Posted: 9/12/2011 3:46:30 PM EDT
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Post Hurricane Irene, we were without power for 6 days (Suffolk County area). I had a 5000 watt Homelite generator which worked fairly well, but highlighted a few potential problems that I will have with long term outages:
1) I was using around 5 gallons of gas per 7-8 hours of run time. This translated into a trip to the gas station every day. 2) While the gas stations near me all had power and were able to pump gas, if the blackout had been more widespread and they were out, I would have been tapping into my car tanks after day 2. 3) I was able to stagger the run time and keep the generator off overnight. If this had been an ice storm in the middle of the winter, I'd likely need to run it closer to 24/7. This would mean way more fuel use and wear and tear on the unit. This all gets me to the point of my post: I'm looking for a military surplus generator (a MEP701a or MEP002a). My reasons: these gensets are virtually indestrictable and can run 24/7; diesel can store longer than gas; they get around 0.3-0.5 gallon/hour efficiency; and I have a 275 gallon tank of heating oil available to tap into if necessary. Do any of my fellow NY-ers have experience in buying these particular gensets? I found some available on the govliquidation site, but the current offerings would require a trip to either PA or MD to buy, and i'd be getting the gensets site unseen. I'm willing to pay a little extra for a fully tuned and functioning unit, but I'm having problems finding anyone in the NY-tri state area has them. It seems like most of the businesses that restore these are either way north (NH, VT), or in the Gulf area. I'm not opposed to picking one up blind at an auction but if I get it home and it's non-functioning, who can I get to work on these things? Is it a specialty, or can any shade tree diesel mechanic fix them. Does anyone have any local knowlege or experience to share? |
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You got a number of thing way too stressed. Diesel does not store any better than gasoline. If storing not using you need to treat the fuel both of them. The fuel inside your basement seems to last longer due to the constant temp with no condensation in the tank. Your generator can run for 30 minutes every 4, yes 4hours to keep your house warm keeping every thing from freezing. You only "need" to run furnace, 3 lights, well pump, fridge, freezer. Keep every breaker off, then turn on your fridge/freezer breaker. find the 3 lights you need on, turn those breakers on. Turn the furnace breaker on. The well pump only needs to be turned on once you dont have any water any more and turn the other breakers off for the 3 minutes it takes to fill the tank. Then again you could want to have full power full time and you do need a large stand by generator.  |
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What Cetane said, use your limited power in a limited fashion.
And yes, any shade tree mechanic can fix anything broken! Google or go to youtube and search for redneck repairs! Redneck Pictures Bill |