# Winter Reliability



## georgepds (Jan 8, 2018)

I live on a barrier Island, and the winter can sometimes be rough. Power outages are not as frequent as they used to be, but they still happen, mostly in winter due to ice or wind storms. About a decade ago, the town put in town water, and that was a big relief. The water stays on regardless of utility power.

But the power still goes out. For heat there is the wood stove. For cooking a propane stove. And , for amusement, a battery powered radio, or a book. If the power is out for a long time, the perishable food goes out into containers on the cold porch.

What do you do?


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## greg13 (Jan 8, 2018)

MOVE!! I don't like crowds, but I do enjoy creature comforts.


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## fbelec (Jan 12, 2018)

yup love city water. if it's going to be long i spark up the generator for fridge and freezer and showers


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## Chimney Smoke (Jan 12, 2018)

I have a small generator for essentials like the fridge and freezer.  I'm on a well and my generator won't run the well pump so I always keep around 10 gallons of drinking water in my basement.  If I know a storm is coming I will fill a couple 5 gallon buckets for toilet flush water.  I try to keep around 15 gallons of gas in the garage at all times for the generator.  I also keep 3 or 4 20 pound propane tanks for the grill, camp stove, extra heat, etc. I also have a stream about a quarter mile from the house so I have an emergency water source there as well.


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## semipro (Jan 12, 2018)

For now a small gennie for constant loads like lights and the fridge along with use of a larger gennie for heating water and the well. 
We also have a lot of battery powered LED lights that last a full day.  We may also sleep downstairs by the fire. In the near future: solar with backup storage. 

More importantly we seem to relish these outages.  Although we enjoy our creature comforts as someone else said, we also enjoy the outages along with and the realization of independence that comes with them. They are some of the most memorable times of our lives.  We used a sled to move groceries and other supplies up our driveway during one tough winter when our vehicle got stuck and found we really enjoyed even that. 

Sometimes we like to be reminded of how good we have it and how well we can handle not having it.


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## johneh (Jan 12, 2018)

After the big ice storm of 1998 we installed a totally automatic 
stand by system . The system runs the whole house including 
electric hot water tank , 2 hp well pump and ever other thing
in the house . In 98 we were without power for 38 days never 
again  the longest sense then 2 stretches of 7 days and 
many of 2 to 3 days . The joys of living in the country


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## Ashful (Jan 12, 2018)

georgepds said:


> For heat there is the wood stove. For cooking a propane stove. And , for amusement, a battery powered radio, or a book. If the power is out for a long time, the perishable food goes out into containers on the cold porch.
> 
> What do you do?



Pray that we’re not out of town, when it happens.  We keep two stoves going, which will keep most of the house warm enough to survive, but there are other things to consider.  We have a traditional electric water heater in a fourth floor attic space, feeding the bathroom and kitchen on that floor (only used for guests).  I have one heated space of 1200 sq.ft. and another of 300 sq.ft., both heated by heat pump, and neither of which are going to get any heat from the stoves.  Our water is also by well (3/4 hp pump).

So, our solution is to just run a portable generator (8kW) a few times each day, back-fed into the house.  We can easily run the whole-house boiler, and toggle between the heat pumps.  I have not ever had trouble getting gas, but if I do, I usually have at least 50+ gallons on-site between parked cars and OPE.


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## georgepds (Jan 12, 2018)

Speaking of out of town.. i was in boston in the big storm of 78... no power any where.

Not being weighted by possessions my resiliency plan was to hightail it out of there to a girlfriend in Va beach

Now that was a resiliency plan. Alas,  the weight of possessions holds me to less delightful plans. These days,if I'm out of town for any time, I turn off the water and drain the pipes, including the water heater


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## jetsam (Jan 13, 2018)

All you guys who hoard generator gas should consider converting to propane. I did this with my old generac purely because I was sick of rotating gas cans (and not being able to actually get gas every hurricane).

On the down side, it de-rates the generator by ~20%.

On the up side, you don't have to keep rotating out gas cans to keep the gas fresh. A full propane tank is good for years. You also never get glue in the carb.

