Overall we are pretty pleased with how our preps went. We have a "hurricane kit" which is 3 storage tubs of stuff plus water jugs and equipment like a generator.
I plan on adding a set of tiler's knee pads to the kit for when I have to be on my knees setting up the hurricane shutters. I also think I'll add another 5 gallon gas can, just for an extra window. That will give be about a week of generator time.
I'll also get a one gallon gas can so that I don't have to lift 5 gallons of gas to gas up the cars. I don't like to keep gas around when we don't need it because you have to put in a stabilizer and it still ends up getting gunked up. I just fill up the cars (which keeps me out of the post-storm lines at the gas station) but transferring it to make the lift lighter would be good.
With the water cans we were in good shape, and we filled up the bath tub and washing machine for wash water. I am pretty comfortable that we could have ridden out a week fairly easily, maybe two with our water filters.
I'm thinking about getting Starlink for Internet because that will be back as soon as the storm passes; no linemen needed. The kit is $350 and install is ~ another $350. Not sure I want to spring for that right now.
I do think that a battery radio with AM/FM/Short Wave needs to be an addition to our kit.
I'm shocked at the number of neighbors who had essentially no preps at all. This was maybe a good window into what things might be if something serious happens. Since I'm the guy with the loud generator, this would make me a magnet. Ugh.
16 comments:
Didn’t think to fill the washer machine for water. Seafoam in my limited experience seems to stabilize fuel so much better. Stabil and starbrite barely kept fuel for six months, seafoam in my current test is good now till 10 months. Though I think at 12 I’ll rotate thru vehicles and refresh. Just bought some more water jugs, I keep alot of bottled water in hand but there’s value in some 5-7 gal jugs. Thanks for the info!
A I KW inverter can run lots of things off a car battery with no sound signature. Some only run a little over $100.
Sea Foam is good. I've also rediscovered a golden oldie; Marvel Mystery Oil! I found a bottle of this stuff at yard sale a while back. It sat on a shelf for YEARS in my barn. One day I thought "What the hell?" and started adding MMO to the gas I use in my yard equipment, both 2 and 4-cycle. I have not had a SINGLE fuel-related issue with ANY of my yard equipment since I started adding MMO! I have two "beater" lawnmowers I use for weed abatement in my corral. Living in the Desert pacific Southwest, those machines are only used during a couple of the winter months. They had been sitting in the weather for over SIX MONTHS. I decided to run them up. One of them started on the FIRST PULL. The other took three. This is after sitting for SIX MONTHS with the same fuel in the carburetor bowls! Both of these mowers are over twenty years old! MMO is MAGIC, and has been used since WW1!!!
Just be sure your vehicle's alternator can handle the added load! Oh; and keep that tank FULL!
Never thought about filling the washing machine. Good idea! Also remember that your water heater tank is holding 40-60 gallons of water.
Having a batt-op AM/FM radio goes without saying! You may not feel the need for shortwave capability, but if you can afford a shortwave, get one. Shortwave radios have more sensitive receivers and also provide connections for external antennas. Both will allow you to pick up stations that are further away or local stations running on reduced power. Again, if you can afford it, get a shortwave with SSB (Single Sideband) capability. Ham radio operators use SSB by and large, and being able to listen to them will give you ACTUAL, UNFILTERED on-the-ground news!
I have a genny as well, but also have several inverters of different capacities on hand. They can be connected to the battery in your vehicle or the deep-cycle batteries in a camper or RV. This will allow you to run or charge the small stuff without making any noise. Go with the smallest capacity inverter you can get away with, as they use power to make power. The smaller the capacity, the less power they'll use. For the larger ones, be sure the alternator in your vehicle can handle the added load.
Look at windup radios. Most can also charge usb devices, like camping lanterns
For $33 on Amazon you can pick up a NOAA emergency weather radio with AM(520-1700KHZ)/FM(67-108MHZ)/Short wave(7-22MHZ) and of course weather. It has 7 preprogrammed weather channels (mine is #4). It uses AAA, USB, hand crank or solar to recharge lithium ion batteries. It has an extremely loud SOS sound that is very easy to turn on, A flashlight and a compass. I believe the USB charge port can also be used to charge a cell phone.
We bought one after the Tornado and I used it every tornado season. Just have to be careful no to accidentally hit that SOS button. ;-)
Pete are those hand-cranked radios any good or are they just toys?
