Backup Power for your Home (for the next storm)

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[Post New]02/09/2010 07:52
Anonymous
I've been thinking a lot about setting something like this up, but never got around to it. My deal is, I just don't want to invest the money in a generator (plus have to worry about storing fuel) as we do lose power often but usually not for very long. But I did spend some money on some back up heat (propate heaters) and would like to have some way to run a few appliances or the TV or computer if power is out for a few days.

Apparently you can buy a "deep cycle" or "marine" battery (like a car battery but it lasts longer, and hook it up to an inverter, and then use that to plug in some appliances as needed. You might even be able to run your gas furnace's fans/thermostat if you knew how to set it up?

http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/inverter_faq.html#what_it_does
[Post New]02/09/2010 07:56
Anonymous
This is an example of an inverter

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100644927&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=100644927&ci_src=14110944&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googlebase-_-D27X-_-100644927

and you hook it up to something like this (or your car battery I suppose):

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_02827582000P?vName=Automotive&psid=FROOGLE01&sName=Marine+Batteries&cName=Batteries&sid=IDx20070921x00003a
[Post New]02/09/2010 08:29
Anonymous
I'm thinking not so much of the fridge and food issue as I am of powering DVD players, some lights, a laptop... small appliances like that; also recharging the rechargeables like cell phone as necessary. Electricity is a very expensive way to heat or cool things, that's for sure.

An advantage a battery/inverter has over a generator is that it is quieter.

Also, when the marine deep cycle battery runs out of juice, you can take it to a house that does have electricty (like maybe your moms or a nice neighbors?) and recharge it. You can do this even if you can't get your car out of the driveway or walk far away to the gas station to buy more lawnmower fuel.

[Post New]02/09/2010 08:52
Anonymous
I have a back up generator option by my utility company (dominion), I have avoided because it costs 7k but am now going to do it-they charge you a bit every month until it's paid off and I now think it's worth it.
[Post New]02/09/2010 08:54
zumbamama
Member Offline
any thoughts on solar powered generators?
[Post New]02/09/2010 09:35
Anonymous
I'm going to get a kerosene space heater like PenguinSix mentioned on another thread, and a smal generator to do electronics, like the cell phone, lap top, and maybe TV. It's pretty easy for us to keep food from spoiling, but I can't live without heat.
[Post New]02/09/2010 09:38
Anonymous
penguinsix wrote:Is your house close enough to your car that you could run it off the car's battery, recharging by running the car?

You might also look at the Honda 'super quiet' generators which are somewhere between the sound of a normal person speaking and a vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately you do pay a bit of a premium on price for these, but they are very common with boaters, campers, tailgaters who don't want to yell over the lawn mower + sound of a normal generator.

http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/products/models.aspx?page=models§ion=P2GG&category=sq


No, not at all.

I'm also thinking about possibilities for people who livew in apartments. THey don't lose power very often, but if they do, they can't have a generator.
[Post New]02/09/2010 09:39
Anonymous
zumbamama wrote:any thoughts on solar powered generators?


I don't think those would be very useful in our area for a winter snowstorm. We have no sun!
[Post New]02/09/2010 09:59
Anonymous
generator, baby

It's been the best investment we've made.
[Post New]02/09/2010 10:00
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
penguinsix wrote:Is your house close enough to your car that you could run it off the car's battery, recharging by running the car?

You might also look at the Honda 'super quiet' generators which are somewhere between the sound of a normal person speaking and a vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately you do pay a bit of a premium on price for these, but they are very common with boaters, campers, tailgaters who don't want to yell over the lawn mower + sound of a normal generator.

http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/products/models.aspx?page=models§ion=P2GG&category=sq


No, not at all.

I'm also thinking about possibilities for people who livew in apartments. THey don't lose power very often, but if they do, they can't have a generator.


Most apartments have back up systems (generators). I never once lost power in my high rise condo, despite treacherous winter conditions. I miss it! Living in a single family home in a wooded area sucks! What were we thinking?
[Post New]02/09/2010 10:03
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:

Most apartments have back up systems (generators). I never once lost power in my high rise condo, despite treacherous winter conditions. I miss it! Living in a single family home in a wooded area sucks! What were we thinking?


The nicer ones do, at any rate. But even they run out of gas at times.
[Post New]02/09/2010 11:16
Anonymous
Invest in a natural gas generator that can support the entire house! Our neighbors generator fires up 10 seconds after the power goes out, and nothing is disrupted in the house. We lost our power, including heat, and their house was completely lit up. We ended up relocating until our power was restored (last night). I think this type of generator is $12K but we tend to lose our power easily because of big trees near power lines.
[Post New]02/09/2010 11:25
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Invest in a natural gas generator that can support the entire house! Our neighbors generator fires up 10 seconds after the power goes out, and nothing is disrupted in the house. We lost our power, including heat, and their house was completely lit up. We ended up relocating until our power was restored (last night). I think this type of generator is $12K but we tend to lose our power easily because of big trees near power lines.


Can you provide any more details about this? Our neighbors have a generator, but it's something they have to plug extension cords into, get gas for, etc. So, it takes a while to get it up and running. They had to finagle something to start up their furnace. How do you make this all automatic so it fires up 10 seconds after? Any advice? We'll definitely do something like this in the future.
[Post New]02/09/2010 13:38
Anonymous
Penquinsix are you an Eagle Scout? You sound so well prepared. Do be careful with the inverter. People in FL damaged the engine in their cars with that. Also for those of you considering the back up system generators for the whole house you need to know they require frequent maintenance and oil changes are they will burn out if you use them for more than a few hours. They were not successful in FL when needed for 2 weeks. A hotel on the beach was cheaper in the long run while waiting for the power company.
[Post New]02/09/2010 14:27
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Penquinsix are you an Eagle Scout? You sound so well prepared. Do be careful with the inverter. People in FL damaged the engine in their cars with that. Also for those of you considering the back up system generators for the whole house you need to know they require frequent maintenance and oil changes are they will burn out if you use them for more than a few hours. They were not successful in FL when needed for 2 weeks. A hotel on the beach was cheaper in the long run while waiting for the power company.


I'm the OP who was exploring the idea of the battery plus inverter. And not an eagle scout, but a Gold Award Girl Scout!

Your comment about the people who damaged their engine using the inverter hooked up to the CAR battery is exactly why I'm more interested in purchasing and using a marine/deep cycle battery i.e. not one that is in use in your car, but one specifically for use in power outages only.

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