Generators

As herpers, it's practically a given that you need a generator. But even if not for the reptiles, having one is an important part of general preparedness.

The generator I currently have just isn't big enough. I use more power than I would like, but that's common for people who keep reptiles. The standard home generator is often inadequate for what we need.

I've been planning on upgrading to something with more capacity for a couple of years. I've really been holding out for a gas powered welding unit to give more function for the investment. A 10,000 watt generator and stick welder in one. Mount this on a trailer and attach my acetylene torch and I'll have a mobile cutting and welding unit that can also power the house.

At the same time I really like the automatic propane generators that just kick in when the power drops out.
For my current situation that's not really feasible because I intend to move at some point and those are much more permanent than the welders. Plus I really want a good 100% duty cycle welder.

What are you guys using as a back up power source?

I have a Honda es4500. Sad to admit that it's been in the back off the garage for at least 15 years. I should really drag it out and test it out.

Might be a good idea to start it up and make sure it's running.
Mine is a little bigger than that but still isn't adequate to power the entire place without my rationing the power usage.

I'm a bit concerned with the coming solar storms. Hopefully they won't cause any major disruption, but they are expected to be the most powerful in over 100 years.
The potential exists for them to knock out the power grid for what may be an extended period of time.

Yeah, I caught this clip on one of the youtube channels I'm subscribed to yesterday.

Originally Posted by Clay Davenport

What are you guys using as a back up power source?

Prayer.....

I have a kerosene heater and some candles, but other than that I cross my fingers and hope for the best. We plan on moving in the next year or 2 so I'll probably go for one of the propane units and use it to run the heater. If I can get the fridge and a few lights going too that would be a bonus.

I have been seeing a lot of ads lately for new solar generators. I wonder how much they could actually power. If I had to guess, I wouldn't imagine not that much. I bet just this laptop alone would be about it for those one panel generators.
Would still be kind of neat to have one if fuel was an issue. For communications in a emergency.

Originally Posted by Dennis Hultman

I have been seeing a lot of ads lately for new solar generators. I wonder how much they could actually power. If I had to guess, I wouldn't imagine not that much. I bet just this laptop alone would be about it for those one panel generators.
Would still be kind of neat to have one if fuel was an issue. For communications in a emergency.

depends on the size of the battery and how long you have to have the initial "charge". i know some light houses are solar powered now, i don't know how big the battery's are or if they require a set amount of sunlight before you can actually "plug them in" to power something, but from seeing that, it makes me wonder how efficient were lead to believe solar panels are.

My Mom has an in-line natural gas generator.

When the electric goes off, that snaps on, and it's wired to her circuit breaker box to power her furnace, the garage door opener, kitchen appliances, the basement freezer, living room, and certain other outlets throughout the house. Not everything, but vital stuff like a lamp and clock at her bedside, and a few "luxury" things like the outlet the TV and entertainment stuff are on.

She's 71, and not able to start a gas generator by herself...and would probably asphyxiate herself on the fumes anyway.

In a major outage, I just pack everyone up and move over there for the duration.

A few years back we had an Onan standby generator installed for the animal buildings. It's a 20Kw unit that runs from a 250 gallon propane tank. I estimated that it should be able to run for about 2 weeks. Yeah it was expensive, but as Connie pointed out to me at that time, had a power failure taken place while we were out of town and done nothing more than wiped out our mouse colony, what we would have to spend in a couple of months for mice to feed the cornsnakes would EASILY pay for that generator.

After we retired, we still have the generator, but of course it's mission isn't critical any longer. But at least if the power grid does fail, we will have electricity to run the well pump and keep the freezer over in the ex-reptile building running.

Anyway, when I looked into the standby generators, the Onans were the highest rated of the bunch. Except for rodents chewing up the wiring once, it's always come on when needed and when tested.

This is pretty cool.