Emergency Backup Power

[olbriar]

This was the fourth time in 50+ years living at this address that I experienced a lengthy power outage. Each time I vowed that I'd invest in some sort of backup and I'm still not prepared. Yesterday around 1PM we lost power. Our feed is overhead and with the ice and high winds a tree branch down the street brought the line down. There were towns without power so my ten home outage was not a priority. Power was restored at 7AM and the temp in my home only dropped into the low forties overnight. That wouldn't be a huge problem except for my parrot. I had an old LP heater in my work storage that I grabbed yesterday afternoon but I couldn't get it to light. I had no time to diagnose the problem. I borrowed a Mr Heater and kept the bird warm until I ran out of gas at 4AM. I was at Lowes for more LP and another heater at 6. My power was restored at 7. My 21 year old bird buddy's room dropped to 50°. I hope that the power outage and my impromptu alternative heat was sufficient and he doesn't catch cold. Fifty degrees is about the low limit for large parrots.

So much for my recent saga. I now have a backup heater and plan to repair the large heater I fetched from my work shed. I'd love to invest in a whole house generator. They are a serious investment with a crossover and all installed. Maybe just a small generator for some lights and to hotwire the furnace. I can get by without cooking inside or doing laundry. I can live without AC if I lose power in the summer. A few lights, heat, and power for the refrigerator and freezer is all I really need.

Do you have any backup plan or backup in place? Any suggestions of ideas to share?

 

[Unforgiven]

See if an interlock Example is legal in your area. It's simply a steel plate that prevents the generator circuit and your main feed breaker from being turned on at the same time. During my kitchen remodel last year I had that done, as well as the 30A plug for the RV and 30A input for the generator installed and it was pretty short money since the electrician didn't need to rewire a bunch of circuits.

At that point, you can decide what you want to power by turning off breakers. I'm able to run my whole house on an 10000w Peak / 8000w running generator. I went with a Champion Dual Fuel as I wanted to mainly run on propane since a) I have a lot around b) it is easier to get your hands on when the lights are out and everyone is scrambling for gasoline for generators, and c) it doesn't go bad so it is easy to store. I also have the option of running gasoline in a pinch.

It runs all the essentials without a problem. I just have to avoid running the dryer and oven simultaneously. It easily handles my well pump, furnace, and water heater along with the lights and other entertainment (switching all my lights to LED over the years certainly helps with this).

All told, the generator was $1,100 and the electrical work was part of a larger remodel but I doubt it was more than another $1,000.

 

[olbriar]

See if an interlock Example is legal in your area. It's simply a steel plate that prevents the generator circuit and your main feed breaker from being turned on at the same time. During my kitchen remodel last year I had that done, as well as the 30A plug for the RV and 30A input for the generator installed and it was pretty short money since the electrician didn't need to rewire a bunch of circuits.

At that point, you can decide what you want to power by turning off breakers. I'm able to run my whole house on an 10000w Peak / 8000w running generator. I went with a Champion Dual Fuel as I wanted to mainly run on propane since a) I have a lot around b) it is easier to get your hands on when the lights are out and everyone is scrambling for gasoline for generators, and c) it doesn't go bad so it is easy to store. I also have the option of running gasoline in a pinch.

It runs all the essentials without a problem. I just have to avoid running the dryer and oven simultaneously. It easily handles my well pump, furnace, and water heater along with the lights and other entertainment (switching all my lights to LED over the years certainly helps with this).

All told, the generator was $1,100 and the electrical work was part of a larger remodel but I doubt it was more than another $1,000.

My electrical guru buddy advocated making such a metal plate and a disconnect. I'm thinking it's not likely legal here or he thought an auto disconnect a waste of money. Either way, I don't need an auto switch to take my home off of the grid. I won't be having a generator wired in at the ready. I'll likely jake leg a connection point to a breaker that can't be on without the main being off. Propane will be my choice of fuel for the fact it stores indefinitely. I like the idea of duel fuel however. Backup with a backup has merit. I like your plan and good on your for covering those bases while doing your remodel. Thanks for the info!!

 

[Unforgiven]

The auto-disconnect is for when you have a fixed generator that automatically kicks on when the power goes out. I have a portable generator and have to manually set it up, connect it to the house, and flip the breakers to get it running, and reverse the steps to go back to grid power.

