Hurricane season notes: generator version

Last week, we answered this question. What do people need to know about hurricane season?

In answering this question, I thought there were more answers and I wanted to focus on the power issue.

For most of our cases, power outages are relatively rare and short-lived.

But during the hurricane, all bets were closed. The power outage that usually takes several hours to fix can take three days to reach the hurricane because

• Deploying recovery workers may not be safe.
• Some crew members may not be able to leave their homes.
• Your line may not be in a high priority area.

So this leaves us with a question of how to provide electricity at home when the grid is lowered. If you’re better thinking about this before the storm starts to appear in the evening news, before your Tik Tok Feed or YouTube, life will be better. Like, think about this now.

There are three high-end methods to ensure that the grid is powerful when it is lowered. You can invest in solar panels, and since you’ve been in this far, make sure they install battery backups so you can store power for a few days. If you are those fans, you can also buy an electric car. If you lose power, they may be your battery backup. Just make sure you charge your electric cars because they won’t be charged without power. You can also install an entire home generator in your house. These may run on gasoline, natural gas or propane and are designed to start automatically when the power is down.

Now that we have that crowd, let me talk to the rest of us, they are looking for some way to have power in case the grid falls off and we don’t have the funds for other solutions.

For those who want electricity but don’t want maintenance or fuel costs, there are several types of power stations that are relatively small and can range from several phone chargers and fans to operating small kitchen appliances. These power stations can be charged by plugging into the house (before it is needed), and many power stations include solar panels, which can also be connected to portable solar panels.

Maybe you are considering a more traditional generator. So let’s talk about those. Portable generators are usually small enough to be moved by one or two people and can often power your home, although be careful about running wattages, not crank wattages, and make sure you don’t exceed the power generator can provide. That’s why they have fuses and if you’re not careful, they can go out to you.

If you have a generator, please take the following precautions.

• Use it outdoors in a well-ventilated area. I don’t care if you think someone will steal it, please leave it outside. It is burning gases and producing carbon monoxide. If you don’t know why that’s bad, search the internet.
• Professionally install plugs. This way, when your neighbor comes to your next picnic, you can show it off and humbly brag and prepare for the next storm.
• Run as recommended schedule from the manufacturer. Put the gasoline in, lift it up and insert something into it. Run it for a while, then close it and drop it. Not only can you bend neighbors without generators, but you can also prevent dirt from nesting in carburetors.

One more thing, if you come across a generator hooked to your home, no matter how you do it, or how big it is, the last point is the most important to you.

Turn off the main power supply or turn on the generator before connecting. If you don’t, you’ll feed at least some of the power into the wire. It may not be enough to provide a freezer to your neighbors, but to hurt or kill the power recovery crew, you don’t want it. Their work is too difficult if we add a level of surprise to them.

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Disasters, natural disasters, hurricanes