When the power goes out

[JW]

When the power goes out, I have a temporarily system ready to go.

Im have a auto repair shop and stock like 6 Interstate batteries. I also have two battery's that I always keep fully charged. Each battery runs like over 6 hours with a high load, but way longer with a light load.

The inverter powers a smart TV like 44 inch and a DVD and Blue Ray player.

The TV system only pulls 66watts while running, it has a display on the inverter, Its a 12volt system.

I also use paraffin lamps.

I will take some pictures and update.

[hiker]

I keep a couple storage batts..charged...my lamps use L.E.Ds...they only draw a few watts...couple candles ....and my exersize bike alt..charge batts..lights....small 50 watt.solar panel..and a windgen if needed...😜

[electrondady1]

when the power goes out i take a nap. when the power comes  back on i wake up

[OperaHouse]

Technically my non essential loads at my camp run on one one old Interstate battery that won't start a car any more.  I get lights from that and can run a DVD and TV for several hours. And I can drag it down to death without any concern for its life.

[JW]

My inverter has an audible alarm and shuts down when the voltage drops to 11 volts. A deep cycle battery can be used when totally draining power, probably would have to use two 6 volt in series. Im just running 12volts auto battery.

[SparWeb]

The simplest systems are often the best.

I spend several days per year without power.  Various reasons, but mostly local lightning strikes and trees falling on lines.  So over the years I've invested a bit every year and now can power the essentials of my house, even in winter, for a few days from the batteries.  The batteries themselves were free - this wouldn't have happened without that lucky break.

[Bruce S]

JW;
Good starting post!

We just for home camping kicks, shut down the incoming mains over a long weekend just because we can .
We have 3 1/2 hybrid marine batteries. (the 1/2 is hooked to a different solar panel)
We also now have the cool Biolite 2.1 setup so we can charge our USB power anythings.
Lights are LED each string has it's own 18650 and a solar charge controller.
Fridge is a re-configured solid state unit. It's turned like a chest freezer. The cooling has been redone using some of those large computer cooling fins with small very noisy high-speed 12Vdc fans. & we insulated the heck out of it by adding an inch of the blue foam around everything but the door.
It doesn't need the startup power the mini-fridge did . The phase change ice packs will keep meat safe for hours at a time. Since we've redone the electronics, by separating the chip from the fans and split up the fans it's now a much better setup than it was when new, not just very "pretty".
 
Our setup for the 3 batteries is 12Vdc our old HF 100watt panels keep the batteries from dying, we do have several inverters sized anywhere from the little 100w up to the 900w MSW for using our 700w microwave.
I'm seriously looking at building/buying a boost converter to take the 5Vdc coming off the Biolite system up to 14Vdc  just to see if it'll work for keeping an emergency charge on a battery.

We don't typically watch TV when outside, we're usually looking through the telescope or watching the glowworms(fireflies) flutter about.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

For the townhouse I have a 650-watt gasoline generator - enough to run the fridge, freezers, a few lamps (with LED lights) the TV or a radio (to find out when the power is expected to come back) and the pellet stove (with the automatic igniter switched off so it's just a fan and a computer and gets lit manually).

Also:  The self-contained travel trailer - which doubles as disaster-housing, has a propane fridge, furnace, stove, and water heater, along with white, grey, and black water tankage for a couple days with shower for me and the wife or a week without, and a couple kWhr of battery (that's kept charged and equalized off the line when it's available).  If things are expected to go longer I have some solar panels in a box in the garage, the truck's feed-while-towing, or borrow-that-650-watt generator, that I could hook up to bring the batteries back up.  TV is 120V but we have a 300W inverter that can run it while nearly idling.  (AC and microwave oven are dead without line power - as they would be on a camping trip.)

For the ranch I have a several kW gasoline emergency generator - mostly so I can run the 240V well pump in a long outage.  The propane "fireplace" stove has a milliwatt thermostat, so it gets enough power to run the flame valve from the pilot light.  It's located in a corner of the "great room" so convection and infrared are enough to distribute the heat if the power, and thus the blower, are out.  (This is a "don't freeze the house" backup for the propane main furnace - set to 50F and the main set to 55F when we're not present).  Stove and water heater are propane, too, and we have several candle lanterns and lots of batteries for a big flashlight stashed in a known spot.

