Post by d***@gmail.comI am in Florida and have gone through two years of bad hurricanes with
power outages that have lasted over two weeks. I live in an
apartment/condo with pretty large balconies... and was thinking of
using the Honda EU1000i or EU2000i portable generator on the balcony...
but, this might not be permitted by my condo rules and regs, and I'm
concerned about the safety issues as well... even if I keep my windows
closed, what about the downstairs neighbor!
Hi neighbor (waves) I'm south of you in Broward. You are correct that
a generator on the balcony won't be permitted. The police are wising
up that the practice is not only a noisy nuisance, but extremely
dangerous. Forget about that idea.
You might petition the condo board to install a large backup generator
that all tenants can use. If you have elevators, a backup may soon be
required by law anyway. Since this would be a retrofit, if it is a
small building, what could be done is a separate circuit near the
elevator shaft, with an outlet panel on each floor, containing one
individually fused socket for each condo unit, and a link to any
emergency lighting. The breaker would be designed to trip at 15 amps.
During an outage, each condo owner would have an approved heavy duty
extension cord, and plug this in to power their refrigerator, tv, and
fan, or small AC. The owners would decide beforehand whether to run
the generator all the time or just during certain periods.
Post by d***@gmail.comAs an alternative I'm considering a permanent inverter installation in
my car (and running extension cables up to the 2nd floor) after having
great success with a small 150 watt inverter the previous hurricane
season (it was enough to power my laptop (watch movies), a fan and a
couple of fluorescent lights).
I'd like at least 750 watts for the inverter and would like your
thoughts and opinions about a permanent installation of such a unit in
my car (I will probably have a car alarm/stereo place do the install).
The output of a car alternator is only about 750 watts and a lot of
that is used by parasitic loads in the car. You also have to use a
high idle to get any sort of power out of an alternator. Chances are
real good you would toast your electical system in your car, possibly
clog up the engine, and the system isn't efficient anyway.
Keeping it simple, you could chain a generator to your car.
However, what I would do in your situation is get a cheap generator, a
large battery charger, four golf-cart batteries, some welding cable, a
hydrometer, and an inverter, all for the same price as the Honda.
During the morning and early evening, I'd run the generator for an
hour or two beside the car, drop a cable down, and use the charger to
charge the batteries, which would have been placed on the balcony and
connected after the storm. Once the batteries were charged, I'd let
the generator cool and lock it in the trunk of the car, and use
battery power and the inverter.
I used a variation of this after Wilma, and kept my refrigerator going
24/7 and had enough power to do what I wanted. Anything that took
serious electricity, like the washing machine, was only run on
generator power.
Caveats -
Some appliances don't like inverter power.
Some chargers may not like generator power.
You need _at least_ a 1200 watt inverter to start a fridge compressor.
Forget about using a room air conditioner except on generator power.
If an appliance uses electrical resistance heat - ditch it.*
Batteries should only be discharged to 50% of rated capacity.
Batteries should be fully charged and equalized at least once a week
under these conditions.
You can't substitute car batteries for this usage.
You should buy all four golf cart batteries as a unit.
Batteries used like this must be outside of the dwelling (you can
store them inside if you aren't charging or using them - just be
careful - store them in rubbermaid plastic storage containers that
you've cut holes in the top of for venting any hydrogen.)
* I'm amazed at people stuggling after a storm to try to cook
everything on a grill. A single burner propane camp stove is less
than $15 and sits on a propane bottle. It is great for making coffee
with an old style percolator or a french press, and for heating small
amounts of water and normal cooking. Sterno or alcohol saturated
cotton batting in a tuna can is great for slow cooking.
For large amounts of hot water, buy a box of 1.5 mil black plastic
garbage bags. Push out the excess air and lie a bag on its side in
the sun with a couple of inches of water in it. You'll have hot water
for dish cleaning. Do a few bags and have enough for a tub bath in
the afternoon or evening.