When I got a new propane provider for my kitchen stove, I just told them I needed to run a generator also, and got a big mongo house tank.  I can still use BBQ tanks if I want.

I think the generator conversion kit cost around $200, most of which was probably the regulator.


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## Ashful (Jan 13, 2018)

I have a buried 500 gal propane tank, that lasts me a decade per fill.  It’s used only for the garage direct vent heater and gas log in the patio fireplace, each of which only get turned on a few times each year.

I’ve seen the conversion kits, but most are run on a gas grill bottle.  How are you guys piping from your house tank?   I’d need a 30 foot’ish flexible hose to tee off existing connection for garage direct vent, assuming genny would need to sit outside.


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## jetsam (Jan 13, 2018)

Ashful said:


> I have a buried 500 gal propane tank, that lasts me a decade per fill.  It’s used only for the garage direct vent heater and gas log in the patio fireplace, each of which only get turned on a few times each year.
> 
> I’ve seen the conversion kits, but most are run on a gas grill bottle.  How are you guys piping from your house tank?   I’d need a 30 foot’ish flexible hose to tee off existing connection for garage direct vent, assuming genny would need to sit outside.



Tee, shutoff, copper flex run around the side of the house to about 4' away from the service entry. Second shutoff, quick connect coupler. Generator has a quick connect on its line.

When I need the generator, I wheel it from the garage to the service entry, plug in the propane and power, start it up, and put its little doghouse over it (imagine a doghouse cut in half right down the roof ridge, with no back wall). Let the generator warm up. (If I was feeling ambitious I might dig 2 old 1500w space heaters out of the closet and plug them directly into the generator outside to let it run under a test load and direct observation.)

Shut off all the breakers and throw the interlocks. Put a meter across both hot legs of the service entry and ground to ensure no backfeed is occurring through a faulty main breaker. (If it is, remove main breaker from panel and retest.)

Flip on breakers one at a time on opposite legs of the panel to load up the generator slowly. Go outside and make sure regulator doesn't need adjustment.  Go downstairs every so often and test service entry voltage to see if the power is back on (I can only see one other house from my house, and he has a generator too.)


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## peakbagger (Jan 13, 2018)

In my area #2 heating fuel is the primary heating fuel. Worse case is I used to have 550 gallons of oil but now that I burn wood I have around 50 gallons. I have a 12 volt diesel generator and 2000 watt pure sine inverter kicking around so if I run out of gas for my regular generator I have longer term backup. I normally get my water from a 320 foot deep well but I have old surface well that I can pull buckets from. I have full outdoor gear for four season hiking and mountaineering so have the usual camping gear if things get really weird.  

It all comes down to having a plan and a backup plan.


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## Ashful (Jan 14, 2018)

peakbagger said:


> I have full outdoor gear for four season hiking and mountaineering so have the usual camping gear if things get really weird.


I used to work with a guy who would say, "Seeds and bullets.  When it all goes down, all you'll need is seeds and bullets."

I miss that guy.


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## georgepds (Jan 14, 2018)

I knew a guy like that,  he passed away choking on sunflower seeds


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## jetsam (Jan 14, 2018)

georgepds said:


> I knew a guy like that,  he passed away choking on sunflower seeds



He must have needed more bullets in his diet. The seeds were obviously not good for him.


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## peakbagger (Jan 14, 2018)

I used to on occasion see the Preppers show on cable, it was so sad to see these folks who were living right on the edge of poverty wasting money prepping for low likelihood events in hopes that their miserable lives would change for the better when the world changed. It would be interesting to see a follow up show on where the folks are a few years after the original show. I expect more than few divorces and bankruptcys along with government assistance.


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## firefighterjake (Jan 14, 2018)

Power loss and blizzards here are more of an inconvenience rather than a life threatening emergency.

Woodstove provides the heat.

Water . . . from the nearby lake or melted snow.

Food . . . we're not preppers, but we have a decently stocked pantry and freezer and if push came to shove could last at least a month if needed.

