What do you guys do for power backup?

[bigshooter]

to the original question.

I have lived in an apt. for the last 6 years while my wife has gone to school, started to get into prepping about 16 months ago. since then we have moved to the heart (8 blocks from dead center downtown) of the largest city in MN, Minneapolis.

solar and Batt. is way out of my league financially and even if it wasn't my apt is 650sqft.

I have a honda eu2000i with an extended run 3 gallon tank that I made. on four gallons I think it could run for nearly two days straight, if needed.

my "plan" is to place it on the roof and run a cord down to my top floor apt. there is only one access to the roof. after I take my bolt cutters to the padlock and replace it with my own it will be fairly secure. hopefully being three stories up will cut what little noise the honda puts out.

after hearing Boss302's story I am convinced my $30,000 solar array would become a target after I denied access to the sheep.

great way to become on some level energy independant, especially if your in a rural setting, but urban, sub-urban in a real lasting SHTF I see it as a liability.

one 5000 watt genset or two eu2000i's can be thrown in the back of the BOV and get gone alot easier than $30,00 in solar equipment.

[Abraxas]

to the original question.

I have lived in an apt. for the last 6 years while my wife has gone to school, started to get into prepping about 16 months ago. since then we have moved to the heart (8 blocks from dead center downtown) of the largest city in MN, Minneapolis.

solar and Batt. is way out of my league financially and even if it wasn't my apt is 650sqft.

I have a honda eu2000i with an extended run 3 gallon tank that I made. on four gallons I think it could run for nearly two days straight, if needed.

my "plan" is to place it on the roof and run a cord down to my top floor apt. there is only one access to the roof. after I take my bolt cutters to the padlock and replace it with my own it will be fairly secure. hopefully being three stories up will cut what little noise the honda puts out.

after hearing Boss302's story I am convinced my $30,000 solar array would become a target after I denied access to the sheep.

great way to become on some level energy independant, especially if your in a rural setting, but urban, sub-urban in a real lasting SHTF I see it as a liability.

one 5000 watt genset or two eu2000i's can be thrown in the back of the BOV and get gone alot easier than $30,00 in solar equipment.

Heck, where you are at the solar panels would be covered by snow 11 months of the year.Just kidding, I used to live only an hour or so away from there

[bigshooter]

Heck, where you are at the solar panels would be covered by snow 11 months of the year.Just kidding

that's no joke, 6 months of winter really is getting to me. it was 5 degrees wednsday morning

[BigJim #1-8]

I'm considering a propane powered whole house backup.Kohler 17kv seems to be the ticket.
Anyone have experience with these systems??

[philco]

After a number of hurricanes a fews years back that came through central florida,I installed a 15KW Guardian generator that runs on Natural gas. Haven't had to use it yet.

[Boss302]

I'm working on a low RPM Diesel setup. 15kw is enough to run my house, so i'm looking at a 20kw unit. The low rpm setups are quiet....and will be even more so in the building i'm putting together for it.

[Puffy93]

The thing about solar/wind power is if it comes to long term SHTF as in war or something solar or wind power is alot more vunerable than generators although generators aren't as reliable.

[MarshallDodge]

The thing about solar/wind power is if it comes to long term SHTF as in war or something solar or wind power is alot more vunerable than generators although generators aren't as reliable.

I am not sure why solar or wind would be any more vulnerable than a generator. I would think that fuel for your genny would be hard to come by in a time of war.

If you are talking about a war in which a battle ensues in my front yard then I am going to have some serious issues, so serious that I won't care about where my power comes from. Except for being built from brick, my house is not necessarily battle hardened.

In my research so far, it seems that I need to calculate the batteries based on a 20% discharge. Discharging any lead acid battery more than 20% significantly reduces it's life. One site said that you can expect 7-10 years of use from batteries if you take care of them this way.

I am looking into a great big forklift battery.

[Puffy93]

I was thinking more along the lines of a bunker where the generator would be protected inside

[RWBlue]

The good news is that I don't think I will need backup power for 99.5% of the time. Living in subberbia does have benefits.

The bad news is I am not preped for the .5% of the time when I really need it.