Generators.

The Hopkinton club was evaluated for a cell tower (dang, we did not get it - a business down the street had a better location and gets the rent). Part of the presentation from the cell phone cite selection agent was about the facility they would build to support the tower - temporary road to the building (gravel, not pavement) and we were told the backup power was propane or natural gas, so there was no risk of a hazmat oil or diesel spill on our property.

I just got this vision or a cell tower collapsing after the legs had been shot to hell. [grin]

Not to mention having to call a cease fire to send the maintenance crew.
 
Typical carriers have 8 hours battery time. I know of none that have much more especially not 48 hours. After 8 hours they all have manual transfer switches and prob 1/2 have gen with propane or diesel. I dont know of many with auto transfer switch which means the tech needs to be able to grt there. The ones that don t have gens subscribe to a contract service that needs to drop one off, but they need to physically get there.

If they can't get there it's down anyway.
 
When someone runs out of gas, siphoning someone else's is not a good option -

I'm guessing he means he will be siphoning from his own vehicles based on this:

OK I will admit you are right, but siphoning is always an option.

If and when the cans get low, I have 5 cars, 2 bikes, and lawn tractors I can siphon from. Even if the vehicles were only half full of fuel there is at least 100 gallons of fuel there.

I don't even own a generator. I have a triple layer sleeping bag that is rated to -60 and enough rations to keep myself and Shiver going for at least two weeks. Electricity is fun, but it is a luxury item; you can survive without it.
 
I'm guessing he means he will be siphoning from his own vehicles based on this:
I am sure he was. But I was responding to him telling others, including the OP, that "Gasoline is easy to find, try finding propane when there is 2 feet of snow on the ground." That one guy keeps a pile of cars around isn't necessarily a strategy for others.
 
I am set for a gasser. Enjoy the gift!

And of you want to run off of 20 lbs prop tanks get one or two of these.

honda.jpg
 
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Ok I'd like to chime in a bit. As this is my Kung foo.
As has been glanced over, the propane and natural gas gen's burn a lot more fuel than you think they will. The downside of diesel or fuel based gen sets is that you will need to treat the fuel.

That being said, when I setup a standby generator for my house. I'll be using a diesel. The efficiency is better, and they tolerate delinquency on maintenance much better. Also, the volatility of the fuel is much lower. (And home heating oil can be used, as it is "off highway")

The generac sets you folks see at Home Depot I'd personally advise against. I work in industrial controls, on the very large scale. And I've seen what generac's controls, and contacters are awful. If you have one of these set ups and are happy with it, more power to you. But their controls won't live ten years. They rely far too much on complicated control systems.

If you would like some advice on how to do it on old school hard wired logic, I'll be more than willing to show you how and show some prints on how we have done it before.
 
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