That said . . . I also have a small generator to run a few lights (vs. using our candles and flashlights) and the TV. Thinking about upgrading later this year though to a larger generator so we can also run the well pump for showers.


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## jetsam (Jan 14, 2018)

I have a generator mainly so I can play computer games and take hot showers during a power outage.

In the event of a nuclear war, I live on Long Island. They'll nuke NYC first (which will be a real upgrade for that area, but hard on the roads). There are no farms to speak of. The locals are "every man for himself" on the very best of days.  It's not a situation that a warehouse full of MREs and guns and generators is going to resolve- you need a boat.

(Now I am imagining myself building a boat to flee the island in. Every time it's almost done, my wife will come outside and tell me that it now needs to be big enough to fit six extra dogs, the entire chicken coop, her friend's pet rhinoceros...)


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## georgepds (Jan 14, 2018)

peakbagger said:


> I used to on occasion see the Preppers show on cable, it was so sad to see these folks who were living right on the edge of poverty wasting money prepping for low likelihood events in hopes that their miserable lives would change for the better when the world changed. It would be interesting to see a follow up show on where the folks are a few years after the original show. I expect more than few divorces and bankruptcys along with government assistance.




Here is what happened with one guy


*A survivalist filled his massive basement with food — then decided Puerto Ricans needed it more*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ricans-needed-it-more/?utm_term=.7ef93f54ea0e


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## georgepds (Jan 14, 2018)

jetsam said:


> I ....
> 
> (Now I am imagining myself building a boat to flee the island in. Every time it's almost done, my wife will come outside and tell me that it now needs to be big enough to fit six extra dogs, the entire chicken coop, her friend's pet rhinoceros...)




Be careful... I hear thats what happened to Noah


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## Jeremy8916 (Jan 14, 2018)

I've got 2 woodstove inserts, natural gas furnace and a 12kw natural gas standby generator. I can run everything in the house if I am careful (don't run the dryer, stove, and cooktop at the same time). If i lost gas, my generator has a switch on it to flip to propane, so worst case i could figure something out. Well isn't that deep and is a 120v pump

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk


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## jetsam (Jan 14, 2018)

georgepds said:


> Be careful... I hear thats what happened to Noah



"....and then I figured she'd do it again, so I built the next boat with room for all that plus two extra sheep or llamas or whatever... and as soon as the boat is half done, she shows up needing room for giraffes. GIRAFFES. Where did she even get giraffes? ..."


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## CaptSpiff (Jan 14, 2018)

Jeremy8916 said:


> I've got 2 woodstove inserts, natural gas furnace and a 12kw natural gas standby generator. I can run everything in the house if I am careful (don't run the dryer, stove, and cooktop at the same time). If i lost gas, my generator has a switch on it to flip to propane, so worst case i could figure something out. Well isn't that deep and is a 120v pump



You have NG, and your dryer, stove and cooktop are electric? wow, your electric rates must be really cheap. (don't mean to be cheeky, just amazed)


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## Jeremy8916 (Jan 15, 2018)

CaptSpiff said:


> You have NG, and your dryer, stove and cooktop are electric? wow, your electric rates must be really cheap. (don't mean to be cheeky, just amazed)


No, they aren't. $0.20/kwh on average. We have time of use billing, so I do everything when it's cheaper. I haven't even lived here a year yet, and theres a kitchen reno on the way. I'll replace a bunch of appliances then. A 30x40 garage is on the way this year with in floor heat so I'm planning to take a zone off the boiler to heat the hot water tank. I'm not a huge fan of the ventilation requirements of gas appliances though, so i doubt I'll do a gas dryer. I'm thinking condensing if I can find one. I find myself cooking on the woodstove a lot anyway in the winter, and I use the bbq in the summer.

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk


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## sportbikerider78 (Jan 15, 2018)

I keep canned food.  I keep a freezer of food.  My little inverter will keep the lights on and fridge cold...and let me make coffee.    I have 2 cars in the garage I can get gas out of if I need more than the 5-10 gallons that are handy.  But if the power is out for more than 5 days, there is something seriously up and I will have bigger problems than keeping milk cold.

