JavaScript is disabled
Our website requires JavaScript to function properly. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings before proceeding.
Just had a power outage for several hours. Broke out my solar generator. Charged up my smartphone and a few laptops before the power came back on. I also replaced the battery pack that I bought for an APC UPS back in 2014. and the UPS stayed up for the entire time to keep the cable modem and router on.. Before I replaced the UPS battery it would keep the cable modem and router on lfor 20 minutes before the battery would go dead.
 
Kind of have my eye on these. Costco has them on sale for $400.

Just be sure it has a LiFePO4 in it. I know Oupes and BLUETTI have LiFePO4 batteries in them. Not sure if the Jackery has a LiFePO4 and I was looking at Amazon,com for some information but could not find LiFePO4 battery so I bought an Oupes one. I have had some Duracell alkaline batteries leak inside something and the batteries were not past their expire date. so I am not sure I trust the Duracell name anymore.
 
I have frequent power outages - had one already a few weeks ago - only lasted about 4 hours, but sometimes they last a 2-3 days.

But I am thinking about a strategy for dealing with an outage that lasts weeks to months - e.g., Cascadian Subduction Zone earthquake.

I have two inverter gensets, one is a 3.5kW transportable, the other is a 2kW portable. The larger one is for the house, the smaller is for the shop.

Neither one will run my well pump, and even if they could they can't as the pump is hooked up at the meter, not the house - so that is an issue - if I were to stay here (I don't plan to - I plan to sell next year), I would address that issue ($$$$ to fix it).
I wouldn't put money into putting the well on a generator if you are going to sell. You would never get the money you put into the project back in the value of the house when you sell it. If the buyer thinks it is important and wants to do the project they can do it.
Well pump issue aside, I also have two battery power stations (256Wh & 512Wh), 6 solar panels (100W each), a 1500VA UPS and a 55 gal drum of gasoline in the shop. During the winter, I doubt I will get much solar power - maybe 10-20% of the rated power from the panels (need to test this).
With Stabil I can store gasoline (in a gas can) over the winter but I wouldn't ant to for much longer. Generators usually strongly recommend ethanol free gasoline. Around here Ethanol free gasoline is going for about $6 a gallon.
What I am thinking is run the gensets for an hour or two each day to charge the power stations & UPS, the fridge in the house, the freezer in the shop, my laptop and phone and emergency lighting.

Use the laptop & Starlink about one hour per day. Laptop runs for 6-8 hours per charge, Starlink consumes 30-80 watts (varies a lot) so it can run off either power station and boots up in less than 5 minutes. I can SMS text and use FB msg and email from phone or laptop, get the latest news/etc. a couple of times per day this way without running the gensets all the time.

My best power station - an EcoFlow, charges on solar/car or AC. On AC it will charge at 600 watts and that takes about one hour to charge it up full.
Over here in Central Oregon I just had a 2 day outage last week. The longest outage I have had here was just under 2 weeks. I usually go stay with friends. Not having power sucks but is livable. Not having water for 2 weeks doesn't work.

I have been watching generators for several years, specifically invertor generators for their efficiency. This year is the first year that I have found an invertor generator in the $1000 range with a 240v capability. I would have purchased one from Costco if they hadn't gone out of stock the day after I got the sales flyer.

One of my requirements for a generator is multifuel. I don't have natural gas so gasoline powered and propane powered is what I have identified as what would be best for me. If I had natural gas I would definitely get a generator that was capable of running on natural gas. I think of natural gas as a separate backup network that is mostly isolated from the electrical power network which makes it a great option if it is available.

I helped my brother in law spec out a generator for his needs. They live in the not so great state of California so rolling blackout are a given during the summers. We chose a Firman 3300 watt inverter generator which has worked great for them for the past couple of years. The generator has several hours on it but it has never seen a drop of gasoline. He has a couple of medium sized but still transportable propane tanks for the generator. They are still on the first tank of propane and get much longer run time that he expected. Their refrigerator and freezer where two of their top priorities. Neither of them pull cooling power 24hrs a day. Rather they come on when cooling is needed and shut off when to the set temperature.

