Just got my hotspot up so I thought I would post a brief email about our situation. (I apologize for any misspelled words - I'm in semi darkness)

The basics - I live in Central GA. Family of 5
Generator Preps - 2-Honda EU7000is, 1 Honda Eu2000i
Extension cords - 3X100ft 12g cords, 3X25ft 15g cords, 100ft 10g cord for sewage pump
Water - 500+ gallons on site
Food - 1+year onsite
Fuel - 50 gallons
Lanterns - 4 Streamlight Siege (D-Battery)


Irma hit Macon mid morning on Monday. My power at the house went off around 10am. I had pre-staged the 2 - EU7000 gensets and had extension cords in the place where I wanted them. I have a 2hp sewage/grinder pump, so I had a 100ft cord made up so I could use the lift-station during the outage. After the power went out, I got all of the refrigerators and freezers up as well as the sewage pump. After that I had lamps on so we could see. I also connected all of my security cameras and security system. I set the gensets under my covered patio and ran the cords through a basement window. I used a cutoff broom stick to secure the open window.

Night 1 - I was feeling good about our situation. We had light, hot water(gas water heater), stove(gas), and lights.  
Day 1-2 generator setup. I had the garage door (safety) and garage fridge on my EU2000. Everything else was on 1 EU7000. I had problems with the lights flickering when the sewage pump would come on.
Day 3-Current - It got hot (90+) on Wednesday and today. I had a portable AC unit that I decided to connect. This is one of those units that looks like a dehumidifier and you vent through a window. I brought out the other EU 7000 and split the feeds to accommodate the AC, sewage pump and lights.

Things that have worked so far:
- Streamlight Siege Lanterns - these things are great. I have 4 of the d-battery models. They light up an entire room and are very efficient.
- Headlamps - A must when trying to refuel generators or just work in the dark
- Generators - I am at 75+ hours on the 1-EU2000 &1-EU7000 and 57+ on the other EU7000. I have used 40 gallons of fuel so far. I am running all of them in the eco-throttle configuration. You can't hear my generators
 from the street. I have seen a number of shady cars driving through during the day. My neighbors have regular gensets and they are really loud. I like the fact that these are quiet.
- Extension cords - make sure you get good, quality cords. The best kind are the ones that have multiple plugs on the end.
- Portable AC - This is a luxury, but it really made a difference for us.
- Air mattresses - We put the AC unit in our bedroom and put the air mattresses for the kids at night

Things I am going to improve on:
- I am going to have an electrician install a nice transfer switch at my house. Extension cords running all over the house is a pain.
- HAM Radio - I have one and listened throughout the storm, but couldn't communicate. I need to get trained on the use of the HAM
- Window Screens - we don't have screens on our windows. If we did, we could open up the windows at night and cool the house.

Power is supposed to be restored late Sunday night. So we have a few 3 more nights to go. I have taken a bunch of pics of my gen setup and other preps. I will post once we get power back on.

This has been a good experience, very minor compared to what a lot of folks are going through down in FL. A good test nonetheless.

Plus 1 for ham radio.

Jump on over to the Ham Radio forum for assistance.

+2!

Eta for double post. I suppose it's that important it's worth repeating 

You had 50 gallons of fuel and used 40 in the first three days. I assume you can get gas locally?  Good luck, good AAR.

Yes - Fuel is readily available here. I was prepping for 5 days of no power. I got an additional 40 gallons today. But that is a good point, I'm not sure I can safely store more than 50 gallons of gas at my house, but something I need to look in to.

I had the same reaction -- hard to say without knowing everything you have hooked up, but you are using a fair bit of fuel.  During Sandy, there was no gas for a few weeks so even though gas is available to you now, for next time I'd suggest having a more conservative plan that would let you go a few weeks without resupply of fuel.  Just my .02.

Convert your generators to LP gas/ like your stove.

EZ and inexpensive to do.
Multifuel  carburetor  are available  on eBay / Amazon
Good Luck.

good writeup.  keep us updated.

ar-jedi

Nice genny setup. I was going to ask the same question about the gas situation where you live. An a/c and gas stations with fuel... you're living the high life my friend. I'd look into a more conservative approach or get a method to allow more fuel on site in case shit really hit the fan. How are you currently storing your gas?