All this because I've been to over-employed to have the time to actually SET UP an R.E. system for either house, yet.  B-b

[ghurd]

Running car, a 2500w tripplite inverter, and a 100' extension cord.
I never needed it, knock on wood.
Brother in law did. His home was in a hilly Pittsburgh suburb. Power poles in back yards, 75(?) years ago. Trees grow a lot in that time. Ice storm, lines down.
Crews couldn't get to the lines, because of the hills and trees.
Little 4-banger cavalier. It would usually take a couple tries to get the inverter to deal with the fridge, then could add the tv, game boy and cell chargers, etc.
A couple times, he even ran the furnace, though I'm not sure how he managed that because he's not very "electrical".
He did it twice a day. It was enough, with common sense the rest of the day.
IIRC, it was out over 2 weeks, almost 3, but it was a long time ago.

[JW]

Hi Ghurd  happy to see you posting

[Frank S]

For the 2 or 3 years we lived in the RV we never thought much about power outages since we were not on the grid. We kept ourselves more concerned with not using too much more than the array and bank could put out and on keeping diesel on hand for those times when more energy was needed.
 After moving out here and being on the grid I've gotten lax on my alternate sources. last winter I called the power company to see about having a tree cleared from a line as the limbs were rubbing on it. I had also put in an order to see about having my feeder line changed out from the transformer to the meter since several years ago someone had installed a heat pump and Central AC ,the house had a 200 amp service panel but the feeder was the old 60 amp service 4 or 6  awg. Every time the AC vame on the TV would go off and the lights would dim. It was in the spring when a limb finally rubbed the service line in two. I called them and in a few minutes the truck showed up. Then his engineer showed up then another supervisor showed up then a bucket truck showed up. the Engineer said we will have your power bqack on in a few minutes but that line hack to be replaced and should be relocated.
  I told him if you will look at the service order request you will find that I had put in a request for that very thing 6 months ago. They repaired the line and a few days later a convoy of trucks and workers showed up with 2 new poles a 000 quad service line since I had told them that someday I may be wanting 3 ph for a barn that i was planning on building.
 They set the poles while I relocated my meter and outside panel to another wall and set a new 200 amp panel inside While I had the meter open I replaced the #3 wire with 0000 copper to my panels and up to the weather head. By the time we were all finished I had no more worries at least from my transformer to the house. new 25 KV transformer as well. Now should I decide to get 3 ph all they will have to do is set a 15 KV transformer and connect to the meter on the shop once it is built since where I had them set their pole to feed the house is also where the shop service will be dropped from.
 My outside panel is set up so I can open the main and wire in a standby if we have a long term power outage. I haven't set it up with an auto switch gear since our power company has a pretty reliable service history. our power had only been out 2 times once when the wire was rubbed in half and once when we had a  storm with 80 MPH winds it was out for a couple hours. but that is what candles are for.

[Mary B]

You should see the pile of crap transformer feeding my house and the neighbors... put in when both houses only had a 60 amp service too. Now we both have 200 amp but the transformer was never upgraded. When I send morse code on 2 meter ham band the lights flicker in time to the 1,000 watt amplifier pulling power... in BOTH houses LOL! Supposedly getting a new transformer... since that one has an install date of 1949...

[DamonHD]

Ah Mary, you don't want to rush things like that.  There's still minutes of useful life in that vintage transformer.  ... Then it can go straight to a museum!

(When turfing out a van full of computers from my ISP some years ago I had a discussion with the Science Museum in London about whether it wanted any of them before they went to be recycled.  In the end they simply didn't have space either!)

Rgds

Damon

[Mary B]

It can go to the museum after a toxic waste disposal unit... PCB city in that thing!

[XeonPony]

Power goes out I turn on the porch light! I usually only find out when I tried to order pizza, now days to poor to order out for stuff.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Got my dad a genny for his hundredth birthday.  Champion dual fuel (gasoline, LPG - can be re-jetted for natural gas and run off the town's system), battery start.  Big enough to run the furnace and his oxygen concentrator.

Got it 1/3 off at Cabellas because the box had been bashed in transit.  (Genny was just fine.)

My youngest brother, dad's primary caregiver, is also an electronics type and can add the (included) oil, break it in, and hook it up if necessary.  Dad's O2 system includes several hours of backup tanks (and a recharge compressor), and the service is on call and supposedly will deliver more in such emergencies.  But belt and suspenders.

[dnix71]

Running car and ProSine 1KW true sine wave inverter, plus a 600 watt pocket generator from Home Depot that uses about 0.1 gallon gasoline per hour, plus the owner has the usual 5kw commercial gasoline unit capable of running the whole house.

