Scary Power Outage

[clancey]

What is so thrilling about those cans--can you replace them with a newer variety or is it the vintage aspect of it? clancey

 

[begreen]

They are metal and stout. The plastic ones don't stand up over time. Blitz made them for a while until they started to split at the seams and got sued out of business. I threw out 3 of their plastic cans after only 4 yrs. of use.

 

[tlc1976]

They are metal and stout. The plastic ones don't stand up over time. Blitz made them for a while until they started to split at the seams and got sued out of business. I threw out 3 of their plastic cans after only 4 yrs. of use.

I have blitz plastic gas cans I’ve been using for like 15 years. Never leaked. But I see how they can leak. The relief valves don’t work well and if you got the cap on tight it looks like it could blow the can. So I keep the cap on very loosely. Just enough to keep dirt and critters out.

 

[begreen]

The top seams went out on all three of our Blitz plastic cans. Tossed out about $120 worth of cans. I was mad too because all the replacements had terrible safety spouts which were a pain to use if they didn't fail on you. That's when I started watching out for metal cans.

 

[velvetfoot]

I've got 6 of the Eagle metal cans I got at the local Ace hardware store. I've heard that metal cans can rust on the inside...I don't know. I fill them with ethanol free gas, if that counts for anything.

The yellow No-Spill ones are for the new(ish) tractor which drinks diesel.

The plastic thing on the left is a rain cover for the Predator 3500 generator-I have no idea if it'll work, just something I saw that seemed like a good idea.

Hopefully there's nothing incriminating in the photo. I see a Honda 2000i, my unused farm jack, several years of free blades for the Ariens lawn tractor (they've discontinued that), some brake fluid-I had the hardest time getting the air out of the MINI's brakes, cables for the gennies, the splitter way on the right, etc, etc.

 

[xman23]

The wood stove keeps us toasty. A few LED lanturns. And a 2000 watt generator to run the fridge a few times a day. Our grinder pump is outside. It's big. We could and have gone for days in the dead of winter without power.

 

[clancey]

Your are prepared and that looks like a neat assortment of stuff--all well taken care of too,,,nice...c

 

[WiscWoody]

Yes right, you have a nice collection of fuel cans there Velvetfoot and wow you have a Honda Genny, nice! Or maybe it’s just a Honda cover...? I like the newer Eagle 5 gallon steel cans the best but they are expensive and I think I have enough of those now with the four I have. I do have some older plastic gas cans and they’ve never split on me but I just like the metal ones better. As I’ve said before I mow mostly cabin lawns up here in the summer so between the 20 gallons I store for my little suitcase generator and the mowing I use many cans. Many times I go to a bigger town in the area and their gas is cheaper so I fill up a few 5 gallon cans and bring them home to save a little. There’s a reservation not far from here too and the gas there is always 15 or so cents cheaper there. Now it’s $2.69/G there and I can live with that.

 

[peakbagger]

The best ultra rare gas can was made by a Canadian company years ago called Explosafe, it was well built and had aluminum mesh inside the can that transferred heat quickly. They could be welded on and not explode. They also had a fusible vent plug. Kidde sold them for awhile. They were a great idea but cost too much for consumers. They could be shot and the fuel would leak out but the even if the fuel lit off it would just burn where it was leaking out.

There is very beat up one for sale currently in Ebay that looks like it had a hard life. The same technology was used in Jerry cans in Europe for military use.

 

[WiscWoody]

These Justrite cans are nice but for $80-$90 they are out of my league. Amazon had the 5 gallon Eagles on sale last year for $27 each shipped and I got a couple of them then and I just got another one at Menards for $42 minus the 11% merchandise credit they have going and I get 2% more for paying my charge card bill in full every month even though the Menards one can be a doozy sometimes lol.

 

[begreen]

That was a great price. Wish I had caught that Amazon sale.

 

[begreen]

And on cue, we have a power outage. Estimated time 8.5 hrs. Unfortunately, this overlaps dinner so the generator has been started and we are running on propane.

 

[clancey]

Why the power outage and do you know why? Curious here and good thing you have good back up as far as fuel is concerned..clancey

 

[begreen]

High winds brought down a tree on a power distribution line. Took out the pole and a transformer too. Nothing scary, just a random rural power outage.

 

[johneh]

High winds brought down a tree on a power distribution line. Took out the pole and a transformer too. Nothing scary, just a random rural power outage.

Just another normal Sunday

 

[clancey]

Last night we had such high winds and a real weird looking cloud and real dark sky (no rain) and I thought that we were going to have a major hail event but it was just the winds and scary too..I had to open up my wooden fence gates because the wind blew them open and I look at the stove pipe and it was holding strong--Yes...so I feel for you and hope everything calms down--scary..clancey

 

[WiscWoody]

It’s good to have backup power for those occasions when something happens. It’s hot today and the winds are gusting to 35 mph today but no outages yet.

 

[OldJotul]

Generators. You need to keep the fridge cold and water flowing too.

Not necessarily! Propane gas stove here and wood stove, kept me up and running
I buried my fresh and frozen food in insulated bags in the snow. When the power came back i simply dug them up and put them back! No water is easily managed by filling tubs up with water if you have some notice that bad weather is approaching. If not you can always melt snow for water for flushing etc. And bonus my cell phone battery was nearly dead so no internet for 4 days was a blessing!

 

[Highbeam]

Not necessarily! Propane gas stove here and wood stove, kept me up and running
I buried my fresh and frozen food in insulated bags in the snow. When the power came back i simply dug them up and put them back! No water is easily managed by filling tubs up with water if you have some notice that bad weather is approaching. If not you can always melt snow for water for flushing etc. And bonus my cell phone battery was nearly dead so no internet for 4 days was a blessing!

Of course. I mean, I can live in a van down by the river if push comes to shove and I have enough cans of chili!

 

[kennyp2339]

Of course. I mean, I can live in a van down by the river if push comes to shove and I have enough cans of chili!

I see what you did there, excellent

 

[Montanalocal]

I put together a very simple and inexpensive solar energy system just for battery charging. I have a whole-house generator for power outages, but I thought a low power system for recharging all my rechargeable batteries would be worth it to not run the generator so much.

I started with a very simple 35 watt solar panel that i simply propped up inside a window. The best inside-window panels use amorphous silicon chips. Most of the solar panels come with their own battery charge controllers, which you need. pic. 1

Then I run that into a simple lead acid car battery. I use maintenance-free so I can use it indoors. pic. 2

Then I hook on a small 300 watt Inverter to change from 12 V. DC to 120 V. AC. pic. 3

I run this to a power strip and hook up my battery chargers. They draw very few watts. I have my chargers for my Landworks electric cart for hauling firewood, my snow blower for clearing snow off my stacks, batteries for my electrically heated gloves, and my phone. I have a number of other rechargers I could hook up as well. pic. 4

For 3 or 4 hundred dollars, one could get set up for solar battery recharging, and get a start into learning about solar.

 

[clancey]

Pretty smart and you are talented to do all that---although I bet your better half complains about all those wires...lol just saying...old clancey

 

[velvetfoot]

Something to think about during an extended outage with a standby generator and you're trying to conserve fuel:
The control panel, at least my Generac, consumes energy even just sitting there. Even if you take out the 7.5 amp fuse on top, it still might consume energy-maybe not as much-I don't know. Anyway, keeping the generator's battery topped up might not be a bad application for solar.