Thinking out loud here about storing gasoline. I would say your gas should be ethanol free or avgas or racing gas that doesn't have any ethanol in it. I think that ethanol is the culprit. I use racing gas or Sunoco that has no ethanol. I pay $9.00 a gallon for CAM2 gas and it works in all my small engines. I also use Seafoam in the tank for winter storage of one car. I use Stabil in the 5 gallon containers of gas. My little engines all start up in the spring now. My generator gets the same gas plus Stabil. Your experience may vary. I am not a petroleum engineer.
Pri-G for gas storage. Better than Seafoam, which is better than Sta-Bil. Racing gas or other non-ethanol. While avgas is a good idea, many small engines like generators now also have tiny catalytic type devices, which the lead in avgas will contaminate.
I assume you stock extra oil for the generator, right? an extra spark plug or two is also a good idea.
The suggestion of a battery bank and smaller inverters is a good one. Use the generator to charge the batteries once a day or so.
Also look into the Honda inverter gensets, they are very quiet. A simple enclosure of 4 foot high foam (make it big enough that the generator doesn't overheat) will REALLY reduce the sound signature of any generator.
Now that the emergency is over, change the oil in the generator, and flush the tank with coleman camping fuel so that there is no buildup of varnish in the carburetor.
Back in the 80's, I remember visiting a blacksmith shop. He had a line shaft run by an old Ford straight six. It was very quiet. He ran a pipe under the ground out about 40 feet and the exhaust was piped into it. Whisper quiet. That might be worth a test and lab report. His was buried. I mentioned it to a buddy that irrigated cotton up in the panhandle. He said he used to do that too on a pump engine near the house.
Never thought about the fact that a washer with no agitator is SO much easier to bucket-out until we happened to buy one! We have 5-gal containers for potable water, and remember the water heater is full, too; washer, all sinks, and bathtub are for flushing water.
Have been using Seafoam. Gas the cans in April, my birth month. In December empty the cans into the cars and the cycle begins again.
Have one Wx/AM/FM radio in the living room and one in the bedroom so alerts can be heard from everywhere and if sleeping.
My 5 year old Harbor Freight inverter generator starts on first pull or on Starter button push if the battery is still up, is quiet, and uses 1/4 the gas my open frame unit with a Coleman engine does and they deliver very close to the same power.
Each gen has a multiple outlet 50-foot 12/3 extension cord dedicated to it. I made PVC passthroughs for cord from gens to inside -- we have concrete block outside walls.
There is an inverter under the passenger seat of both cars.
Quick Dam QD617-1 Flood Barriers work. the "17" is the length and goes across the 16' garage door. I stack 2 high with third in reserve because my street floods right up my driveway. Have BAGS from them on order right now to replace barrier strips elsewhere.
1 tote with flood control stuff -- barriers, plastic sheet rolls 3x50, Agiiman sump pump (thankfully only tested, not used), etc.
1 tote roof repair -- knee protectors, hammers(2), roofing nails, four tarps. Separately, a dozen or so 1x2 strips pre-drilled for nailing to hold the tarps down. I can't handle sandbags on the roof.
We're far from perfect, but 2004 taught us a lot.
Check whether your generator can run on ethanol-free gasoline. If it can, get a steel jerry can (yeah, the old army-style gas can) and fill it with stabilized ethanol-free gas. Make sure the can has a tight screw-down cover with a non-rubber gasket (rubber tends to decompose). Gasoline stored in a steel can will last for *at least* 2 years without getting gunked up.
Glen, given the options out there, hand-crank radios are more trouble than they're worth; a gimmick in my book. They take an INORDINATE amount of cranking just to get a few minutes of radio time. A standard batt-op radio can run MANY hours on one set of batteries if you ration its use even a little. I have an AM/FM/Weather radio I picked up at a yard sale that has hand-crank, solar, battery, and AC adapter options. I can't remember the make and model, but on top of all the power options, it's actually a REALLY sensitive radio that SOUNDS REALLY GOOD. The solar cells are incorporated on the top of the radio and will run the thing fine during daylight hours. The crank NEVER gets used! About the only improvement I could get behind would be weather resistance. If I can remember, I'll take a look at it tonight and do an update on this tomorrow.
A cheaper option, which I use, is to cycle fresh gas through your stores. I keep two 55-gallon drums in the barn; one with gas and the other with diesel. When either gets about 5 gallons down I refill. This keeps fresh gas in the mix, as I'm always using gas for the lawn tractor and such. I don't cycle as much diesel, but diesel has a much longer shelf life than gas.
If you are going to have power for your PC, get an RTL-SDR dongle. It's essentially a software defined radio that will let you listen in on local hams, emergency services, aircraft frequencies - from about 30 or 40 Mhz up to about 2 Ghz. If not, get a Crane(radio). The hand-crank units are great for working on your arm strength, not so much for listening to radio.
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