Quote:
I can't imagine having a solar array, effective enough for extended back up service, with out the investment of 10s of thousands of dollars. This situation is entirely independant line of thought, seperated by thousands of dollars, from a standby power service..
12- 24- 36- 48 hour back up power twice a year, no way would I invest more than $1000, unless it was determined that I needed more power for a medical necessity. or I was physically unable to operate a portable generator- takes a little bit of ummph to pull that cord.
I have three generators right now, 2 operable 5kw gasoline powered, 1 inoperable 5kw.
Trust me when I tell you, for an extended outage, the generator will not be the issue. Fueling the generator will be the issue. In situations like hurricanes, entire areas are without power. No power, the gas station can not pump gas, so you can't even buy it, even if it's there. Snow storms, don't have them down here, but I can figure if the snow/ice storm is bad enough to knock down power lines, the streets in most cases will be impassable. Going into a hurricane I have about 100 gallons available for generator service, that figures out to about 15 days of fuel, at 50-75% service. Now that is totally independant of what is required for automobiles. However when the weatherman says hurricane in the Gulf-- everything I own and I mean everything is filled with fuel. Truck, car, tractor (diesel), boat (50 gallon gas tank can be transferred to vehicles or generator), all portable fuel tanks, propane grill, freezers are filled with ice, water is collected and stored. You ain't catching this cajun flat footed again.
One other little side note to mention. It does no good at all to own a generator if it won't run. I pull my generators out every month or so, crank'em up, put a load on'em, let'em run for an hour. Keep the fuel tanks full (7-12 hours of service) for the occassional thunderstorm service. Make sure you add a product such as Stabil to the fuel tank.
