Emergency Backup Generators

Fukushima flooded nuclear power reactor meltdown was because TEPCO failed to follow GE's advice to put the diesel backup generators on the roofs of the reactor complex buildings. The reactors were built in an area on the coast of Japan that had been regularly & repeatedly hit with tsunamis for the last 6000 years according to the Natural History of Japan Museum Records. So why in the holy name of God would they not take that into consideration, especially when GE told them to mount them to the roof, not mount them to the ground where the backup generators needed to keep the core cooled could be easily flooded by an easily anticipated highly probable future tsunami. 

I have posted before that Meg purchased a Honda EU2000 small 1600-watt inverter generator that I have been actively maintaining in ready to roll status, filled & regularly exercised & tested, since 2017, with a logbook & manual for all repairs, spare parts & similar. I got the idea from the Pentagon many years ago. Though they would have 3 of each, one in active offline & two unopened in the box & a case of replacement wear part times to keep the system going & lots of fuel cans of stabilized gasoline, but I don't have their budget & can't legally print money or dept spend like the US Government for such. 

When I was growing up, every winter, there were local news stories on TV about Asian families living in Apartment complexes that ended up dying of carbon monoxide poisoning by running an emergency backup generator inside their unit during winter power outages. What I find astonishing, is the foul smell of the emissions from even our relatively small EU2000 made the patio outside reek with fumes that smell poisonous. What kind of confused person would not notice the horrendous stink emitted by such long before CO poisoning would become possible? Also, nearly all emergency backup generators are covered in CO warning stickers printed in 5 most common languages. Must Be Used Outdoors. Do Not Use Inside in an Enclosed Space. Warning CO emissions are Deadly, Only Use in Well Ventilated Area & similar. With graphics showing people choking on exhaust fumes with symbols of death & danger & hazard in ISO symbol graphics that transcend language barriers. I thought these people sounded brain dead or stupid when I was 5 years old. Now I understand that many people in developing countries cook over coal bricks in crude stoves without good exhaust control such that the indoor air quality gets worse as more coal is burned to make heat for cooking. Similar crude simple wood stoves burning sticks making sooty exhaust are used in crude housing where the fumes and smoke are not vented outside, such that indoor air quality gets worse as the fire burns, so such people when they move to clean air America might not notice the smelly exhaust as much, being used to smelling coal and wood fire fumes where they came from originally. So perhaps these people are actually more intelligent than I thought as a young child watching these local news stories of people who suffered CO poisoning by running backup generators inside their apartment, in nearly every case, the victims of generator CO emissions poisoning had recently moved to America from a developing country. 

You might have $400 to $1200 of stuff in your fridge, including temperature sensitive HRT or Insulin or similar that must stay cooler than your indoor temps, so having a backup generator that can run your fridge for 4 or 5 days during a winter power outage can be really helpful to save your stuff. You can also cook over a propane or butane stove, using pots & pans, like camping, on your deck or patio, during power outages, taking out frozen meat or fish or chicken or stuff from your fridge to cook like eggs. This way you can stay well fed during power outages. When the fridge not running, you can use the same generator to run a small 1500-watt space heater to keep your indoor space warmer when its really cold outside. If you have to run the 12-3 extension cord through a cracked window or patio door, cover the gap with waterproof duct tape you can get at a local hardware store for under $10 to keep the cold air out. You can cover both sides if you are careful. Foam packing wrap works great to put a layer of insulation over the tape & tape it into place. Use fuel stabilizer in the gas can & in the generators tank to extend the gasolines shelf life before oxidation from 3 months untreated to up to 2 years treated with fuel stabilizer. I also recommend running the generator for 15 min every 2 months to keep fresh gasoline running through the fuel lines, fuel filter and carburetor, or drain the entire system to dry, including the tank, fuel lines, fuel filter & carburetor to store it dry. I also recommend taking the spark plug out & putting a few ML of synthetic motor oil into the top of the cylinder to keep it lubricated while in dry storage mode if you do it like that. I prefer to keep mine fully loaded with fuel, fresh gas added ever time with fuel stabilizer added, run the generator every couple of months for 15-45 minutes with regular oil changes to keep fresh oil & freshen up your memory of how to do it. Keep a space spark plug & tools for changing it. Keep a 12-3 twenty-five-foot extension cord with outlet splitter so you can take power from your generator outside & use the cord to bring the power inside to run your fridge or space heater or water boiling kettle or whatever. 

Why a Honda Portable Generator

Premium, highly reliable, sterling reputation for reliability. Honda small, air-cooled carburetor fueled piston engines have a long history of stellar reliable operation. The EU 2000 highly portable, not very loud, has an ECO mode to vary the engine speed & power output to match loads, low noise regulated IGBT inverter with stable power & low noise sinewave output with excellent voltage regulation able to run sensitive electronics, and sips gasoline. During a recent 4 days power outage, we ran it from 8 am to 8 pm, or about 12 hours per day, and use about 1 gallon per day incredibly. I keep about 7.3 gallons of fuel on hand + 1.1 in the generator, so enough for about 8 days like this. Worse case we could use it a lot less, but even fired up our TV, 48-inch Vizio edge lit LED, and Blu-ray player (Sony BDP-360) to watch optical disc DVD & Blu-ray disc movies, run lamps, space heaters, run the fridge freezer & boil water. I just unplugged one thing & ran no more than 1500 watts on it at a time, since its nominal output max of 1600w can peak to 2000watts for 1 minute to get that Fridge compressor motor started :) At under 50 lbs. it is similar to lifting a typical 12 volt automative SLI battery, SLI means starting lighting & ignition, you know those heave lead acid batteries that power the engines starter motor to crank the engine over during cold start when you first turn the car on, before the alternator has a chance to put out its full output of power generator once the engine is running to recharge the 12v battery and power all the vehicle electrical loads.