The wiring can be very expensive for automatic stitching, or even manual switching when you don't light up the whole panel, as each circuit that you want live on the generator has to be individually wired out of the main panel to the override panel, then back into the main panel. All that is to prevent feeding a circuit from both sources at once, which is important for what you have on the circuit, and to prevent you from back-feeding onto the street, and electrocuting the line workers trying to fix the problem.

The interlock is more of a manual binary choice of where your whole panel gets power from. It allows it to come in either from the street, or the generator, without having to individually rewire circuits, and in my opinion, is probably safer, though I'd defer to some of the electricians that hang out here on that.

BTW, this is what I have for a generator.

 

[ocnbrze]

what kind of parrot do you have?

i just bought this for myself for xmas:

Jackery Solar Generator 300 Plus

The cutest and most portable solar generator on the market. Weighing in at only 11 lbs, the Jackery Solar Generator 300 Plus boasts a large 288Wh capacity and strong 300W output. With iPad-sized panels and a power station that fits your backpack, you'll have infinite power for all your outdoor...

www.jackery.com

its to be used on my fish tanks, if i loose power.

 

[olbriar]

what kind of parrot do you have?

His name is Basil and he is an Eclectus Parrot. We are buds and we talk to each other all the time. I can't imagine losing him. He should outlive me by decades. He will migrate to my son's when I'm gone and his oldest daughter when my son is gone.

 

[ocnbrze]

i love parrots. i used to work at a pet store i hand raised a baby macaw. he had to be hand fed, he was that young. he finely went to seed in just a few months. i had that bird at that shop for a few years until he finally got a permanent home. ever since then, i have a love of parrots. in certain areas of LA we have huge flocks of wild parrots. one of my clients has worked hard to keep these wild birds protected. there is a huge flock that lives near her house. it gets so loud when they either fly overhead or are perched together. it feels like i'm in the movie "the Birds".

my only parrot i owned was a red belied conure. i had to find him a new home when i went to college. the apartment i moved into prevented me from keeping him.

sorry to have derailed your thread, but i had to know......LOL

anyways i have used the jackery for my work as well. i do not know how much heat you need and the power it would be required to use so i do not know if this jackery would work for you. they do make other more powerful options though. the solar panels is what i was mainly looking for and it really works great.....they are not cheap though.

 

[olbriar]

No problem asking about Basil. I love talking about him. I've shared my life with birds all of my life. Mostly I kept Parakeets. I kept a Cockatiel for a few months for a friend and then had to have one. One turned into two over the years and then Basil came into my life. He was just a kiddo when we hooked up. He's in his early twenties now.

Ideal power supply / generator would have enough output to run my forced air gas furnace, my fridge and freezer, a few lights, and some charging ports for devices. Not a great demand requirement at all. I've not calculated total amps pulled if everything was running at once but it would take a smaller generator than that shared by Unforgiven. Something in that range would be ideal.

 

[olbriar]

I've been searching my local options for wicks, fuel, or new oil lamps (chamber or hurricane lamps) since my last power outage. I have three antique lamps but only one that is still functional. The decent lighting option is all but abandoned these days. Less than two decades ago I put the lights into working order by buying fuel locally.
Since then I'm running out of wicks on two of my three lamps and I'm out of fuel. Shopping locally has been a bad joke. It seems that I'm the last old fart that have and use these old lamps. New lamps can be ordered but they are mostly decorative and all are miniatures of the real lamps. They use a much narrower wick and I'm certain produce a lot less light.

Amazon to the rescue... After considerable time searching, I was able to find 3/4" wide wicks. My lamps have 7/8" wicks. At least I'm not forced to buy 3/8" or 1/2" wicks. There were a number of new lamp options but all were around a foot tall vs the 16 to 20 inch lamps I posses. The days of real lamps are gone it seems. Fuel was no problem. I could buy it half local to me but I ordered it as well. I should have my lamps back in working order soon.

 

[olbriar]

The fuel and wicks were on my porch this morning. If I was in a hurry they would have been delivered at the end of next week. I put the two lamps back into working order. One of the two has its own set of being worn out problems. It will be a spare and will be pressed into service only when needed. I want to buy some more fuel which can be had if I drive into Wichita. I likely have a life time supply in the lamps but a spare jug is a good idea.

 

[olbriar]

I didn't need any emergency heat today but my power was off for a few hours. We were warned in advance for the planned outage. It seems when my neighbor's tree wiped out our power in early January, it also damaged the power pole it was mounted to. The crew replacing the pole said the pole was installed in 1948.