I've been doing a lot of reading on standard refrigerator alternatives lately. One of the most clever I've run across have been homemade versions of a Crosley Icy Ball. These things run off of about a cup of kerosene a day. These are along the same lines of the gas absorption refrigerators used in RV's.

"...Propane and Natural Gas Fired Hot Water Heaters by code still run off a wall plug that runs a blower..."

Maybe where you live, but not at our stick house in CA. We have a propane water heater, vents above and below, but no electric blowers of any kind. (but then, our water comes from a well, electric pump. Bummer)...

Blast-

I know gas is expensive but this surprises me. My 6.5 KW can run 12 hrs on 7 gal. (Not that I would run it 12 hours at a stretch). I would guess a few hours a day would keep the freezer/fridges cold if not opened much. I plan to run it 6 hours/day. That's 3.5 gallons, or 14 bucks a day. Do you consider that outrageous? And spread between multiple families? That's cheap, man! 14 bucks to keep a whole lotta steaks o.k. sounds decent to me.

Red,

Thanks for that info, it puts a generator in a new light. I don't know the exact set up/generator type that my neighbors were using, but it was running pretty steadily to keep everyone's fridges and freezers going. They may also have been running tv's or other stuff, I'm not sure.

I guess in my case the power either goes out for 1 hour or six days, with nothing in between. I'm sure if we got a generator I could split the gas costs among my neighbors in return for running their stuff. Time to do more thinking.

-Blast

HOLY CRAP! I JUST BECAME A POOH-BAH!

-Blast

Congratulations Blast on your Pooh-Bah status

-Bill Liptak

Much better than a poop-bah. Congrats!

I'm in an enviable position weather-wise. I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1992, and it's never been below freezing and I've never lived in an air-conditioned house here.

Because I expect an earthquake, I've got a month's worth of canned and packaged food (for us two), a big propane tank (well, big to me), a propane grill, two propane camp stoves, a dual-fuel (white gas/unleaded gas) camp stove, and enough water to get me started filtering the stream that runs through the park across the street.

We've got survival candles, romantic candles, battery powered lanterns, a couple of 100 Amp-hour batteries, and an 18 Amp-hour battery connected to a solar panel.

We don't keep enough in the fridge/freezer for us not to be able to consume it all before it spoils, although heating the frozen TV dinners will have to be done without the microwave. :->

My big deal is medicine. We're both on life-long pills, and if there's no long term power, we will have trouble getting prescriptions filled. I think I'll ask the pharmacy what their power plans are if there's an earthquake or long term power outage.

Ahhhh, the old "I've finally got this generator so I'm going to run it 24 hours a day." Yep. I've seen it firsthand. O.k., I can see running it 24 hours/day is gonna get EXPENSIVE. But, you, being an experienced ETS guy, wouldn't make that mistake.

Thanks for all your great ideas/contributions/humor to the forum Blast. You da man.

P.S. My best friend shares your views on cats. Or is that just one certain particular cat?

red, it's not your views on cats, its their views on us.