I guy I know had to deal with a six day power outage in Ohio not that long ago. He wasn’t prepared.
Lucky for him he was able to borrow a small generator from a neighbor. Basically all he was able to do was to keep his fridge and freezer from thawing out. In spite of the triple digit heat he didn’t have enough power to run a single AC unit. They spent the whole time in their basement where it was cooler.
The big lesson is that he wasn’t prepared at all. Another thing he learned was that generators can be expensive to run. He spent $50/day on gasoline.
You’ve got to ask yourself if you really need a freezer. I don’t think I have much more than $50 worth of food in my refrigerator's freezer compartment. Many years ago I owned a very large freezer and would stock up by buying food in bulk. Even back then the math didn’t work out for me. Electricity costs ate up any savings from bulk buying. If you fill your freezer with wild game and caught fish your numbers will be different than mine were.
All my serious food storage doesn’t require refrigeration or freezing. It’s freeze dried, dehydrated, dry stored or canned.
If you plan on a lot of frozen foods in your preps you’d better have a way to keep it frozen. Preferably one that doesn’t cost a fortune like a thirsty generator. However, you’ll probably choke when you see how many solar panels and batteries it takes to run a big freezer.
If you have something like medication that needs refrigeration it might be worth investing in a tiny cooler type fridge. Make sure to get one with a compressor, not thermoelectric. The compressor types sip power while the thermoelectric are power hungry and don’t really cool that well anyway.
Something to think about.
-Sixbears
We just have a small Yamaha that is fairly cheap to run. (Normally !! ) Right now , not so much !
ReplyDeleteThough I did stock up when gas was only $3.50...only LOL !
It runs the freezer just fine along with a fan and a couple lights.
Here the power tends to go away during those little blows we get.
Was out for almost two weeks after one of those.
Little blows, he says, while living in Hurricane Alley. You aren't going to replace that $3.50 gas with more more $3.50 gas.
DeleteWell, 'Free Wild Meat' can cost a lot when you add in the fuel cost to gain it (legally). Maybe hunting feral hog which often do not have any rules on how they are harvested can gain you several animals collected at once.does it make it worth it. Even then, several freezers may be required to store them - multiple households benefit.
ReplyDeleteGood point. There's a lot of "free" stuff I can't afford.
DeleteIt's not a perfect solution, but a simple plug-in adapter/inverter to your car's lighter port can be a meat-saver in case of outage. Mine cost $10 and has two outlets. Plug it into your most fuel-efficient vehicle and let the engine idle. Need not run it constantly, just about 30 minutes every few hours. Keep the appliances closed as much as possible and the food should be fine.
ReplyDeleteWay cheaper than a generator running all the time, so much cheaper to buy, and no need to store fuel. Speaking of which, any households with 2-3 cars will likely have plenty of fuel on hand to manage several days or more. If you use filtered water from your fridge, use the running time to stock up on water for drinking and cooking.
In the meantime, focus on eating frozen food for meals-- let it thaw to capture the coolness in Summer-- during the outage as well. Although our range is gas (an older model, so gas flows in an outage), and we keep lighters for it on hand too, and I keep two camp stoves with 5+ cans of butane in stock, along with my propane grill.
If facing high temps, wait until dark (cooler) and put a box-fan in the window at one end of the residence and open a window in every room. At dawn, close it all up, close the blinds, etc.., and keep out the Sun. We do this every day in Summer. If 10PM isn't cool enough, get up at 2AM to do the fan, if need be, to catch the cool air. We probably only use A/C about 20-30 hours per year, mostly when hosting.
The inverter trick works. Just be careful not to kill your starting battery. I had a van hooked up with a second battery on a battery isolator. That way the starting battery always had a full charge.
DeleteHi Six-Bears. Not sure I understand your reply.
DeleteMaybe it was the way I phrased the explanation. I meant to say run the appliance only 30 minutes every few hours (or whatever is nec.), unplugging in between. I would not use the car's battery, rather, only plug into the car with the engine running. Basically, my car is my backup generator.
We also re-fill and freeze water bottles in the freezer. They keep the freezer colder in a blackout without adding moisture (as melting ice normally would). We also use them as icepacks in coolers, for injuries, etc.. they don't leave coolers full of water and we can drink them after thawing, if needed. Speaking of which, during a blackout, try bagging your ice immediately to reduce moisture problems.
Also, very much enjoy your blog. Thank you for doing it.
Guess I read the comment too quickly. Sorry about that. Glad you are enjoying the blog.
Deletestorm knocked out power for three days last week. i had two small inverter gens which i alternated between two fridges to keep everything cold. cost me less than 5 gallons. lesson learned tho was water. i have rain catchment. which wasn't hooked up b/c i just cleaned the tanks. so we had 50 gals instead of 1100. wife was not too happy w/ my shower arrangements so i built a 12v battery/rv pump shower. happy wife.
ReplyDeleteIf the wife ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
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