Originally Posted By: scafool


The bad stuff #2
Maybe you could set up a schedule and only run the gen set a few hours at a time. There are a lot of places in the world where power is only available on a part time basis.
Instead of powering the water pump steady, keep a bucket of water for washing and so on, fill up the drinking water jugs, have a shower and then shut it off again.
unless of course you have other stuff that beeds constant power.
If the Mennonites can go without power for 300 years you should be able to get through an afternoon without it.


Indeed, the power out test presumes that we'll run power intermittently. We're well-equipped for food and water and all that - I have a ready supply of 150 gallons on hand for drinking, and we're able to capture greywater for sanitation (flushing). I also have a large (150' x 80') pond suitable for toilets and sanitation directly, and with a little filtering and bleach, it's good to drink. It's a pain in the winter to use the pond water, the ice is often thick!

In addition to powering the well - to replenish the water tanks - I need to power the other end of things - the Septic system, as our final tank has a pump to a sand mound, and if that pump fails to run, I'll have an overflow condition that will spill into my yard and pond. Not good. I have 3 young kids, and you can only tell them "don't flush" so many times - they forget.

The baking tips - thanks for those, I know my wife loves her cast iron frying pans, a dutch oven would be ideal. Pressure cookers scare me.