If it is summer and the power is out...I'm heading out of town to the summer place after a day or two.  Winter, I'll sit tight and make sure the house is ok.


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## CaptSpiff (Jan 15, 2018)

Several have mentioned the "gas in the tank" as available for portable generator use, but I have been unsuccessful in siphoning from my cars in the last dozen years. Seems to me they (manufacturers) have become quite effective at obstructing my ability to get a hose down the fill neck. Anyone else notice this?


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## Ashful (Jan 15, 2018)

CaptSpiff said:


> Several have mentioned the "gas in the tank" as available for portable generator use, but I have been unsuccessful in siphoning from my cars in the last dozen years. Seems to me they (manufacturers) have become quite effective at obstructing my ability to get a hose down the fill neck. Anyone else notice this?



Interesting.  I’ve siphoned cars before, but it’s been many years, so always older vehicles.


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## fbelec (Jan 16, 2018)

noticed it also. i think the car manuf have two ref books. one for normal everyday mech. and one for anything to make it hard for the backyard mech to do anything. and we know which one they prefer. back onto the gas in cars tanks because i don't like to taste gas for two days i bought a tool designed for removing gas from tanks. i can't remember the name of the company but airtex comes to mind it's a long one inch clear hose with a valve at the end of the part that goes into the tank. one is supposed to push in and pull out a number of time to pull out the gas. doesn't work well. my latest is trying to remove the gas in the snowblower to change the disc drive in and out of tank to many times to pull gas out and into the 4 gals i bought. doing so with the hose into the plastic tank was chipping away at the plastic tank so that i made 4 gals of gas with plastic in it. and a carb full of or shall i say over full of gas and plastic.
i guess it's better to suck


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## peakbagger (Jan 16, 2018)

I remember while in high school living through the summer of the arab oil embargo. Cars were a lot easier to siphon as they didnt have evaporative  emissions control systems and the tanks were generally located close to the filler. I expect a few folks made a lot of money selling antisphoning devices as it wasnt unusual for folks to be out working parking lots ripping off fuel. The devices usually were a conical spring with larger OD than the filler tube. They would be "screwed" in down the filler tube and once in they were difficult to remove.  The car could be filed form a gas pump but the spring coils would block the siphon tube from being slipped in.

Subsequent safety standards usually meant relocating the tanks far away from the back bumper and down low between the wheel wells to reduce the chance of rupture. The combination of the two made siphoning gas far more difficult to siphon. Truckers still use the siphon rig with the check valve on the end as the tanks are lot more accessible. It works pretty well.


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## maple1 (Jan 16, 2018)

We can heat the place without electricity. Have to keep an eye on the fire, but that gives me something to do.

Usually enough water on hand to get by a day or two without having to start the pump. Have a couple UPSs that we can charge devices with. BBQ on the deck with a couple spare tanks - I can roll it inside to use the side burner if it's nasty out, gotta have coffee. A side burner on a BBQ is a very good thing to have for outages.

I have a 3000w inverter genny that gets pulled out if it's more than a day or so. Runs everything we need, including the pump, while burning very little gas - a couple jugs should last us a week easily. IMO large gennies are kind of a waste and in some cases a handicap depending on the fuel situation, when you consider fuel burned vs. KW needed.


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## blades (Jan 16, 2018)

Might want research "Tommy Pump" that was the original name - it is a tank with a manual vacuum pump attached. you close off the suction tube and manually pump a vacuum in the tank insert hose into liquid to be moved and release valve, vacuum previously pumped does the rest. These were originally made for petroleum products came with an adapert for hose size so you could go down the dip stick tube of an engine for either oil or tranny fluid removal as well as gas. tubing easily replaced a local hardware store cause you know the ethanol will raise h... with vynil/plastic tubes eventually.
Had mine for some 30 years now every so often it comes in real handy.


