Need information about generators

[Stormin Mormon]

YOu can get the same number. Or, if I'm mistaken, you can get a difrfernet number (and please tell me the correct number). How I got em was:

Read catalog, determine for a particular generator, how many watts the generator. How many gals gasoline. The ad usually lists "hours run time at half load".

Formula is something like:

(generator wattage / 2) x hours of run time

-------------------------------------------------------- = watt-hr/gal tank capacity gals

It's been awhile since I ran the figures. If I'm mistaken, please tell me so that I can know what's right.

[Stormin Mormon]

I'm using stats from the Northern Tools catalog. If anyone has practical experience, I'd sure love to hear from you.

Of course, the price of gas in Louisiana is got to be different than the rest of the world.

My Coleman 2200 watt generator will run my 10,000 BTU AC, which draws about

9 amps when running.

[House Mouse]

Let me add this.

If you have enough advanced warning remember that cooked food will last longer at higher temps than uncooked food.

Gideon mentioned filling up the space in the freezer with bottles of water, good advice. Get rid of as much air space as you can. Even if it means crumpling up news papers and filling the space that way. For a chest freezer laying blankets or comforters over the top of the unit will also help.

For shorter term power outages you might consider a 500 w voltage inverter. This will allow you to run several lights off of your cars battery for a short period of time. The smaller ones are cheaper than a geni but there are a couple of drawbacks.

1. Running a freezer or AC unit off of one is impractical. Power inverters that put out that much wattage are about the same price as a geni.

1. You have to be careful not to run your car battery down to the point that you car no longer starts.

For prolonged power outages a voltage inverter is about useless. But for short term outages 5 - 6 hours they can make life easier. Especially if you are like I am and are paranoid about fires being started off of candles.

HM

[Chris Lewis]

According to House Mouse :

More likely considerably more than a generator.

We just scrapped one of our cars, and kept the battery (almost new). Alternately, you should be able to buy a battery in decent shape from a scrap yard for not that much money. Add to that a small trickle charger, and it'll always be charged and ready to go.

In this way you can operate for as long as you want without worrying about not being able to start your car. During longish outages, you can recharge the battery by hooking it in parallel with the car battery and running it for a while.

During our most recent outage, we ran ours for about 12 hours with small compact fluorescent fixtures, and watched many hours of TV ;-) The battery didn't seem anywhere near needing recharge.

[Note that car batteries aren't ideal for this use, and ideally you'd run it through a discharge/recharge cycle at least once a month.]