If my need for a generator was primarily driven by SHTF long term survival mode I might be a little worried about the invertor part of the invertor generator. Electronics always seem to have a way of failing when needed most. A non-inverter direct generator can be built and historically have been built with minimal if any electronics. That leaves the motor and the generator head which I can work on myself. I wouldn't want to have to try to fix and inverter generator in an emergency situation. --just something to consider for your plans.

If you really want to maximize your generator efficiency you might want to look at skipping the generator all together. Running a DC generator head through an inverter to 120v AC then through a transformer/rectifier back to DC is inefficient. If you can skip the whole inverter and transformer/rectifier steps you will get longer run times out of your fuel whether it be gasoline, propane or the sun. Most of the solar battery packs I have seen have direct DC output skipping the AC steps in the power. --Your Eocoflow probably already does this.

I have another consideration when selecting a generator, I work from home so I have to have Internet and power to make a living. I am currently at the mercy of the phone or cable company and have considered starlink but the last time I checked the price was many times what I am paying now. My worst case scenario for an extended outage is drive to a city with power and stay in a motel room.

As you can surmise I am not a hardcore prepper so my needs and equipment will differ considerably from yours. I have emergency food and 10 x 5 gallon jugs of water but that will only last a couple weeks which fills my comfort lever for prepping.
 
I wouldn't put money into putting the well on a generator if you are going to sell. You would never get the money you put into the project back in the value of the house when you sell it. If the buyer thinks it is important and wants to do the project they can do it.
I don't intend to for that very reason.

One of my requirements for a generator is multifuel. I don't have natural gas so gasoline powered and propane powered is what I have identified as what would be best for me. If I had natural gas I would definitely get a generator that was capable of running on natural gas. I think of natural gas as a separate backup network that is mostly isolated from the electrical power network which makes it a great option if it is available.
Trifuel gensets are available, but propane power output is downrated and NG even more so. One of my gensets is dual fuel, the other is not. I have no problem with gas storage, but I do have three 20# propane canisters I keep full. I don't have NG here and probably never will anywhere I will live. But the kids have it.

I have another consideration when selecting a generator, I work from home so I have to have Internet and power to make a living. I am currently at the mercy of the phone or cable company and have considered starlink but the last time I checked the price was many times what I am paying now. My worst case scenario for an extended outage is drive to a city with power and stay in a motel room.
Starlink is a lot more dependable than cable in my experience, and about as reliable as fiber - maybe. My kids have had two outages with their fiber in the last couple of months where they had to have the fiber provider (XFinity?) come out and fix it. My SL two outages self-resolved within an hour or less. Early on my system had some issues that resolved by rebooting it, but since then no issues on my end as long as I had power. Last week it did spontaneously reboot - not sure why; when it does that it is usually due to a firmware update, but that did not change. It only takes about 3-4 minutes for it to reboot.

So far I am very happy with it. Fortunately I am retired so short interruptions are merely a slight inconvenience for me, and even if I were working, what I have seen so far is better than what I had at the corporate office of Daimler downtown Portland which had network outages about every other week or at least once a month, that often made access sporadic for several hours.

The big thing I like about Starlink is that if the power goes out, even a widespread outage (say the whole PNW), I am assuming the Starlink system will still work fine as the satellites can (and from what I have read, do) use their lasers for talking to another satellite that can see a base station that works.

Speed is highly variable though, but there is usually enough bandwidth to where I don't notice a slowdown except in the evenings - especially weekends. I don't need much more than about 50 mbps for my use cases, and most of the time the speed is at least 80-100 mbps.

I think next year when they put up the larger V2 satellites things will get better. I look forward to having cell coverage most anywhere too.
 

Upcoming Events

Tillamook Gun & Knife Show
Tillamook, OR
"The Original" Kalispell Gun Show
Kalispell, MT
Kids Firearm Safety 2 Class
Springfield, OR
Teen Rifle 1 Class
Springfield, OR

New Resource Reviews

New Classified Ads

Back Top