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## sportbikerider78 (Jan 17, 2018)

CaptSpiff said:


> Several have mentioned the "gas in the tank" as available for portable generator use, but I have been unsuccessful in siphoning from my cars in the last dozen years. Seems to me they (manufacturers) have become quite effective at obstructing my ability to get a hose down the fill neck. Anyone else notice this?


Dude...I'm an engineer...hold my beer and watch this!


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## CaptSpiff (Jan 17, 2018)

sportbikerider78 said:


> Dude...I'm an engineer...hold my beer and watch this!



Hey,... is this you????


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## jeanw (Jan 17, 2018)

y'all guys are so confident.....Listen to Republic Broadcasting network. org... How long y'all think y'all stash will last?  every word we type or say is monitored. Soon the thoughts we hold will be transparent and we will all be divide 
all it take is a solar strong flare... or an EMP  strike
YOU RE  can be  sure  IT WONT COME FROM N KOREA. but prob our own Government or such posing as such. I guess y'all also know how they want to off most of us first.. then will ban all gas appliances, crowd us into cities, impose the death panel. restrict our travel and even water usage. I guess y'all havent examined any who have utility bills how they mention "carbon
 credits". Yeah y'all know the CAPTINS AND KINGS who run this planet...
  I read in the  small local paper that Ky Utilities and LGE are installing more updated smarter meters. Ha. those are the ones that monitor real time usage. Like I heard about and read  about many years  ago.. It not for us, its to MONITOR every single time a fridge is open etc. 
  REREAD  or watch "Solyent Greens "and "1984".  soon they want a cashless society within next two years... Just keep using those debit cards and credit cards and  go thru self scanners at big box stores. keep watching that mind numbing BOOB Tube.. Yeah Im a pessistmist but mostly  a realist.
but I do take one day or week at a time I hope for the best. I just feel sorry for the later generations...nd even the younger present generations
  The local traditional Amish ear the smartest. The ones who are pretty self sufficient. Not the ones who use debit cards, have electricity in their homes. eat processed foods, drink the colas. wow I was flabbergasted when I saw that. LOL
 God Bless y'all all and be good to each other


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## Ashful (Jan 17, 2018)

jeanw said:


> y'all guys are so confident.....Listen to Republic Broadcasting network. org... How long y'all think y'all stash will last?  every word we type or say is monitored. Soon the thoughts we hold will be transparent and we will all be divide
> all it take is a solar strong flare... or an EMP  strike
> YOU RE  can be  sure  IT WONT COME FROM N KOREA. but prob our own Government or such posing as such. I guess y'all also know how they want to off most of us first.. then will ban all gas appliances, crowd us into cities, impose the death panel. restrict our travel and even water usage. I guess y'all havent examined any who have utility bills how they mention "carbon
> credits". Yeah y'all know the CAPTINS AND KINGS who run this planet...
> ...



Okay... will whoever took away Jean’s med’s please return them?

Yes, monitoring of our every keystroke and action is being implemented at a furious pace, but not by some sadistic US government.  It is by capitalists trying to compete and extract every last penny from their customer, in an ever-increasing competitive world market.


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## sportbikerider78 (Jan 17, 2018)

Ashful said:


> Okay... will whoever took away Jean’s med’s please return them?
> 
> Yes, monitoring of our every keystroke and action is being implemented at a furious pace, but not by some sadistic US government.  It is by capitalists trying to compete and extract every last penny from their customer, in an ever-increasing competitive world market.


Actually, it is by the government.  The NSA/CIA has been recording all kinds of stuff including private cell phone conversations without warrants for some time.  This was a big part of what Snowden uncovered..a big part of the Patriot Act..and is still a big issue with FISA.
This isn't pie in the sky conspiracy theories..this is debated in congress and the senate and is happening openly right now.


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## Ashful (Jan 17, 2018)

sportbikerider78 said:


> Actually, it is by the government... This isn't pie in the sky conspiracy theories..this is debated in congress and the senate and is happening openly right now.



Really?  This isn’t conspiracy theory?  Really???



jeanw said:


> they want to off most of us first.. then will ban all gas appliances, crowd us into cities, impose the death panel. restrict our travel and even water usage.