[richhagen]

Here I have a few K of solar and a 4Kw inverter, so in the daytime I can keep the fridge and essentials powered.  My storage is small, so I would run out of power quickly when the sun went down without feeding power from my cars 12V system through an inverter and then back to my 48V system so long as the gasoline lasted, I have sufficient 12V inverters from camping and such and isolated 12V chargers I could rig for that from an EV project of the past.  Not the most efficient, but it would work in a pinch.  Depending on the cause of the outage and the prognosis for restoration of power, I'd probably prefer to have power for just emergency stuff at night and save the gas for other purposes though, probably just run small camping lights and communications gear from batteries charged in the daytime.  I also have additional solar panels in reserve that I could put into action if the outage persisted.  Heat would be a bit more interesting in a cold snap, but basically I would rig a stove vent and burn stuff.  Night in a big city with the power off would be, uh, interesting, if the outage lasted, I would probably have to stand guard over my stuff when I was not doing stuff to help out in such an emergency anyway so I would not likely be in the house too much anyway, and the danger would be of theft or pilfering of my stuff.  I suspect many of my fellow citizens would be utterly helpless, and would need assistance.  I am also sure that some would prey upon others in short order.  I hope that we do not have an extended outage here as aside from my personal power situation, it would be difficult.

[Bruce S]

I picked up one of these for extended outages


I've tested it in our fireplace, not too bad when using dry sticks and will continue to charge while it hot enough.
Heat isn't great, without a fan to move the heat around but it'll do to take the chill off.

I'll not buy another , I can find better stuff to purchase. With our super efficient new HVAC system, I'm looking at a gas sipping genset.

Cheers

[keithturtle]

Can't put out the solar panels. too many thieves close by. Put several good sized AGM batteries to use by wiring them to UPS of varying size discarded for battery failure https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/APC-Back-UPS-6-Outlets-425VA-120V/P-BE425M older versions. Runs LEDs and computers for a long time

Next is the inverter genset, bought the good one and it never skips a beat https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/APC-Back-UPS-6-Outlets-425VA-120V/P-BE425M came down in price for all the clones, sips the gas takes care of ref, freezer and some appliances

THe big stuff (basement ejector pump. 240v) gets an older version of this when needed https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200585439_200585439 drinks the gas and noisy but gets the job done

Someone has to stand guard with gas gensets, so the UPS gets most the work

That's what keeps the turtle house glowing

[keithturtle]

Edit timed out, yamaha inverter genset https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-EF2000iSv2-Starting-Portable-Inverter/dp/B002RWK9N2

[skid]

On our farm we lose power 5-10 times every winter. I have a  portable gasoline Honda 3500W generator that we use to power the well pump, and supply the critical house circuits (fridges, boiler, main lights, etc.). I've built a second house and shop and it's a pain in the butt to lose power now as I can't supply those buildings with power.

I looked into and put a deposit on a Tesla power wall. They took my money, never called back for installation,  and never responded back to my calls and emails. I eventually had to get Visa to refund my deposit as Tesla wouldn't refund my money for non-delivery.

I am now looking into a propane powered generator that will supply everything with power, and feed off our 10,000 liter propane tank. Something in the 10KW+ range.

[JW]

  It snowed pretty good here on Sunday about 5 inches. (east Tennessee US) The power was out for 24 hours Monday actually started about 4 in the morning. The House was pitch black I figured oh deal with this in the morning... When it got light I figure "oh *uck this. So anyway it was about noon and started figure out a game plan for this, I was not ready for It. We lost at first for 24 hours then had power for about 8 hours, then lost it again for 18 hours.

So anyway me and the neighbors are strolling around the area and everyone was going what now. I immediately went and got a Beer. I then proceeded to crank up my stereo system full blast. There all going how is he doing that.

I had about two car battery's charged and three that needed a charge. I was thinking what do I do when there dead. Ah it hit me I can charge them off with my truck, I have an excellent 20ft set of jumper cables. As long as I have enough gas I can just let it idle.

So I always have a 1000watt inverter "on hand" its not a sinewave type.

The phase change ice packs will keep meat safe for hours at a time.

That seemed to be the biggest issue. I have a pretty good size freezer but it did thaw a little bit.

The figures on the inverter weren't that bad. Needless to say it was pitch Black in the APT/Flat at night. I had to carry the battery's upstairs to power the inverter. Found this awesome light, that looked like a duel long florescent but was led type. It  barely took an amp at 120vac there were two receptacles. The highest load I used about 6.6amps.                   

[Mary B]

Power goes out, lighting drops over to the 24 volt backups, freezers run off solar battery bank most of the time so no change, pellet stove drops over to the solar battery bank if it is winter. I turn off all but 1 computer monitor to conserve power and no CPU intensive operations/no graphic intensive operations that suck power. Web browsing is fine, YT vids are fine(keep them at 720p instead of 4k). If I have enough battery I can watch TV part of the night but the TV/Stereo are power hogs, uses less power to watch Sling on the computer.

