WINTERS HERE - whats your plan?

[ZoWhat]

IMO...I could get in your running car faster than cutting a chain.

The mind of a criminal (who many are just stealing stuff to support a drug habit)... is to steal stuff that is insignificant in the eyes of the Law.

Someone steal your generator, your local Police will do NOTHING to investigate. Not worth their time. They hand you ppwrk, and say they're sorry and for you to call your Insurance Company

Someone steals your car, every Police Officer is going to be looking for that car and a suspect during every patrol route.

Thieves don't want that kind of attn...

 

[ZoWhat]

Running an inverter off your alternator is a bad idea. I have done lots of research into it as I originally purchased and inverter to use on car battery.

Can you share your research?

You have me interested if Alternator damage is from longterm use of an Inverter or even from shortterm....

In a Winter crisis I would think I'd only need to use my Inverter for 3-5-7 days at most.

Why are some trucks have Inverters factory built in?

.

 

[don_chuwish]

UPS for the short term (2 hours), battery powered bubblers for a little longer (8 hours+, depending on house temps), generator for anything beyond that. Survived a week without power 2 years ago in winter, no losses, house was down to 40 degrees inside.
Thing about generators is, you have to take care of them!
1. Run only non-ethanol gas with preservative in it
2. Put away for long term storage correctly
- drain the gas tank
- run it completely dry until it won't even sputter
- pull the spark plug and fog the cylinder, pull the cord to move the piston a bit

Two years ago when the snow storm hit we had three generators on hand. Two of them wouldn't start.
After getting past the worst of the emergency I spent time cleaning carburetors on those two, getting them working and then properly storing for future.

 

[piranhaman00]

Can you share your research?

You have me interested if Alternator damage is from longterm use of an Inverter or even from shortterm....

In a Winter crisis I would think I'd only need to use my Inverter for 3-5-7 days at most.

Why are some trucks have Inverters factory built in?

.

Yes it depends on your alternator power, I should have specified.

 

[Ippyroy]

The mind of a criminal (who many are just stealing stuff to support a drug habit)... is to steal stuff that is insignificant in the eyes of the Law.

Someone steal your generator, your local Police will do NOTHING to investigate. Not worth their time. They hand you ppwrk, and say they're sorry and for you to call your Insurance Company

Someone steals your car, every Police Officer is going to be looking for that car and a suspect during every patrol route.

Thieves don't want that kind of attn...

Every cop is not gonna be looking for your car. Unless you live in a very small town, the report of your stolen car just goes into the stack. If they do find your car, it will automatically be considered totaled and gets a salvaged title, making the car worth half of it's value.

 

[salt2salt]

better yet, buy the stolen generator. you could get it pretty cheap.

 

[Alchameth]

And enjoy telling your insurance company your car was stolen cause you left your keys in it while running... Good luck with them paying your claim. You have to take proper measures to prevent theft and leaving it idle in your driveway for hours doesn't exactly fit those measures.

 

[Ippyroy]

I live in place with extreme winter conditions. 12 feet of snow a year and it gets to 47 below zero more often than I'd like to count. I have been almost 6 years and the longest power outage we have had is a couple of hours. The longest one I have heard of was 2 days. I am more worried about myself than my tank. I plenty of blankets and sleeping bags. All I have for my tank is a Vortech battery backup.

 

[don_chuwish]

I live in place with extreme winter conditions. 12 feet of snow a year and it gets to 47 below zero more often than I'd like to count. I have been almost 6 years and the longest power outage we have had is a couple of hours. The longest one I have heard of was 2 days. I am more worried about myself than my tank. I plenty of blankets and sleeping bags. All I have for my tank is a Vortech battery backup.

Wow, that's serious winter! Are all your power lines around there buried? Our issue was snow load on trees. Trees came down by the thousands, taking power lines with them. Power company did an amazing number of pole replacements and restrings over the following 2 months or so.

 

[ca1ore]

I 'invested' in a whole house a few years ago ....nobody's stealing that. Even before that, my portable weights close to 200 lbs. so if somebody is motivated enough to make off with that ... more power too them (pun intended).

 

[T-J]

I 'invested' in a whole house a few years ago ....nobody's stealing that. Even before that, my portable weights close to 200 lbs. so if somebody is motivated enough to make off with that ... more power too them (pun intended).

Even more so if it’s during a blizzard! Honestly, the only thief’s out during snow storms are those stealing unattended running cars and snow blowers.

 

[Ippyroy]

Wow, that's serious winter! Are all your power lines around there buried? Our issue was snow load on trees. Trees came down by the thousands, taking power lines with them. Power company did an amazing number of pole replacements and restrings over the following 2 months or so.

Power lines are all above ground. Due to the cold and elevation, 6700 ft, the snow here is super dry. Humidity is usually around 9 - 10% except for when it is snowing. 50 gallon system and all open and my house is around 40% humidity. The snow stays in the trees until the wind blows.

 

[Hydrored]

Installed a whole home generator (Generac) to prepare for the new tank last year(tank is in now). No winter storms here but our power goes out for hours at a time during storm season. Wife complained about the price until she was sitting in a nice air-conditioned house while everyone else power was out for 10 hours this summer after a storm; now she won't be without one haha

 

[ZoWhat]

Wife complained about the price until she was sitting in a nice air-conditioned house

What? Most women i know say they're cold when it's 118° outside

 

[snorklr]

then you're not old enough to have a menopausal wife...enjoy it while you can

 

[DivingTheWorld]

We live in the land of PSPS's, utility forced power outages that last for days at a time. So I have multiple layers of backup:

1. Tesla Powerwalls - powers the entire house for 1-2 days without sun, indefinitely with.
2. Portable Propane Generator - powers the tank, refrigerators, laptops, phone chargers.
3. Vortech Battery Backup - if everything else fails, at least I have water movement.

I used to have a nice expensive UPS until we had an actual power outage. The screen estimated 1 hour for my tank only lasted 5 minutes.

 

[don_chuwish]

We live in the land of PSPS's, utility forced power outages that last for days at a time. So I have multiple layers of backup:

1. Tesla Powerwalls - powers the entire house for 1-2 days without sun, indefinitely with.
2. Portable Propane Generator - powers the tank, refrigerators, laptops, phone chargers.
3. Vortech Battery Backup - if everything else fails, at least I have water movement.

I used to have a nice expensive UPS until we had an actual power outage. The screen estimated 1 hour for my tank only lasted 5 minutes.

For me the key to getting 2 hours out of a big PC style UPS is to have everything but one of my Tunze powerheads shutdown. That's managed by Apex. If I could afford to redo things I'd probably go the Vortech route as well.

 

[Auto-pilot]

If memory serves me correctly (and I'm not an electrician), inverters can wreck havoc on non-DC powered pumps/wavemakes/gear.
Also, your title suggests that your making plans to make a plan...

They can if they suck and create a bad sine wave. Not all inverters are created equal! Cheap inverters create a bad signal and the ac pump might not even work. I have a battery backup that uses an inverter and I tested 3 inverters with an oscilloscope before I found one that was good enough. The cheap ones from ebay create dirty waves.

 

[spfahnestock]

Many years ago when i was very new to tanks my area had a very bad power outage in the middle of winter. All generators were sold out around the effected area.

My solutions was to purchase two marine batteries and an inverter. I ran minimal items to keep the tank alive and the batteries lasted me a few days. after power returned i hooked both batteries up to a trickle charger to bring them back to an "at the ready state".

The other benefit to this solution was everything could be contained in my home, and was always available in the future.