I bequeath unto you, one tinfoil hat.


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## semipro (Jan 17, 2018)

I think summer is maybe a worse time to lose power.
We were without power for 8 days in mid-summer.  We had to keep the fridge on a generator because of the heat.  Our generator wasn't big enough to run the central HVAC so we opened the windows and ran our fans for cooling.
Unfortunately, open windows don't mix well with a loud and stinky generator.  That made for some long nights.
This event convinced me to get a smaller, quieter, more efficient generator for base loads.
The event also convinced me to work towards solar PV with backup for future events.


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## sportbikerider78 (Jan 17, 2018)

Ashful said:


> Really?  This isn’t conspiracy theory?  Really???



Really..where have you been for 10 years not to know this? Lol

Rand Paul (senator KY) is fighting the legislation right now.


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## Ashful (Jan 17, 2018)

sportbikerider78 said:


> Really..where have you been for 10 years not to know this? Lol
> 
> Rand Paul (senator KY) is fighting the legislation right now.


Yes, I'm aware of that.  But that is not the part of Jean's post to which I was referring.  Sorry I wasn't clear on that.  Once again:


jeanw said:


> they want to off most of us first.. then will ban all gas appliances, crowd us into cities, impose the death panel. restrict our travel and even water usage.


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## velvetfoot (Jan 17, 2018)

When we know a storm is coming, we fill up the bathtubs.  It'd be good to check the water tightness of the plugs ahead of time.

We also have a doo dad that warbles when the power comes back while running on generator.

We have an Aladdin Lamp that uses a mantle and runs unpressurized on lamp oil.  Even though it's bright, I still kind of like the ordinary wick lamps, which we have several.

I have a sort of collection of 2 d-cell led mag lite flashlights.  The batteries don't seem to leak after storing for years in the flashlights.

I also have several led head lamps.  Also good for snow blowing or taking out the garbage in the dark.


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## firefighterjake (Jan 18, 2018)

velvetfoot said:


> When we know a storm is coming, we fill up the bathtubs.  It'd be good to check the water tightness of the plugs ahead of time.
> 
> We also have a doo dad that warbles when the power comes back while running on generator.
> 
> ...



On behalf of folks still grounded in reality, thank you for putting this thread back on track.


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## velvetfoot (Jan 18, 2018)

firefighterjake said:


> On behalf of folks still grounded in reality, thank you for putting this thread back on track.


Did I mention we have plenty of guns in case of zombie attack?


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## firefighterjake (Jan 18, 2018)

velvetfoot said:


> Did I mention we have plenty of guns in case of zombie attack?



Well of course . . . but as we all know the zombie apocalypse will occur from the government spreading the mind control spray. I see it every day when I look up in the sky and see it streaming out from behind the jets.


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## fbelec (Jan 19, 2018)

you guys are funny. velvetfoot what brand batteries do you use that don't leak?


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## jeanw (Feb 9, 2018)

fbelec said:


> you guys are funny. velvetfoot what brand batteries do you use that don't leak?


    just heard Debbie Tavares tonite again on "ground zero with Clyde Lewis" y'all just don't want to believe reality 
and remember People will accept most anything if done incrementally Reread "1984" or listen to the library CD....
   ill take that tinfoil hat.. nite all


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## Raithi (Feb 9, 2018)

I've always wanted to build a downdraft gasifier to run a gen on wood gas. Not so much because Im a doomsday nutjob, but rather a cheap bastard. It would give me something to do with my treetops. Maybe a summer time welding project for me this year.

Currently though I just run a 3kw inverter hooked up to my old 1710 tractor. I normally always have 50 - 100 gallons of diesel on hand so thats not really a problem for me. Drilled and hand dug wells on my property.


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## semipro (Feb 9, 2018)

Raithi said:


> I've always wanted to build a downdraft gasifier to run a gen on wood gas. Not so much because Im a doomsday nutjob, but rather a cheap bastard. It would give me something to do with my treetops.


Similarly, I've always wanted to be able to make pellets from my tops using my tractor...and for the same reason.