Basically my life doesn't change much beyond pulling enough beer/coca cola from the fridge to last 2 days so I am not opening the fridge doors. Drop it in a cooler with some frozen gallon jugs of water. If the fridge starts getting warm I add ice blocks to it. I have a third freezer that runs off grid only that is overflow in fall during veggie harvest. Most of the space in it is taken up by ice blocks/bags of ice for drinks. If it thaws I have a bunch of cold drinking water... but I tested it and it can go 4 days before the ice in gallon jugs starts thawing in earnest. If needed I can plug it into the inverter during the day when I have excess power available t get temps back down to -20.

Then there is winter... all else fails stuff goes out in the brew shed in boxes. I only heat that space on brew days. Right now it is -19f in there and being super insulated it will stay colder than outside for a day or two! -7f air temp right now so it is 12 degrees colder... I use it as overflow fridge space on holidays LOL set a cooler out with stuff I want kept at fridge temps. It will take 24 hours before stuff starts to freeze.

[Scruff]

What's a powercut? When the primary input stops operating?



My backup is 7kVA, 20ishkWh,

After that I've 3.5kWh in LFP gensets and another 1.5kWh in a campervan.
+ Gas + Oil resrves.

5.25ish kW of solar all unified across installations.

I don't even conserve power until day two...

[Mary B]

Grid here drops 20+ times a year... it is why I put in solar to begin with(not to save the planet  ) power company has been sued multiple times over it, substitution that drops from the cross state lines to the local HV lines feeding 6 towns is overloaded. They keep blowing crap up in it and since we are such a rural area they refuse to replace it, they dig in the scrapyard for parts take out of service in the Minneapolis metro area to keep patching it. Dropped out last night for an hour dropping my already cold bedroom down to grab the sleeping bag rated for 30f temps. It was 45 in there before power came back on. South wind makes it hard to heat that room... I have yet to figure out where the air is coming in through! My latest suspect is the kitchen bay window roof, I bet when they added it they just tore the siding off and didn't add any tar paper behind it to slow wind infiltration. Next summer I am going to foam in that area when I replace that small roof that has decided to leak this winter. Get a spray foam kit and slowly build up layers until it is 8" thick, use whatever is left for another layer on the foundation and in the porch.

[JW]

 

Basically my life doesn't change much beyond pulling enough beer/coca cola from the fridge to last 2 days so I am not opening the fridge doors. Drop it in a cooler with some frozen gallon jugs of water.

Thanks for being on topic.

You Guys are very advanced, I notice the "kw" you are running.

I started this topic/thread for the lay person. Im like keep a 1kw inverter on hand, etc.

And dont ask why I put freezer packs in the freezer

[bigrockcandymountain]

I now have the welder/generator in the shop for a power outage (no wind or solar or inverter failure etc).  I just walk to the shop, start the generator, throw 3 switches on the panel and im running off diesel fuel. 



Here is my panel interlock device to keep me from blowing something up.  The 100a main breaker is inverter power from the house.  One side breaker is the generator input.  One is the backfeed line to the house for charging batteries and powering loads. 

So the 100a has to be off before either of the others can be connected.  (Fyi it isn't 100a, it has a 30a breaker on the other end to protect the 10 awg wires.)

I have only used it once so far for backup power.  Christmas time we had 14 people staying here and no sun or wind for 3 days.  It works like a dream and heats the shop up nicely. 

[Scruff]

It works like a dream and heats the shop up nicely.

How're you doing that outtov curiousity Big Rock?

Genset inside: exhaust gas outside?
Genset outside: heat exchangers inside? Exhaust and coolant recovery?

[JW]

If you guys could select the best invertor for temporary use 12v@1200w what would it be. Low idle current etc. For the sake of use a car for power, jump to main power.

[SparWeb]

BRCM,

Simple and elegant. Thank you for posting that.

Stupid question...  inspected or not inspected?
I am pretty sure I know the answer but if I'm wrong that would be excellent news, too.

[Scruff]

If you guys could select the best invertor for temporary use 12v@1200w what would it be. Low idle current etc. For the sake of use a car for power, jump to main power.

Zing!

[Scruff]

Oh...110V!  Well I wouldn't recommend using 110V it's like 230v but half as good. 

Samlex True Sine or Xantrex ProSine (often rebranded as StatPower) then. The yellow Xantrex are good..the rest aren't