From: K8JHR <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] OT GENERAC generators
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

How much fuel do all you guys with whole house generators keep on hand?

How much fuel does one need to, say, go for 10 days?  Does everyone have
that on hand?

What next, if you run out of fuel...


[--Note - not an argument, a serious question.  I know lots of guys with
generators, but I bet they have only one or two days of fuel on hand.
What does it really take?  Does one need a submarine-size tank, like we
see in rural areas, to go the distance? ]

---------------------- K8JHR ------------------------

I keep three 5-gallon plastic gas cans with fuel. That is for running the lawn tractor (mows and snowblows) and the generator (also very occasional use a chainsaw and brush cutter).

That is sufficient for most power outages. Fuel consumption in the econo-run mode is 0.2 gal/hour so 24 hours continuous use would use just over 5 gallons. But we usually shut down the generator when sleeping unless it is during the cold of winter and we need to be concerned about freezing the water lines.

Longest power outage has been about three days. We live only two miles from one of the power company generator sites so not likely to be out long-term.

When we run thru 15 gallons of fuel (might stretch five days intermittent running) then we drive to a gas station and refuel. Unlike the lower-48 many gas stations have their own backup generators in case of power loss. Here in AK we try to keep the cars fueled with at least half a tank so we could drive quite a distance if we needed to find an open station. In a major disaster we would not have enough fuel to last two weeks (unless we siphon from one of the cars).

House heats on natural gas but we opted to stay with a gasoline powered generator. Less dependent on gas supply that way.

Here's a question for the rest of you: How much emergency food and water to you have? One winter an avalanche cut off truck deliveries for three weeks and we almost ran out of dog food (had six sled dogs, then). We had power thru that period.

A small town about 100 miles from here lost their electric and phones for that period and also all road deliveries (only one gas station in town). National Guard air-lifted them a large gen-set and relief food (local grocery freezers thawed and there as no resupply for a long time).

73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
    "Kits made by KL7UW"
Dubus Mag business:
    [email protected]

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