Hurley's Gold

Backup power supplies

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  • breakingcontact

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    Ive been without power and water for a few days at my new house. Long story.

    Anyways ive been making do. Flushing toilets with water ive brought from my old place. For electric ive been recharging small devices with this.

    Its alright. Long term i think i could recharge with the car.

    Anyways it really got me thinking.

    What are your plans for power?
    I dont want or need to power my whole house. Im comfortable living pretty basic but am happy to hear about all house generators too.

    Discussion of supplies could include:

    -Small battery chargers for small devices (how many batteries to keep on hand?)
    -Big batteries
    -AC/DC inverters
    -Solar powered chargers for small devices
    -Backup batteries like the one pictured
    -Small generator
    -Big geneator (how much fuel to store?)

    If a guy wanted to go real basic, couldnt you just hook up a stationary bike to an alternator and a car battery?


    Rambling a bit in this one. The discussion should be good if not the prompt
     

    Vaquero

    Moving stuff to the gas prices thread.....
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    Do you have any gas appliances?
    Heat?
    If you have nat gas you can get by with a pretty small generator.
    For DC your car is sufficient.
     

    breakingcontact

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    Ive got some small propane heaters. I think they make some models safe to use indoors (somehow). Also...as a matter of perspective to wear i grew up it just doesnt get that cold here so i dont need too much.

    All electric. No gas.

    Its kind of an interesting spectrum. Some want zero interruption of normal life (or may need that due to age or disability) but from my Army and hiking daze I can make due with very little and be reasonably comfortable.

    I am considering getting a small generator though. What are the good brands?
     

    Glockster69

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    I am considering getting a small generator though. What are the good brands?


    Honda. Most are very quite relatively speaking.
     

    Vaquero

    Moving stuff to the gas prices thread.....
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    Honda is tops, and priced accordingly.
    Avoid the harbor freight units.
    Tractor supply or home depot, lowes have serviceable units.
    3000 watts will keep your refrigerator going and some lighting. You'll need a big unit if you want heat and ac, 15,000 watt or larger.
    Your water heater will require 240 volt and 2000 watts alone if you want it to run.
    It really depends on your own needs.
     

    breakingcontact

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    Heat does take a bunch of electricity to make. Id run an electric space heater before i tried to power the house unit.

    Im interested in how much power to have in stored form, in batteries and with an inverter to power or charge household items vs having the capacity to make power with a generator or otherwise recharge the batteries. It comes to how much power we want and how long we think things will be down.
     

    reddog

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    He he, went off grid over a year ago an I'm not missing the monthly bill or the outages. About 3KW of solar, and I do anything I want without thinking about it much..

    Off grid, electric heat is about the worst thing you can do, way too heavy on consumption for the result.
     

    Southpaw

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    He he, went off grid over a year ago an I'm not missing the monthly bill or the outages. About 3KW of solar, and I do anything I want without thinking about it much..

    Off grid, electric heat is about the worst thing you can do, way too heavy on consumption for the result.

    That sounds like the way to go. Could you ballpark how much it takes to get you to where you are now?
     

    deemus

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    I would suggest propane. (in my best Hank Hill voice) You can cook with it, heat your water, and if your HVAC is gas powered, the fan won't take much juice. A 250 gallon tank of propane can last a really long time. We (3 of us) could make 100 gallons last about 4 months in the summer.

    Its off the grid, and relatively cheap. And the big truck comes to your place and fills your tank. I suggest renting the tank (less than $10 a month). They do the maint for fee that way.
     

    cconn

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    After Rita came through, we were without power for almost 2 weeks. I bought a Generac 20kw standby generator. One of the best investments I ever made. When the power goes out, it will crank 15 seconds later, then automatically switch the breaker and take over the power generation. Once the main power comes back on it switches back and turns itself off. Connected to a standalone 500 gallon tanks it should run about 2 weeks without needing refueling. Great piece of mind, especially since I am gone so much for work leaving the wife and kids alone.
     

    shooterfpga

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    He he, went off grid over a year ago an I'm not missing the monthly bill or the outages. About 3KW of solar, and I do anything I want without thinking about it much..

    Off grid, electric heat is about the worst thing you can do, way too heavy on consumption for the result.

    I have been doing solar for quite awhile as well. It stemmed from some of our long range army missions with no support. I have been slowly converting everything i can get my hands on to solar.
     

    Vaquero

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    Propane is the best. You can convert a gasoline generator to run off it too.
    That's one of my long term goals.
     

    Sugar Land

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    Got a link?
    1k is enough for a window unit?

    I have a couple of extra 1K units if you want one. I bought a couple of them with little 6K btu window ac's. I figured if some of the old folks in my neighborhood could use them if we had lights out for any length of time.
     

    HKaltwasser

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    Power inverter is all I would use. I like the idea of having solar panels to queitly charge some cells but that's a future plan. I have a generator, but won't use it, it would draw too much bad attention if power was out that long. A box full of AA,AAA, C, D 's and 100 count of cr2032's to run my scopes. I have a lot of different candles.

    I do have a 500g propane tank for cooking indoors.
     

    reddog

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    That sounds like the way to go. Could you ballpark how much it takes to get you to where you are now?
    -

    Like anything it all depends on the quality of the items you buy. Figure a dollar a watt for panels and toss some in for mounting them up, $3K, 3KW inverter (outback brand) $1600, charge controller (Outback) $500, wire $200, 3 string 48V battery bank, $2700 so a total investment of around $8K.

    I'm in a case of no choice as the nearest utility is over 5 miles away, but with an equipment lifespan of say 20 years (except for batteries) comes out to around $265 a year, not a bad electric bill :)
     

    Southpaw

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    -

    Like anything it all depends on the quality of the items you buy. Figure a dollar a watt for panels and toss some in for mounting them up, $3K, 3KW inverter (outback brand) $1600, charge controller (Outback) $500, wire $200, 3 string 48V battery bank, $2700 so a total investment of around $8K.

    I'm in a case of no choice as the nearest utility is over 5 miles away, but with an equipment lifespan of say 20 years (except for batteries) comes out to around $265 a year, not a bad electric bill :)


    Thanks.
     
    Every Day Man
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