Agreed on the AC. I would definitely take a more conservative approach if the fuel situation was different. My power outage is a very isolated now. All of the fuel stations never lost power and had plenty of fuel. This has been a good test to see what works and what doesn't. I like the idea of conversion to LNG on the gensets. Thanks for the input.

My gas storage setup now is 5 Scepter fuel cans (the good ones before the ban), 2 regular plastic 5 gal cans and 3 metal 5 gal cans.

As a person who went 13 days after hurricane Isabel. I feel for you.  As far as gas goes, remember you can get it from the cars, boats, etc if you really need it.  Sounds like you can go to the gas station for more. But for those who maybe cant.

I was without power for a little less than 3 days... I conserved power as I have an old Fla frame house with jalousie windows with screens that can be opened.., running only the refrigerator and battery chargers, internet and TV... 1 1/2 hours on about 7 off...I had two frozen gallon jugs in the freezer section that I transferred to a 5 day cooler with perishables... partially re froze when I ran the genset... placed the genset on utility trailer attached to the riding mower to supply power to neighbor's refrigerators... I use a squeeze bulb siphon fuel delivery to the genset, so I don't have to hot fuel, and neighbors can supply their own fuel

+1 on the headlamp (the center top strap of the  AA Black Diamond was very comfortable for long periods)... likewise the AA task light that stayed in my pocket... I charged the AA Eneloops  (all my hurricane lighting is AA) every time I ran the genset, and charged the cell phone in the morning... area lighting was by the smaller Coleman 3xAA High Tech (a miniature version of the Seige)

ceiling fan powered by a tent fan running a model electric airplane propeller running off a D cell... over 30rpm for 8 hours

7 days no power.

Still on patrol (7 days, no days off)

Slooowly getting back to normal.

Line crews are working hard.

Like I said in the other thread, it could have been far worse for us.

I'm in the St Augustine area. Power just came back Wednesday evening around 10:30.

I ran a portable generator for three days. Here is what I ran:
2 refrigerators
1 entertainment system with 52" flat screen
1 32" flat screen and cable box
26" tv with a couple video game consoles
charging outlets for phones and iPads
2 floor lamps
a shop fan
Microwave for cooking most meals
U-verse so I also needed to power the garage box, router and wifi antenna
and for the last day I ran a window AC unit.

I have a 10 year old 5000/6250 watt Coleman generator but it had less than an hour of use on it befor this storm. Total fuel used was probably 11 gallons regular gas and less than 1 gallon ethanol free gas. I used the regular gas first then switched to ethanol free with the thinking the ethanol free gas would be better to run after I used the other stuff up. The only problem I encountered was the 10 year old foam filter disintegrated after a day or so of running. I noticed it was breaking down during my initial set up replacement filter was $26 so Instead I ordered a generic foam filter from Amazon which hasn't arrived yet. I only needed to run it for a couple hours without the air filter. If I needed to set up for the next day I would have strapped a clean rag over the intake box. We would shut down around 10:30 or so and start back up around 8:30 in the morning. I still had close to 20 gallons ethanol free gas. So continuing the same usage even adding the window AC we probably would have had enough fuel for 8-9 total days until I needed to refuel.

Between the above and a camp stove we were able to get through things pretty easy. Minor window leaking, screen panels lost, a couple decorative window shutters and a small tree uprooted but not falling over that will probably need to be removed was all the damage.

We are renting and there are no hurricane panels but the house is less than 10 years old. We are shopping for a new construction house and the following is on our shopping list to add for the new house: transfer switch, whole house water filter, shutters, not located in a flood zone.

The rest of our preps are shelf stable food, weapons and of course mindful watching.

OP sounds like you were running a lot more gas than I did but I also didn't run it at night if you are going to run it like that then you should look into a larger fuel drum and transfer fuel from red cans filled up the week befor the storm. Ethanol free will stay fresh longer than regular pump gas with 10% ethanol. Just be careful of rust forming in the drum while it is empty if it is a metal drum and fire hazard while transferring fuel. Oh I also had a fire extinguisher 10 feet away from the generator at all times.

