What have you done recently to prepare? Please include How-To's also

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Cut and split a dead oak on the edge of my land on Sat... Was able to put back most of what I burnt this month.
 
Reorganized my car bag to group items by purpose: fire/light/signaling, water/food, clothing, etc. Also made sure that winter stuff is in there. Recharged my portable jumpstart battery I keep in the trunk.
 
xtry51 said:
You should buy one. I'm probably going to buy two more at some point.
Click to expand...


I couldn't do it. Too much (for me) on the credit card right now. Also, I'm buying a large (7,500 watt) generator after Christmas so I'm saving for that. However, I do plan on picking up a small generator like this to power only my furnace during an outage.
 
How about this: you want to actually carry a gen with you on an outing. This thing is tiny and light. It's about the size of a case of bottle beer and I think actually lighter. I'll be bringing it to the next NES shoot.
 
Today I am prepping by seeing how things go in an actual power outage. 7.5 hours so far, and no sign of anyone fixing anything.

The first thing I did was turn the bypass valves on the radon removal machine because it has a useless 1 gallon pressure tank. That way I am using the 36 gallon main pressure tank without this radon contraption in the way. So I at least have water for a while if I am careful. Someday, I need to get that interlock installed and a larger generator so I can power the well pump and boiler for short periods of time.

Next, snow blowing. That thing is hard to start without using the electric starter, but I managed.

Next, I set up the generator. The Honda eu2000i has the pellet stove, refrigerator, lamp and device chargers going just fine. I ran a cord under the window, using a towel to block the gap. Extension cords are all over the floor. The generator is on the covered porch but snow still lands on it. I really need to make that generator shed I keep postponing. For now, a fold up table is over it. I tried connecting power to the cable modem, just out of curiosity. It is down. I am using a tablet with mobile broadband.

Next, eat. The stove is electric so I used a camping stove to boil water and eat mountain house food. I opened the garage door and did it in the garage. No thanks I'm not cooking under the heavy snow. Screw the code violations, I'm plenty safe. The stove, which is a new one (Camp Chef), worked great. But the flame is wider than my little camping pots that I usually take camping with a hikers stove. I should look into wider pots. Also I somehow seem to be low on LP, time for a refill this week. I should have a few hours of cooking time remaining.

Next, I chained the generator to the house. And, I am, getting a bit bored. I'll go read the kindle or something.
 
Good point about propane. I have two 20# tanks for my grill. One is empty and the second is less than full. I'll take care of that next week. Yeah, I can use camp stoves or even my natural gas range but a gas grill gives me a second easy alternative to the kitchen.


This message brought to you by the letter T and the number 9.
 
I actually pulled my camp chef and griddle in yesterday before it started snowing. I could cook on them in the garage but I may just eat cold sandwiches or use the toaster oven. I was a bit out of the lineup yesterday due to a tension headache/back spasm so I wasn't able to get as much done as I wanted to. (And yes those chores have been on the 'list' for at least 6 weeks.)

Husband and son got generator running this morning. Too bad cable is out. No football for me today I guess.

Maybe I will start a fire later


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This Camp Chef is way better than my electric stove. Water boils very fast. The power is on after 25 hours but maybe I should keep using this camp stove since it works so well.
 
Installed a natural gas conversion kit on my Honda generator. Had to cut and re-weld the frame to make it fit.
 
So I noticed that even though we have a 8KW generator plugged into a transfer switch with just a few circuits (mostly lights) our furnace had trouble keeping up with keeping the house heated. The refrigerators were also not drawing enough power as indicated by the bulbs being dim? other things I noticed, when the laptop was plugged in, it would run the laptop but VERY SLOWLY charged the battery. Also, cell phones took longer to charge. What could this mean?
 
GM-GUY said:
Could be that you are overloading one 'leg' and leaving the other mostly unused. A clamp on amp meter would confirm this.
Click to expand...

it's all coming off the one large plug into the 'transfer panel' though. could this problem be internal to the panel on the gen or even internal to the panel?
 
How long and heavy is the cord from the gen to the panel? It could be simple voltage drop from the resistance of a long, skinny cord. If you have a volt meter, set it to AC Volts and measure the voltage in the offending outlets. It should be at least 110Volts AC.
 
ToddDubya said:
Good point about propane. I have two 20# tanks for my grill. One is empty and the second is less than full. I'll take care of that next week. Yeah, I can use camp stoves or even my natural gas range but a gas grill gives me a second easy alternative to the kitchen.


This message brought to you by the letter T and the number 9.
Click to expand...

I have like 7 or 8. [smile] Plus a 130 gallon out back, thinking of doubling up on the 130. That would give me at least a months generator power, probably a lot more if I squeeze it.
 
If you want to boil small portion of water NOTHING beats a Jetboil, period. They are worth every penny and the fuel cans last so long it's ridiculous. I highly recommend having a jetboil if you store freeze dried foods.
 

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