We just had a little over 750,000 Georgia Power customers lose power from the remnants of Hurricane Zeta. Some areas were out for 3+ days. My area was out for anywhere from 10 to 36 hours. I am surprised how few homeowners have either a portable gen or whole house gen. I've have three homes with Generac whole house systems running on NG. As advertised, all powered on and cut over within 15-30 seconds of power loss. In fact, had I not been up at 4:00 am, I wouldn't have noticed anything other than the lights flickering for a moment and a couple of UPS systems beeping for a second.

I drove around the neighborhoods to see if any trees were down and it struck me that only 10 homes that I passed had their lights on. Three of my neighbors have portable gens but few others even had portables. Since Atlanta can experience some significant ice storms and extended power outages, I am surprised more folks don't have generators.

Maybe folks are relying on the grid a little too much...

What is your experience in your hood?

Living in Florida, we have a 15kw generac gas powered. No natural gas in my area and propane is not cost effective.

Can you find whole gas (as my neighbor calls it) non-ethanol?

I suspect their availability is pretty limited here. I have a small portable gasoline-powered generator that we can use to power important appliances like fridges/freezers, and if really necessary the A/C or furnace. In the 20 years I have lived in this house, the longest power outage was about 8 hours. We just avoided opening the fridge and freezer and went to bed. It got a bit stuffy, but by morning the power was back on and the generator stayed in storage. Its main use is for the RV when boondocking.

Aside to answer your second post - yes, there is one station that carries higher octane ethanol-free gas. I keep the generator tank full and a couple gas cans ready.

Here in SC we have had numerous power outages from tropical systems and ice storms. Twice in the last five years we have lost power for two weeks. We have NG and a generator is very cost effective. They last far longer than gasoline powered units. I used to live in Florida and had propane that powered my pool heater. It doubled as the fuel source for a generator. Yes, in Florida you need a pool heater. Most homes with pools have screen cages over and around them. this is to shield from insects and to protect against accidental drownings. This greatly reduces solar gain too. I lived near Tampa and had to use heat until July.

WE are off grid and on solar. We have 4 days of power in our battery banks if its cloudy, rainy or snowing.
The genset is tied into the inverter so when a charge is needed half the load goes to the battery banks and the other half powers the house hold.
Our solar system is a 7kw set up and the two battery banks consist of 16 x 6v batteries wired to create 2 each 24v battery banks
coues
ds

Coues, we are 100% solar in Namibia. As we have extended cloudy days, all are set up for external gensets. Our largest systems are 220v 12 kva Victrons with banks of 200 amp hour batteries. But most of the camps use 3-6 kva systems which is enough to run a coupe of refrigerators and freezers.

Our solar power systems are more reliable than the grid power here in Atlanta.

A good generator and installation is pretty expensive. So is solar. There always seems to be other pressing issues to repair before I could even think about a generator and a big LP tank. This summer I had to replace a well pump (and completely modernize the plumbing) and am dealing with vehicle repairs.

I get around the cost by heating with wood. I can cook on the wood stove if needed but always have propane for my grill, which I generally 'live' on. I'm primarily a griller.

For lighting in the evenings I can always bring in the umpteen solar 'path' lights I have scattered around the exterior of the house. There are candles around too. I can charge a phone in one of the cars.

I dehydrate and can enough food that I only need a small chest freezer for my best cuts of grilling meat. If an extended outage occurred in my area I'd turn all that meat into jerky ASAP.

I can heat with wood + the stove is propane as well as 2 lights in the house (1 over the stove + 1 over the head of the stairs). As to your generator, I changed out my carburetor to L.P. Propane doesn't age, gasoline does. L.P. will still function when petrol has "turned to laquer" no matter how much Stay-Bil you add.

My home is 2300 square feet and I installed a 7500 watt generator with a cut off switch so when running it won't feed power into the lines.
Generator was a bit over $1000, the switch and installation was $600. Great backup when the power goes off. Of course, not to run 24-7 but 2-3 hours in the am and again in the pm will keep the fridge and freezer to temp.

I burn wood but have three Toyo oil stoves to back up. Always keep 3 years wood supply in stock. 1-2 years of of food laid away plus medicines, toilitries, etc. Safe deopiost box at the bank as a good supply of cash and precious metals. Guns and ammo well in stock.

I'm ready for Biden & Harris (aka Slow Joe and the Ho).
Cal

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
I can heat with wood + the stove is propane as well as 2 lights in the house (1 over the stove + 1 over the head of the stairs). As to your generator, I changed out my carburetor to L.P. Propane doesn't age, gasoline does. L.P. will still function when petrol has "turned to laquer" no matter how much Stay-Bil you add.

That's a big yep on NG/LP. I have two small Honda EU3000is gas gens. I store 20 gallons of non-ethanol fuel for them. But I refresh the fuel every year. I wouldn't want to store fuel much longer than that - as you said, regardless how much Sta-Bil you add.

If I were to have a gen put in it would be LP. I am too remote for NG. Can't even get DSL out here so I told the local landline phone co to take a hike.

Cal, that's a big house to run. Now I understand why you process so much wood every year.

(aka Slow Joe and the Ho) Sadly, with them we will see fuel prices really increase.

Oh yeah + although this comment should go on the P.F., why bother. That jerk has already stated that he NEEDS to tax social security more + install an additional federal property tax above + beyond your state property tax to the tune of an additional $6Ka year for anyone with a home valued (their evaluation) at $200K + above. Well, I'm screwed there for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by Opus1:
Can you find whole gas (as my neighbor calls it) non-ethanol?

About 2 miles from my house.

You're right Ann. Not just fuel prices but prices on everything. I still have a hard time believing people are that stupid in their support of socialism. It has NEVER worked. As the old adage goes, "The definition of insanity is making the same mistakes over + over expecting different results."