I failed to mention in my original post that I have a well pump as well that I am running. I think the combination of the well pump and the sewage pump is what is increasing my fuel consumption.  I also have 2 freezers and 2 refrigerators. In hindsight I probably should have been shutting down the generators more during the day to conserve. Right now we are scheduled to get power back on by 10pm tomorrow night.

You guys in houses have a double edged sword to contend with--one is it's a bigger space to power, with more accessories, but on the other hand, you CAN run generators to power stuff if you have them.

I'm in a Miami condo that lost power for 82 hours starting Saturday at 1x pm.  I have the famed HF Storm Cat generator and only ended up running it for 10 minutes to test it out the Friday preceding the storm and then on Tuesday, to grind some coffee beans for 3 minutes, otherwise, we're restricted from running them in an 'apartment' type setting for obvious reasons.

Still, it's there, but since I didn't have too much frozen/cold food to begin with, it wasn't a hardship.

For apartment/condo people reading this thread, O2 Cool 12v/9v D battery 10" fans were a saving grace for me, since even stifling hot/muggy air feels bearable when it's moving around, albeit, slower than my ceiling fans.

Candles were another great idea, the ones in the clear glass cups you find at the Dollar Store for a buck.  2-4 of them throughout the room and no need for lanterns or ceiling bouncing your killer flashlights, unless you need to read, or trim your in-grown toenails.

Chris

Have any of you experienced cell outages?

Obviously you're online now somehow, but curious, if you're without power
for days if the cell sites have been running backups or just have better infrastructure.

I'm actually in my office now, which has power. The cable/internet went out at the house about an hour before the power did. During the peak of the outage, cellular service was very spotty. I think a nearby cell tower was damaged. I also noticed that the cellular data service was almost non-existent. Last night was the 1st time since Monday that I could get any reliable cell (voice & data) service at the house.

I'm on Verizon in Miami with an LG flip phone and I had pretty good service even though the storm Saturday night and Sunday morning.  My GF is in Midtown Miami and we were constantly calling one another, however, I'd try calling my family in California and the call wouldn't go through, but then in the middle of calling, my buddy also in California called and it came through, perfectly.

No rhyme or reason to it.  Just kept calling and it eventually went through.

My land line is with ATT U-Verse, so once the power went, the webz and house phone went with it, along with the ADT alarm connection, even though the alarm worked until the back up battery (7Ah 12vdc) died, two days later.  I was going to charge it up via solar until the power came back on Tuesday night at 11:30pm.

Chris

Chris - Glad you made it ok. I think the cell services get overwhelmed in circumstances like this, that is one reason I am interested in learning how to properly operate a HAM radio. It seems to be pretty reliable for local comms. I have a radio but never took the time to learn how to really use it or get my license. Im going to make that a priority.

My buddy sent me his older Wouxun KG-UV2D that he programmed Miami frequencies into, when  he upgraded to a new one.  Battery is still good and I can get fire/rescue, airports and some guys out in the Everglades.  I don't have my license yet, but it's fun to listen.  He even sent me this antennae that some professor at UC Berkeley had his engineering students design/make/sell and it increases the transmit range quite a bit.

HAM is a necessary prep for a long term disaster, maybe even a shorter one, but it wasn't needed in my case.

Chris

Good info.

my Verizon cell service in  West Pasco County ( about 35mi north of Tampa/St Pete) was not interrupted... Kyocera flip phone...internet DSL is up, but no dial tone on the land line phone

Power just kicked on. Shut down the 2 EU7000s with right at 100 hours of continuous run time. They ran flawlessly.

I'll toss this link into the mix: Ham Radio-Where to Start it's my (birthed from ARFcom) Ham Radio Podcast Website Tutorial page.  Hope it helps

SCWolverine - this is very helpful. Thanks

I have an inexpensive Sportsman 4000 watt propane generator. One BBQ bottle lasts about 10-12 hours. It runs all the 120 in my 2500 sqft house. None of the 240 though. I have an RV adapter  cord that converts from the standard 120 outlet on the generator to  the 50 amp 4 prong inlet on my house. I have a big transfer switch that was for a much bigger generator that the previous owner had to make it safe /legal.

