short term power outages..

Yeah, a pull wagon would work well Brent.

My strategy is mostly just to do without power when it happens for a short term outage. Our biggest issue is that we lose water, since we need the well pump. We get around that (for a short term outage), by having stored bottled water, and emergency water barrels. That way, we can still water the animals too. It's all about placement though, as you don't want to haul water buckets all over the ranch during an outage. We also use rain catchment barrels, which work good for watering a garden, or providing wash water. (and we could always purify it if needed for drinking).

Eventually, we'll have a solar well pump, as a backup, but not yet. We have an emergency bullet bucket if it ever went down for good before then, but back to the hauling water buckets problem there (hence the desire for the solar pump).

During an impending storm, we have a bathtub bag specially designed to work as a water reservoir, so if a hurricane or something, we'd use that, but of course, involves having prior knowledge of it.

As for food going bad, we just avoid opening the fridges and freezer as much as we can. Any expensive meat...barbeque time!

robinjopo said:

My brother has a 750 watt and advised me against buying an inverter. He said he has to start his truck every 10 minutes just to run drills, etc. He advised me to get the Harbor Freight $119 generator. Said it would do all I need. Back to research for me.

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Deep cell batteries, like in golf carts, hold more power and are designed to cycle many more times than a regular car battery.

jimLE said:

maybe put it all on a hand cart or hand pulled wagon.this way,all you to do once it's loaded up.is pull it to the water,charge it up.then pull it back..maybe even do it up right,where it remains loaded up for less hassle..

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That's an option. Still a hassle but would be doable in a pinch. I would have to run wires about 200' to connect and thats a little far for DC voltage. Should have built a little closer to the creek!

@Gazrok, can you add a header tank (on a hill or stand) that gravity feeds to the house, it gets topped up when required and the sun/power is available, but of course doesn't need any power to operate to dispense water.

i've been rethinking my what to do list for possible outages,during a rain storm,to what ever..
this is what i've been doing no matter what.
check rechargeable batteries for any that need recharging..
check oil lamps
check hand crank and rechargeable radios..
make sure ALL flashlights,headlamps and radios are up to par.
check things for the car.like the rechargeable/portable jump starter to make sure it's charged.

added to my list.
make sure laundry is done
wash dish's if any needs it.
sweep n mop
vacuum
make sure everything is brought in from outside(if anything)
check fluids in the car..
make sure dog goes out,seeing how she wont go out when its raining..(spoiled) lol

On the first part check.....in the second part. Vacuum won't help me with 3 dogs and cats. Have old clothes to wear so laundry isn't an issue. Checking the car fluids is good. I will still have hot water because it is gas hot water heater and can cook with gas range. I need to make sure my chicken run is on enough of a slope that it doesn't flood. The coop is on stilts so the water would have to get at least 8 or inches deep to be inside.

I need to add a crank radio and flashlight to my list. That's a major must do.

jimLE said:

i've been rethinking my what to do list for possible outages,during a rain storm,to what ever..
this is what i've been doing no matter what.
check rechargeable batteries for any that need recharging..
check oil lamps
check hand crank and rechargeable radios..
make sure ALL flashlights,headlamps and radios are up to par.
check things for the car.like the rechargeable/portable jump starter to make sure it's charged.

added to my list.
make sure laundry is done
wash dish's if any needs it.
sweep n mop
vacuum
make sure everything is brought in from outside(if anything)
check fluids in the car..
make sure dog goes out,seeing how she wont go out when its raining..(spoiled) lol

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I practically have to drag my dog out when raining as well! I am dedicating this weekend to getting stuff outside accomplished, but really should throw in some of those household chores. Oh well. I finished tilling the garden and got the chicken area tilled up to plant for the first time. I haven't had chickens in about a year,, so hope all that nitrogen has broken down enough to plant there now. Right now I'm soaking in hot water to help with the sore arms from tilling! I do need to change the plugs in the generator. I bought them a couple days ago but need to put them in. I still had the old plugs in it when I was burning gasoline, but the kit advised switching them when running on propane. I had tried to start it the other day and it wouldn't fire up, just sputtered some. Guess that's on the list for tomorrow. Better to fix it now than after we loose power. We have weather moving in here today and tomorrow. They are saying it may snow tomorrow night. Funny, I rode he motorcycle recently. It's been spring like for a while now here. Glad I didn't plant the less cold hearty plants outside yet, but should be good by next weekend.

I wanted to till so badly today, but it needed to be a little bit warmer. I ended up wearing sweats when last week I was in shorts.

robinjopo said:

I wanted to till so badly today, but it needed to be a little bit warmer. I ended up wearing sweats when last week I was in shorts.

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I was breaking a sweat earlier here. I'm going to bring up a cart of wood for tomorrow's cold snap though. Hopefully will be the last fire of the season.

i have only one dog.but she's a long hair dog.so i vacuum when i normally don't have to.i still need to till the garden.but still some what to wet out..those hand crank radios and flashlights do come in handy.even when their not really needed at times.on account their nice to have around..

This is the truth, I get almost a quart of hair every day from the dogs and cats. I never put my vacuum away.

I admit we are a little weak on solar and battery backups but those things never been much of a priority for me, I do have generators (diesel/propane) that are a backup power source for our wells but we also have deep-well hand pumps in case we lose all electrical power sources. The only thing I have solar (Goal Zero/Anker) for is for our AA/AAA rechargeable batteries (eneloop), power packs (Goal Zero guide 10 plus/Anker PowerCore ) and to charge our 2-way radios/cell phones where I keep everything in a bag for portability for home or abroad. We have a couple of 2000w enverters that the Wife has in her lab here. That's the extent of our backup power sources.

My brother told me that my inverter was strong enough to power an electric toothbrush and that was about it. Lol

robinjopo said:

My brother told me that my inverter was strong enough to power an electric toothbrush and that was about it. Lol

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In our toy hauler we had 4 rolls surrette batteries connected to a cotek inverter, it powered more than a toothbrush lol

I got the new plugs in the generator I converted to propane today. As I said, I couldn't get it started before. With the fresh plugs it fired right up and ran smooth as can be. Greatful about that being all it needed. I now see that with propane they are a little more sensitive to everything being just right. The generator is a 10,000watt Miller welder. I not only have enough to run things in the house but can repair or fabricate with steel as well. My son and I put the ladder rack together for the new work truck with it a few months ago.

robinjopo said:

My brother told me that my inverter was strong enough to power an electric toothbrush and that was about it. Lol

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one thing you might wanna do,(if you haven't yet)that is,go to some place like harbor fright..they have different type/size power converters,that plug into the car lighter..the one i have from there.can be used to recharge my rechargeable jump starter,i can also use my my battery charger for my AAA,AA and D batteries with it as well..and as for the fridge n freezer goes.it'll take one that'll handle the power surges from fridge/freezer coming on and going off.

Cannot decide on which to buy. An inverter or a small generator. So I'm still without either.

We drive a large fridge and a large freezer (pigeon pair style) from a 1000W inverter. I would suggest that's about the minimum size required.

As for the inverter/generator decision. They are two different beasts of course. If you go inverter you need solar panels and batteries, but a gennie needs fuel. If this is for short-term outages I'd go for a gennie, you just buy it and plug it in, job done. For long term go solar...but if you go solar you still need a gennie as well, so get a gennie

Thanks for the input

We had about a five hour power loss Friday night. It started when a thunderstorm came thru. I realized that I never made the final connections from the generator to the house yet. It was no big deal as it happened at bedtime, so we lit two candles and prepared for bed. I have all the stuff needed to make the connections, but never actually got around to it. Needless to say, that just got added to my list today.