Murph got me thinking....

So Murph has a power outage and tells the aftermath. I don't have a 172 to survey what has power or not. After a cursory inspection here my game is lacking. 

On the nightstand:

A E2D Surefire, a wireless phone that would be useless in a power failure and a land line phone.  Say what you will about the death of them. It is coming but they still have a bunch of batteries and generators at the central offices. 

Next on the dresser. A standard MagLite. 

If I need more flashlights, there is one right here in the laundry room on the wall. 

If we go into overtime I have this for lighting.

Another LED MagLite and a little B&D LED stick.

Oh and this:

This is a cool Coleman LED lantern that has a rechargeable battery pack as well as accepting 4 size D batteries. You can split it into two parts and carry them around. 

I can recharge it with this:

This is a big sealed 12VDC battery in a pretty case. It can power 12 volt devices as well as small load 120VAC stuff. You can keep your cell phone charged as well as the lighting the above stuff for days.

Heat I have.

Powered by this:

So is the gas grill.

Good on that end, but not good enough.

Battery powered radio I have, but it would be cumbersome to bug out with. On the plus side, I could do some blunt force trauma to an adversary when it is loaded with NINE D cell batteries!

Water. This one is interesting. I have one of these:

A deep water well. The hand pump is for show to keep the plastic crap cover on it. The previous owners cut over to county water leaving me with two outside hose bibs for watering.

Local regs say I cannot interconnect the two systems. Plumber is coming tomorrow to give an assessment on what would be required to switch the house back to the well. 

I looked online and found hand pumps that would work in conjuction with the pump arrangement. 2K?!?!?

I think I could do better. 

If I decide what I MUST run with electricity and size a generator properly I thought I should be able to beat the 2K and simply have well water in the house as well as powering essential stuff.

I get right to it. 

  
  


















Taking amp readings for essential circuits. 

Inrush current for the well pump:

The biggest load. I can power the well pump, the beer storage unit refrigerator, coffee maker, ceiling fans, office PC, modem, TV, directv, lights and the security system. For less than the 2K for the hand pump for the well. 

This thing is covered in awesome sauce! The manual transfer switch. A masterful show of simplicity. From Reliance Controls. One is one the way. Looks like I need about a 7Kw generator. I thought hard about the propane fueled ones to run off my tank without worrying about gasoline gumming and such. That would require hard plumbing though. That means a building to house it an all of that. A portable generator will be on the way.

Thanks Murph! I think I would be a popular guy if I could make ice next time a HUGO runs through here.