It's nice to have small a small light weight 1,000 to 2,000 watt generator that runs on about 1-2 gallons of gas every 24 hours. Handles computers, lights, TV, small portable electric oven/toaster oven, hair dryer for the women, possibly the washing machine and fridge/freezer, fans or heaters. That pretty much takes care of the electric problem. I have a small 1,000 watt generator (size of a large shoe box about 20 lbs) for a "portable" fridge/freezer, lights, TV, fans/heater, fishtanks, ect... in case the power ever goes out. I could technically keep my generator going for a month with 20 gallons of gas. (unlike a 5,500+ watt that can use up 10 gallons a day) The trick with generators is get as small as you can get away with. And choose one that is fuel efficient. Snow, wind, earthquake, rain, for what ever reason power goes out they can be life savers. I was stuck in an area with out power for a while and people had generators going the first 2 nights. Then it was quiet for the next week because the gas stations didn't have power either to pump gas for people to refill their generators. Who has room to store enough gas to keep the bigger generators running? And include a propane portable stove for cooking with pots and heating up water for the tub.
You make due. Listen to the radio, do a lot of cleaning, eat yucky food, get more exercise, sweat or freeze. Yea it pretty much rots. Don't forget to keep canned food and stored up pre-cooked foods and freeze it so if you can't cook you have healthy food to eat while waiting for the power to come back on how ever many days or weeks... 10 days is a good amount of food to store. Then every month eat the frozen food and cook up a new batch and freeze it. This way you keep a food stock all season long depending on where you live.
Solar ovens using mirrors and a glass/metal box are great to have too but don't work when it's raining or dark out.
And if you live in a city, perfume or air fresheners help too when the sewage comes above ground. Yea that's the worst part of no power for some folks I think besides the life threatening 90'F+ heat or -40'F cold. Sewage is no ones friend.
A tent for sleeping if you live in the southern part of the country after the bugs come out since you probably have windows open.
Don't forget heavy chains and a good lock to prevent theft of your generator during a black out. Extra spark plugs in case you forget to turn off the choke, fuel conditioner in the gas cans if you want you gas to stay good, extra oil and some tools. Yep you are now a surviver of a short term extended power outage. It's not really with out power if you have a good generator.
Message Edited by ilovepizza on 09-06-2008 02:23 AM