Propane doesn't go bad, no problem "refueling" hot generator, nothing to spill. Starts in one pull because the fuel is under pressure. SO much better than my old gasoline generator. I wish I had the 240 7kw version for power outage but I didn't originally but it for this and this is smaller /lighter /uses less fuel when used camping. I never would buy a gasoline generator again! No line to get propane tanks filled before or even 2 days after Irma went through when people were waiting / hunting for gasoline.

Our cell service, Sprint, and Verizon, went down the day after the hurricane. They apparently have only battery backup. You can see the tower from our house and the red aircraft warning lights went out too after a while. Our neighborhood is way out of town and we have a big box with a DSL booster of some sort in it that also stayed on for a while after we lost electricity. It has a meter on it and no backup generator either. The landline phone was out to which surprised me since it is underground.

You need to remember that all cell tower sites are only required to have 8 hours of backup power.  And the cell service providers really fought that.  Since most of these events last for a minimum of three days (72 hours) you cannot count on having cell service.

I have heard of other people rigging up something like this and being happy with it.   Can you provide more information?  

Thank you.

Glad it worked out for you, but others stood in line for hours to refill propane bottles before and after Irma.  Google "propane lines Irma" for news stories and photos.    I remember seeing one line about 100 yards long with people standing with their bottles waiting to get refilled.  

If you have natural gas service, a natural gas-fired gen would be the way to go, but if there is flooding or widespread building damages, the utilities will often turn off natural gas until they can make sure all the pilot lights are relit and gas meters are intact.

Been running my Honda 4500 watt gennie with a tri fuel converter on natural gas for the last six days straight, except when changing the oil, which I've done three times now. It's powered two refrigerators, a small chest freezer and a window unit in my master bedroom without any problems whatsoever. Thank God for the natural gas! Looks like it might be a couple of more days before we get power in our area.
Cell phone service with ATT has been spotty at best.

Double tap

2HUT8... the pic of this set up is being held ransom by Photobucket...I bought the Coleman tent fan on closeout for a couple of bucks prior to the 2004 hurricane season... and used the foam propeller fan for 2004/2005... after retiring in 2008 I decided to upgrade my fan set up, and looked at ways to power my ceiling fan... the single D cell fits quite tightly in the holder, so I removed the back which is heavy... a saw cut near the base allows the running end of a piece of thin nylon strap configured in an adjustable loop to attach to the body... the loop is adjusted to just slip over the fan blade, and then tightened... the unit will hang with a slight droop... the foam propeller was removed and a collet propeller adapter designed for an electric model RC airplane was added to attach the model airplane propeller to the electric motor's shaft... a 9 inch propeller is used..I had to remove some of the nose of the plastic to get access to the short section of shaft... with the unit approximately 1/2 way out the fan blade it spins for over 9 hours on a single new carbon/zinc D cell at over 30rpm.... I counter balance the opposite blade by clamping a small vise grip pliers to the blade...any small hobby motor could be made to work, but this was a complete unit and I just adapted it... if you have any questions please ask... link is to what the original tent fan looked like

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=hwR0ZQOE&id=CD68503968F3474810752826AE511EF79522DAA2&thid=OIP.hwR0ZQOEaUYB-1kT-eU-8QEsEs&q=coleman+tent+fan&simid=608016282504332750&selectedIndex=1&qpvt=coleman+tent+fan&ajaxhist=0

So the tent fan is hanging off the blade of the ceiling fan.     Since the tent fan is moving air the opposing force exerted by the tent fan is transferred to the ceiling fan and is causing the ceiling fan to spin?

OP - Buy a spare set of window screens for that master bedroom - or the room you are using for group sleeping. Sun+age will likely cause the screen to be damaged in a sever storm. Having like new screens to put up after the storm clears will help keep the bugs down. It won't take up much storage space or cost too much.

