Hey folks! I'm back online again after being without power for 1 week. And what a time for a storm of such major destruction to hit---when the temp's were going to be hoovering around 100 degrees daily! Not that I am complaining. As I have said many times this past week, it could have been a lot worse for all of us in South Jersey. When you look back at New Orleans and the Mid-West and the tornadoes and then see what was happening in Colorado you realize this was just an inconvenience. We sweated thru it and now are almost back to normal. But, boy did that storm tear up South Jersey. It looked like a war zone with trees and power lines down all over.
And what a time for the Barth generator not to work! But isn't that how everything usually works in life? (Ed---I will be getting out and getting photos to you shortly.)
Bruce

How did you all get by? Would you mind expounding on your experience and how you made it through it and what you and neighbors dealt with? We have 3 little children and I'd like to be able to think about what we might have to deal with on an extended summertime power outage...

Here in the Midwest, we routinely have ice storms in Dec-Feb which will knock out power 3 to 7 days.
Hence we keep a generator. About 5 years ago, I downsized to a 3000 watt generator ( a $200 Harbor Freight special that has done well!) to run 2 refrigerators, freezer, central gas heater and a few lights because it would run 24 hours on 5 gallons of fuel.

Last year I bought 2 Honda 2000 generators that will hook up in tandem to produce 4000 watts. So far I haven't had to use them. But I figured that if we lost power in summer, I'd try to use them, and cool 1 room of the house with a 5000 btu unit.

Of course I thought of using the 7000 Kohler on the Barth but was concerned about the fuel consumption (under load of 1 gallon/hour). At least it could be a backup.

Any info would be MUCH appreciated!

One way to stay cool if the ac doesn't work, here is a little trick. Take a hand towel and get it wet, then swing it around in a circle for about a minute. Use it to wipe down your face, arms, neck, whatever. You will be surprised at how cool that towel is, plus you can do it 4-5 times or more before having to re-wet it.

Forgot to mention that the water doesn't even have to be cold or cool to work. Have done it with warm water many times.

I have a 5KW generator, which I can connect to the subpanel via a transfer switch. It'll run the pump, the kitchen and the original part of the house, but not the central A/C.It now has about 250 hrs. on it.

For creature comforts, I use the Barth.

I had a diesel generator of about 8KW but gave it to my brother in Michigan. During this past week he had it going for 90 hours straight after a major storm went thru his area.

I Have added a 50 amp socket to the front panel just above the Dometic 7KW propane generator so I can plug in a long extension to the main breaker panel where I have a transfer switch. We have had earthquakes here that have disrupted power for many days so having back up power is essential. Convenient to use the Breakaway power.

We used the solar lanterns that Sherrie had on the trailer in Milford for lights, they worked great. I'm planning to get a generator too, water is one of the biggest issues. Our basement stayed pretty cool so it was the place to be.

I have experienced the several days to a couple of weeks power outages from winter ice and summer storms a few times. I have a 5000 Honda generator. I ran a 220 outlet under by breaker box in the garage with a cutoff switch to prevent backfeeding the lines. The winter outage we ran a few space heaters and the gas fireplace. The summer outage was the hardest. During the summer outage I went to lowes and got two of their smallest 110 air conditioners they were able to keep one room fairly cool in 100+ degree temps. The generator would run the water pump, fridge, microwave, just about anything we needed. To get hot water though we had to flip some breakers, heat the water then shut it off to run the water pump.

Presently we use a Champion 3500. It runs the 3/4 hp well pump to fill up the two tanks which last quite a while, so we shut it off so we can run the other stuff. Fridge, freezer, can opener, etc.

A hybrid solar system is being assembled right now, with 9Kw during the day and a string of 8 buried Trojan L16s to power a standby bus to get us through the night. We don't need AC at night, so they should be adequate. We will probably still fill the tanks during daylight to help get through the night without a big pump load kicking in and drawing a lot of amps. Or just go out and fire up the Champion if the water pressure gets too low at night.

Still learning.