gasoline is a factor. In the beginning I got caught with little fuel in my cans. I have been cutting and chipping a lot of brush and I let myself get low. The one gas station that I found open the day after the power went out (long lines) was the closest I have been to a riot since the Who concert where people were trampled to death. Anyway, they were limiting you to $75 worth and the guy told me they were nearly out. At that point I had enough to last me for a few days. Due to a coffee addiction and more camping with the Cub Scouts than I would prefer, I have a small propane burner and a camping percolator. We also have a propane grill that never gets used and had a nearly full tank. I have one 100 ft., one 75 ft., one 50 ft., and two 25 ft. extension cords, all
12 gauge, plus lots of lesser gauge extensions. I have an Explorer that gets driven once a week and I put the biggest battery it could take in it last winter. I have a good sized 1200 watt (continuous) inverter and a smaller 80 watt unit. I harvested the battery from the Explorer and I would have gotten the fuel out of it too, one way or another, if I had to. I bought a few CFL bulbs at Harbor Freight and they are nice at night. I also have a DC to DC converter that will let me run and charge my laptop from either that small 12 volt batteries or any car battery. I have two coolers and am used to draining the water and replenishing them from camping. I also have a Diblasi scooter that claims it will go
100 miles on 3/4 of a gallon of fuel. After that it's bicycles. I have a plane full of fuel (50 gallons) a 20 minute drive from here. But it's leaded fuel and not going into the cars, though anything is possible if it were a worse disaster.
Job one was cleaning all firearms and locating every spare round. I know this may be controversial but I had no idea how long this was going to go on and I have no intention of peacefully turning my place over to looters. But to each his own. Next, how do you get ice? It disappears quickly in this type of situation. For the first couple of days we powered the refrigerator from the generator, at least during the day. The ice maker is a joke. I do believe it is intended for convenience and not throughput. I found that by filling small plastic cups with water I could make more ice than I needed. For news we started with battery powered radios. Then I dug up the antenna for the 13" TV and that let us watch over the air TV news. I'm not sure it was worth the trouble but the family enjoyed it. Getting power into the house was a bit challenging and I quickly tired of having to disconnect everything just to close and lock the doors every time I left. I finally took some of that insulation for hot water pipes, taped it into the jamb for the sliding door, cut a foot long piece to go over a (now precious) extension cord, and cut a 2x4 with my cordless circular saw to hold the door against the insulation. I'm sure there are better ways. I don't know if a generator can wet or not. I drug two saw horses and a sheet of plywood out of the shed and that's now my fancy generator roof.
Here's my impression of the whole deal. This started 8 days ago and I still am not back on the grid. It's an inconvenience but boo hoo. We still have water to drink and the toilets still work. We never ran out of food. It could be a whole lot worse. I was a pretty handy guy once upon a time but I have spent the last couple of decades as an office person. I've lost my touch on a lot of things. I broke a lot of things. I melted a few things. I invented new curse words when the old standbys seemed insufficient. Again, boo hoo. When A doesn't work you try B. Maybe you'll figure out how a better way to do A when you're trying to sleep. You stay at it, find things that work, and abandon the things that don't. Don't count on the kindness or competence of others and you won't be disappointed. It really doesn't take a hell of a lot to get by if all you have lost is electricity. I don't know how well I would do with in a total loss situation like the people we are seeing in Texas, but I would approach it the same way. Keep trying things and don't give up.
I'm not going to reread this one because it was a stream of consciousness effort, but that's my take on the power going off.
All true. I don't know how far down I drained the battery and I accepted that I might ruin it before I ever started. I have employees and I needed to run QuickBooks Payroll and make payroll deposits to the feds. The cost of a battery is an acceptable loss and I just may consider getting myself a deep cycle battery. I may even have the board of directors meet (me) and vote on getting a corporate deep cycle battery if my accountant approves it!!!
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