Posted: 11/15/2007 5:18:35 AM EDT
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Hey Everyone… Since I live in the Northern part of Ohio and as the approaching winter is coming… I have a few questions that got me thinking, I’m sure these questions will sound stupid, but as we all know, there is no stupid question, only the one that is not asked.  Since I store water in my garage, which is unheated, do I care if the water freezes in the winter within my water containers? I hear everyone talking about their long term food storage, which seems to be alot of dried beans and rice. How do you store them? Do you just leave them in their original containers? I’m sure this has been posted before… is there a chart that tells you how much fuel your (fill the blank) horsepower generator uses? This will gauge how much fuel you need to keep your house hold appliances running, like a freeze, refrigerator, furnace in the winter and a few lights. Does anyone use, like a boat, jet ski or another type of vehicle to store fuel, as a somewhat of a last resort, beside fuel containers? I think that anything, that you can hold fuel for a long period of time (about a year) would be great idea. Thanks in advance for your help… |
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I store my stash in a heated, air conditioned shack out back. Having said that, I have rice and suger sealed in plastic buckets, inside mylar with oxygen absorbing packs. Read more here And here  |
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water expands when frozen, so you containers may not hold up and burst. I'd try filling and freezing one to see what happens. Generators seem to use roughly one gallon per hour of moderate load. the exceptions are the larger air cooled gas engines, such as a 15 to 20 HP. These use more, and fuel used is directly related to current load. Run the generator once or twice a day for a couple of hours rather than 24 hour operation. Fuel is a critical choice. Gasoline goes bad relatively quickly unless stored in a sealed contaner and treated with Sta_Bil. Diesel and propane store much more easily, and last far longer in storage. I've used decades old diesel fuel with no ill effect. I store grains in used pickle barrels, with a nitrogen flush prior to closing them up. I dust the top with Diatomaceous earth to kill any residual bugs. So far it seems to have worked. Ops |
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Being from the wasteland called Northern Ohio I understand where you're coming from. you are looking at a whole different set of variables - I often am jealous of the southern people who's temps don't go below 50F during the winter, but dang it - I like the cold weather for some reason, with that powdery white stuff falling from the skies. Just don't forget to actually cook up the stuff you're planning on storing. To find out when the grocery shelving is bare that you don't like the beans, rice, or pasta you put away will make you one grumpy hungry person. I know a guy who has one of those truck bed fuel tanks that has a tool box to store gasoline for his genny. |
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You care if water freezes because frozen water won't flush a toilet or cook food. It becomes a big deal to thaw out and make useable during times when heat is hard to come by. Basically you might wind up rolling a drum of ice into your living room to thaw it out and you are using heat to thaw out water instead of keeping you warm. Beans and rice for very long term go in buckets with dry ice or something else used to make them stay good for very long periods of time. Short tem, couple years in my case, I used glass jars like canning jars or anything with a good seal. I have been cooking these up and while cook times take longer they did ok and are fine. For generator fuel useage I use max consumption as my gauge until I have real life consumption to go by. Each generator and envionment is different so I just go by max consumption and figure at worst I have extra fuel. I personally don't know what all I will be running for each bad time so I just keep as much gas around as possable. As far as using other vehicles and stuff for fuel storage, I think everyone does it to some extent. I keep my truck well over half full most of the time. I keep my lawn mowers near full all the time as well. Then if I ever need fuel for this or that I have all sorts of places to go drain fuel. You do need to consider your storage item and how well it handles being a fuel storage device. For my quad I can shut off the fuel and run the engine until the carb is dry. For my mower I don't really have a shut off so I might wind up with fuel varnish in the carb if the fuel evaporates. Overall you have to read your owner's manuals and decide for yourself what will work best for you. |