Propane generator for blackouts?

[Stormin Mormon]

Well, bless you heart. I doubt mine will see 100 hours of use, even. Unless we have a heck of a prolonged power cut.

[Stormin Mormon]

Ought to be possible to make a valve and manifold rig, so you can change propane bottles.

I can easily imagine a central AC overloading a portable generator.

[Stormin Mormon]

I've seen backup generators behind retail stores, in NY State. I can think of one without too much effort. Wholesale club with a lot of merchandise in freezers.

Also, fire departments often have backup generators.

[George]

I have seen many installations. One place I work at has dual electric utility feeds that originate at different primaries, a huge battery room and 3 huge CAT diesel generators.

What you mentioned is quite variable and depends on the ethic of the company. Some are amazingly lame and are simply hoping nothing will happen.

People would be totally shocked at how Mickey Mouse many everyday services they depend on are operated. For example if you use a tmobile or AT&T phone pretty much all of their cell sites only have a tiny backup battery. If the power goes down your cell service does very shortly after. This is even more important since so many people have dropped land lines. A good friend lives in an area higher than here that is situated perfectly to catch a lot of ice during winter storms. He mentioned his family went gaga over having iphones which currently only work on AT&T. He laughed when I mentioned he may want to put a telephone line back in the house. They had a massive ice storm the winter before last and the power was off for 4 days. He said they lost AT&T cell coverage very shortly after the power went off. VZW stayed up because they fit each site with lots of battery and a generator.

[George]

Guessing you have never been to the NE in the winter? How would you restore service in hours when major parts of the infrastructure have been taken down by ice and ice laden trees?

[krw]

Yeah, I guess Katrina messed things up pretty badly, too. The snow/ice argument was bogus.

Beach towns and barrier islands, sure. Go inland 10 miles and things change. The point is that there will usually be gas available somewhere in the area within hours or a few days, at the most. There is no reason to stockpile a month's gasoline on premises.

[krw]

You're wrong. I lived in the NE (NY and VT) for over thirty years. We had some rather bad storms, and as _I_SAID_, some were without power for weeks, but there was no widespread and long-lasting power outages. Ever. Fuel was always available in hours, even after the worst storms (like 12" of sloppy stuff on Oct. 4, '77?).

[Oren]

...

Same thing after Andrew hit south of Miami (Homestead, FL).

Those mountains of trash were barged to New York, and perhaps other NE locations at great expense. Likely the same happened after Katrina.

[The Daring Dufas]

There are penny pinching pencil pushers involved in those decisions and they rule until they get slapped upside the head by lawyers. I imagine your contract with your provider has a clause about acts of God or terrorist attacks, um, I mean, man caused disasters. 8-)

TDD

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

It was like that here during hurricane Ike. Power was off for 5 days. AT&T cell phones didn't work but Verizon (both cell and landline) did. Also, cable phone (Suddenlink) was off after 4 hours (backup battery lasted that long).

[Stormin Mormon]

I've got a couple friends who have digital phone. When the power goes out, they lose thier phone. I can't call them to see if they are OK, cause the phone went out also. I ring. If someone answers, I know the power is on.

Glad Verizon is fairly dependable. That's my cell phone carrier.

[HeyBub]

Tell that to the four million Houstonians who were without power for almost two weeks after Hurricane Yikes.

[George]

OK, I got it, you are omniscient. So when the area (not just their street or block or town) where my folks live (and friends 10 miles from them) lost power for almost a week in a major ice storm because major lines went down it was just a lie.

BTW what is tonight's winning lottery numbers and who will win all of next weeks games?

[George]

SLAs aren't involved with cell phones. So if the carrier cheaps out like say AT&T or tmobile does I doubt folks would have recourse except they have a nice paperweight for the duration.

If you try to explain stuff like emergency power you usually get the same reaction as if you just told them a potato is growing out of their ear so I just don't bother anymore.

[The Daring Dufas]

I installed a lot of generators back in the late 90's because people were afraid all the electricity would fail because of Y2K and the darned storms stirred up by the hurricanes. 8-)

TDD

[dgk]

I always have one tank hooked to the grill and one spare. I might keep a second spare if I buy this. I don't intend to run it all the time - just enough to keep my freezer frozen and maybe watch some TV. And, if it is winter, make sure the furnace (natural gas) can run once in a while.

[dgk]

Many important points. These are small attached houses so the neighbors are close. Not one of them would steal it and getting it out of the backyard would be non-trivial anyway. No one else has a generator. Still, I wouldn't want a very noisy one. But if it's summer, I don't really need it as much. Winter the windows will all be closed, which is when I would need it more.

We've had a blackout three times this year, only one lasted even two days but that got annoying enough for me to think about this.

I do have natural gas but wouldn't want to think about running a line outside. Propane seems much easier to deal with given the lack of real need. Two spare tanks should cover any short term need.

[keith]

Why? A couple hundred bucks should cover the gas line; small potatoes when considering the cost of a generator. Filling LP tanks would be a RPITA and getting an LP gas company out in a disaster could be a real problem. A gallon of LP is something close to 3/4 gallon of gasoline (as a reference for the amount you're going to need). Gasoline would be easier to lug.

[Stormin Mormon]

Nice Christmas tree!

[Stormin Mormon]

I'm with you. Precious few people have any concept of power failures, or any of the other survivalist ideas.