Hurricane Irma

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Maybe now she will not see a generator as too pricey. It will run a potable fan that can follow her to where she needs to be. . . something to consider for the next one. Hurricane season is only now at the peak of its season and you do live in FL. Since she is an RN guessing evacuating is out of the question in the future.
 
Maybe now she will not see a generator as too pricey. It will run a potable fan that can follow her to where she needs to be. . . something to consider for the next one. Hurricane season is only now at the peak of its season and you do live in FL. Since she is an RN guessing evacuating is out of the question in the future.
 
We have a whole house generator, but bought a Generac branded 2000 something watt inverter generator at Costco. About as quiet as a Honda at 1/5 the price. We don't get hurricanes, but we get tornadoes. Huntsville AL lost power for 5 days a few years ago, so I'm not counting on natural gas. We're getting a propane conversion together for the little one, and keep plenty of propane.
 
Definitely my ultimate goal, Generac with a propane tank.

For the immediate future though, we're looking more at a $600 investment for a small generator and two small wall A/C units.
 
However, we had 95° heat in the house and about 80% humidity, which was not fun. We had no generator, in part because my live-in girlfriend sees it as an expensive, spendthrift's waste of money.

That's how I USED to feel as well about them....but after days of trying to sleep in the same conditions you mentioned, I've changed my tune.
 
That's how I USED to feel as well about them....but after days of trying to sleep in the same conditions you mentioned, I've changed my tune.
Its all about baby steps. . . we did the portable generator for years during storms. They make a huge difference, especially when you could run the window unit at night to sleep. We do have frequent power outages here though and even though its not out for long, with the house generator I don't have to worry about having to stop what I am doing. Power goes out, within a couple minutes the Generac kicks on and I'm back in business. Still haven't had the oven going so we'll have to see if that will work but its good for the cook top. Besides, you have a well if i remember correctly for your critters and it will run that too. If you get a large enough portable generator, plug it directly into your house. That way you don't have to have cords running loose.
 
The nice thing about an automatic unit, is that if it happens at home, when we aren't there, it'll kick in and things will be OK. But, money wise, that's a ways off, hehe. For now, I'll have to go with the cheaper solution (that still isn't cheap)....$600 is still a hefty chunk of change to me. Not undoable though...but thousands is currently.

I think the solution for the well will eventually be doing my own solar conversion. I've got some research to do on it, but cost vs. benefit, it seems so far to be the best option. Though I also want to get one of those Amish well buckets that can be used if it really all goes to crap, too. (about $80 for those)

At least I got to field test the CURRENT water solutions for a storm though. The goal was to ensure we had enough water on hand, for all of the animals, the humans, bathing, washing, etc. prior to the storm hitting, and enough to last for at least two weeks. (I figure by then, in a non-SHTF situation, we'd at least be able to go BUY water after that...) (otherwise, I'm making a PVC well bucket, lol).

Glad to report that I think I calculated pretty well for it. I believe we would have still been fine for another week plus a day or two. Moving one of the larger troughs to the stable and filling that, was a perfect, low-tech, and free solution. The security of still having a 55 gallon drum of water after that, and another full trough (for turnout), with a third ready to use, was nice. (and that's for just the outside animals).

Inside, we had lots of bottled water (both bought, and just filled jugs), still lots of our regular drinks (soda, etc.), a filled tub and filled sinks (for flushing/washing), as well as another drum of water. We hardly even touched the bottled water, and never had to tap the drum. They make a cool bladder (about $30) that fits your tub, that allows it to store potable water too, so that's something else to be added soon. (beprepared.com I believe is the site).
 
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A few years back on my deep well pump I had a 3/4hp motor 1500/2400 and as a backup power I purchased a 3000watt generator that had a 3500 surge watt, enough power to run the well. I ended up having to replace the 3/4hp with a 1hp motor, we lost power one winter thus fired up the generator, firing the motor damn near stalled the generator, I didn't think of the generator when I replaced the well pump. The new well pump was pulling 4300 surge watts, 800 watts beyond the capacity of the generator so I learned to purchase for reasonable future expansion when it comes to generators especially for wells.
 

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