I ordered window screens today. Luckily most of my windows are the same size, so I can move them if need be. Thanks

2hut8... correct, and with each rotation you get a downward pulse of air from the tent fan propeller as it rotates past you...the thrust vector of the tent fan is a little less than 45degrees to the rotation of the ceiling fan blade... I did not try to make it more efficient as it actually worked better than anticipated... a battery holder and DC motor attached to a base clamped to the fan blade would work... the collet clamping adapter that connects the small diameter motor shaft to a model airplane propeller is the key to the design

link is to the type of collet adapter I'm referring to

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=KlO4E7no&id=6122E166962528485BBF9E32E73A5C8CA649DC14&thid=OIP.KlO4E7no2r_De6tg_GxExwD6D6&q=model+electric+plane+collet+propeller+adapter&simid=608019671204302458&selectedIndex=11&qpvt=model+electric+plane+collet+propeller+adapter&ajaxhist=0

I tried to Google this same setup but come up with nothing so I could get a picture in my mind of what's going on. It sounds ingenious though.

pumbaajk... visualize the tent fan in my post 4426 hanging from a ceiling fan (as close coupled as possible) via a nylon strap at right angle to the direction of the ceiling fan rotation...then replace the small foam propeller with one from a radio controlled model airplane as a pusher prop

here in Gainesville, I only lost power for less than a day.  I did not crank my TroyBilt 5KW generator.  Out in the shed,  I had 20 gallons of gas ready, but did not need it.  I had cell service, natural gas for the stove,  water.  Prepacked cooler with ice with the ready use things like milk,  coffee creamer and OJ.  Did not open the fridge or freezer.  I use a commercial Atkins thermometer with a long thin wire to monitor the Freezer.  It never got above 10F.
Battery lanterns,  battery packs to charge the cell phone and iPad for internet connection off a hot spot.  Zero issues.  Even managed to shelter two buddies from the coast that experienced some flooding and higher winds.

Do you have natural gas and was it still flowing?
Maybe just one generator NG. The others run on gasoline! Just a thought!

PITA45

Why are you changing your oil so frequently?  It's not necessary to change oil every 48 hours.  Most generators require oil change every 100 hours and ones with filter require change every 200+ hours.

A bit of Johnny come lately here, but I understand for most of the modern cars today, you can not siphon fuel out, they built a anti-siphon thingy in the neck.

Disconnect fuel line at the filter  (usually the easiest spot to get to) and let the pump do it's thing sending fuel into a container.  It wouldn't be my 1st option but as a last resort it's still very doable

You can also tap the Schraeder valve on the fuel rail if it has one, and this little siphon kit is designed specifically to bypass the rollover valve,
but it's very slow since the tubing has such a small I.D.

Safe to say the days of sticking a chunk of garden hose in are long gone. Unfortunately fuel thieves these days just use a drill into the bottom of the tank.

Are the generators cable locked to something solid ? If not they should be. I had someone try to steal mine once in the past but they did not succeed.

I also went thru Irma in north Florida. There was no gas here, as all the south Florida folks fleeing the storm sucked our gas stations dry on the way from and back to south Florida. Gas was pretty much gone for nearly a week.

We rationed our gas. I got up every 4 hours to crank my generator for about an hour to keep the groceries cool in the freezer/fridge. We ended up only using a about 6-7 gallons of gas over a 3 day period, but it wasn't practical. The day our power came back on, we were told it would be another 10 days without power.

I am now looking into a propane powered fridge or a limited solar system just to run the fridge/freezer. We can ration gas well enough to run the pump and hot water heater. But the freezer/fridge needs constant power and gas isn't the answer.

Propane powered fridges seem very efficient. I have an old propane tank that came with my farm. I estimate its about 150 gallons (its bigger than the 120 gallons on the old family farm). Some of the fridges I've been looking at can run for nearly two years on a full tank that big.

Solar tech still seems a little undeveloped in terms of efficiency. But I'd be happy with a bank just large enough to power the fridge and a fan/heater.

I also see the value in the old Cracker style houses with the dog trot. Our bedroom could only catch a breeze from one direction. Far better to have the ability to catch the breeze from any direction.