In Lexington SC we only had a bad thunderstorm, effectively, from Irma. Officially I don't think the gusts quite hit 60 mph. But that was bad enough we were without power a few hours. Second time since we've owned this house, about 4 years. Neither was more than a few hours.
Since the first time, we've switched to city water - so that works regardless of electrical status - and purchased a small inverter I can run off the deep cell from the boat. That battery is about 100 amp hours so if I use the full inverter capacity I would have about an hour. So it doesn't make sense to get a bigger one, to me at least. My dish box and internet electronics only pulls 100-200W. So if we use a tablet to view things on, the demand is very low. If we use a lcd TV, I think it's about 300W - or about what the refrigerator pulls. So with the inverter, I can provide a little entertainment, at least occasionally run the refrigerator and a TV. But only for a few hours. Switching to another boat battery or car battery could provide more time. I've hooked this up to test it and it works but during Irma, I didn't get home until almost 8pm so I just took care of the dogs, ate a bit of food (had to go back out to get it) and then went to bed. Electricity came back on sometime that night. Food was fine in the frig (I didn't open it until the electricity was back.
Longer term, we'd like to switch the hot water to propane (no natural gas available) and put in a direct vent fireplace insert. But we probably need a bit more electricity when it goes out.
To get a generator to run even the smaller of our two heat pumps is hard to justify for the infrequent brief outages we seem to be vulnerable to. We should be too far from the coast to be without power for weeks. It's also difficult to hook up a generator at low cost. You really need a transfer switch and the wiring for it might be more than I want to do. Probably not, however. I get in the panel now when I need to and we have a cutout for the power in the box.
But the idea that intrigues me is to get a small generator, about 1500W and to set up one circuit of the house for it to power when necessary. Would mean some rewiring of outlets but I could do it. I would put the frig on it and the outlet the entertainment is on (would probably be two outlets). Amazon has a single circuit transfer switch really cheap, like about $100. The small generator I am looking at, a Wen, would be less than $200. So for around $300 and some of my time, I could be set up where I could switch to generator power for a very small load pretty quickly. The small generator would be a lot easier to store than a bigger one too (it weighs about 50 lbs). If it was hot, we'd have to get by with fans. If it was cold, we'd fire up the fireplace insert and keep that room toasty. The blower wouldn't use a lot. We could also have a lamp or two on (with a LED or CFL bulb) in the main room.
Other ideas (or strategies implemented)?
Since the first time, we've switched to city water - so that works regardless of electrical status - and purchased a small inverter I can run off the deep cell from the boat. That battery is about 100 amp hours so if I use the full inverter capacity I would have about an hour. So it doesn't make sense to get a bigger one, to me at least. My dish box and internet electronics only pulls 100-200W. So if we use a tablet to view things on, the demand is very low. If we use a lcd TV, I think it's about 300W - or about what the refrigerator pulls. So with the inverter, I can provide a little entertainment, at least occasionally run the refrigerator and a TV. But only for a few hours. Switching to another boat battery or car battery could provide more time. I've hooked this up to test it and it works but during Irma, I didn't get home until almost 8pm so I just took care of the dogs, ate a bit of food (had to go back out to get it) and then went to bed. Electricity came back on sometime that night. Food was fine in the frig (I didn't open it until the electricity was back.
Longer term, we'd like to switch the hot water to propane (no natural gas available) and put in a direct vent fireplace insert. But we probably need a bit more electricity when it goes out.
To get a generator to run even the smaller of our two heat pumps is hard to justify for the infrequent brief outages we seem to be vulnerable to. We should be too far from the coast to be without power for weeks. It's also difficult to hook up a generator at low cost. You really need a transfer switch and the wiring for it might be more than I want to do. Probably not, however. I get in the panel now when I need to and we have a cutout for the power in the box.
But the idea that intrigues me is to get a small generator, about 1500W and to set up one circuit of the house for it to power when necessary. Would mean some rewiring of outlets but I could do it. I would put the frig on it and the outlet the entertainment is on (would probably be two outlets). Amazon has a single circuit transfer switch really cheap, like about $100. The small generator I am looking at, a Wen, would be less than $200. So for around $300 and some of my time, I could be set up where I could switch to generator power for a very small load pretty quickly. The small generator would be a lot easier to store than a bigger one too (it weighs about 50 lbs). If it was hot, we'd have to get by with fans. If it was cold, we'd fire up the fireplace insert and keep that room toasty. The blower wouldn't use a lot. We could also have a lamp or two on (with a LED or CFL bulb) in the main room.
Other ideas (or strategies implemented)?