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## sportbikerider78 (Feb 10, 2018)

firefighterjake said:


> Well of course . . . but as we all know the zombie apocalypse will occur from the government spreading the mind control spray. I see it every day when I look up in the sky and see it streaming out from behind the jets.


Thats me...just using the lavatory after Wednesday night dollar tacos.


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Feb 10, 2018)

sportbikerider78 said:


> Thats me...just using the lavatory after Wednesday night dollar tacos.


Well, $ tacos definitely sound good...


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## blades (Feb 10, 2018)

Not bad at the time of ingestion- but  putting the tile back on the wall the next day is an exercise in futility.


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## woodgeek (Feb 25, 2018)

Sounds like the OP is all set.

The cheapest upgrade would be a $109 HarborFright genny:

https://www.harborfreight.com/engin...63cc-2-cycle-gas-generator-epacarb-63025.html

With one 5 gallon gerry can, some 'stabil', extra spark plugs. oil, and extension cords he'd be out ~$200. 

This set up would run the fridge, the wifi and a few LED lights for 2-4 _days_ on 5 gallons. Or a sump pump or small AC in a pinch.

Ask me how I know.  

I find the gas with stabil keeps for years no problem.  And there is no shutdown hassle with the genny....just turn the stopcock so it runs out the carb before you stick it in the garage....its will start right up next year.


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## georgepds (Feb 25, 2018)

greg13 said:


> MOVE!! I don't like crowds, but I do enjoy creature comforts.




 Well.. it does have its good points.. mostly.. kayaking, seals, ospreys , eagles,the winter snowy owls, the autumn cormarants all in a line on a wire, the beach,the summer women in thongs... you know, all in the world that delight the eye


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## Ashful (Mar 2, 2018)

I was thinking about this thread today.  Started snowing early in the day, and it was much heavier than any forecast had predicted.  After school programs were canceled, so I ran out from work to pick up my son, and came upon a 4-vehicle accident on my way.  Three pickup trucks and an SUV, all off the road.  I towed the first one back onto the road, and he was in the process of pulling the second out of the ditch as I left them.  Got the kid, and headed back to work.  Another two cars off the road, on the way back, and it’s only two miles away!

Gathered my stuff at work, and headed for home.  The ten minute drive took almost an hour.  Saw a tri-axle PennDOT plow truck off the road and rolled onto its side, an abandoned minivan, a school bus in someone’s front yard (full of kids), and at least a dozen cars off the road.  Several roads I tried to take were blocked by downed trees or telephone poles.

Eventually made it to my neighborhood, where one big tree was across the road, wiping out the power lines.  On the adjacent road, there was a car pancaked by a tree, firefighters trying to cut the guy out of it, and a fire truck off the road into the ditch.

We’ve been without power since 1:30pm.  Latest estimate is that it will be restored by 11:30pm tomorrow.  Enter the dual Blaze King Ashfords, and my Honda generator.  I had 7 gallons in gas cans, which will get me thru this evening.  Tomorrow I can siphon 7 gallons from my mower, or head out to the gas station. 

I’m right on the edge of the snow line, about 1/2 mile away, they got just a dusting.  We got 8 inches of wet crap heavier than concrete, and 60 mph winds, which is a lethal combination for trees and power poles.

I did get some chainsaw time in, as it was getting dark.  I lost one large silver maple, and had a huge branch fall off another and pancake some of my hemlocks.  That’s been cut free, saving the hemlocks.


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## woodgeek (Mar 2, 2018)

Yup.  Its been a chitshow here.  Not so bad in the city (work) but a mess in the burbs (home).  Saw a couple transformers explode during my extended commute.

But this time I still have power.  I was out for 6 hours last week when it was sunny, calm and 70°F (car hit a pole).


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## fbelec (Mar 2, 2018)

last i checked a hour ago mass had 500.000 with out power and coast towns had 100 % town outage and all roads blocked. all of the cape had over 90 mile a hour winds. next couple of day or weeks will be a wood scavenger free for all


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