Not for Boomershoot. I’m always ready for that. No, I’m ready for another snowstorm, but thankfully, it look like we’re only in line for a little more wind.
Speaking of being ready, co-worker and friend, Paul, and his better half have set up their own prepper site, called Emergency Focus. Its brand new with only a few posts so far, but do go take a looksee.
Thankfully, we did not lose power during the snow-event at Firebase Blue, though there was some minor damage to the structure and landscaping. We have a steel shingled roof which, when the sun comes out or the temp warms up, tends to let the snow come off in great sheets. Because of this, we lost a couple short sections of gutter which will have to be replaced and reinstalled.
We also lost a decent sized section of the cherry tree in front of the house. I’ll be getting the chainsaw out sometime later this week to see how much of it I can save. Just waiting for a dry day.
Not one to rest on my laurels, feeling safe because the lights stayed on “this time”, I have a few selected items I plan on purchasing during 2012 so that I have a back up source for the zap-juice. Some of these I have been wanting to get for some time, and “the near future” seems like a good time.
The first item on the list is this BUPS/UPS system I found a link to via Instapundit. He’s got a couple of them and swears by them. The next items will be at least two of these inverters. I also need to get more solar battery chargers.
One of the things that had fallen off my “To Do List” that shouldn’t have was the conversion of my 5500Watt generator from Gasoline to Propane. I’ve always got a full cylinder around here and I think that if I actually get off my ass and do the conversion, I’d probably go buy and fill a 30 gallon or larger cylinder just for good measure.
So, when I get the money I loaned the federal government at no interest during 2011 back in a couple weeks or so, I’ve got a plan for it.
Lastly (and I’m sure I’m not the only one who was already thinking of doing this), if you want to see how to make two of these
Look like this
Click on this link. Yes there is “funky writing” there, so if that frightens you, then just don’t click on the link. Otherwise, enjoy.
But please, don’t blame me if you spend all day at work thinking about how you’d do yours up. I know I’m going to have trouble sleeping because I want to get three of them.
Less funny writing on this one.
http://www.tincancabin.com/
Also you would need a torch or some heavy equipment to get in it.
Kewl! Danke, Eriko.
Those UPSs are also available from Costco. I definitely recommend having some sort of UPS for your computer gear, and any other expensive electronics you have. One of those and a small laptop will last a long time.
If you get the propane conversion, make sure to get the quick disconnect coupling also. Makes connecting things infinitely easier.
Nice dud, thanks for the help,passsssssss us around.
Try to find a UPS which will let you connect more batteries for a longer run time. That might involve some research, as the guts of the all-in-one models are designed for ONLY the power of those dinky internal batteries. You might be better advised to build your own. Almost any electronic tech can cannibalize an old, defunct UPS to get the switch out of it, and you supply the rest, including bigger and more batteries and a better charger. If you’re going to be into a whole-house UPS, it is NOT going to be a cheap project, but it is SOOO nice to never even detect the switch between mains and the UPS, then the UPS to the generator (if you have an auto-start system). I read somewhere that the requirement is for 13 minutes of the whole-house load, that’s how they build them. In that time, if you can’t get your genset running, you can race around and shut down non-essential stuff, then that UPS might just take you all the way through the outage.
I observed the techs when they installed a new Generac 50KW at a work site. The UPS was smallish affair, about the size of a large U-Haul box.The generator was a towable (with a 2-ton), had a Cat 4-cyl engine, the output was 110, 220(240) and it could also be wired for 440. It had a strong engine block heater so that the prime mover was always at 130 degrees, and it came up to speed and power in 3 seconds from the trigger signal. It carried it’s own 210-gallong diesel tank on the unit’s trailer frame.
It was my job to exercise the system, and just to be safe when I did, I had everyone shut down their computers, but I think the UPS would have handled them with no damage.
BTW, Phil, it’s likely that the generator you have will NOT supply the “clean power” (perfect sine-wave at exactly 60 hz) that will run computers, TVs etc without damage. You might consider getting a modern inverter-generator for that. You also have to watch those inverters, as the cheaper ones are not sine-wave either. A Fluke meter should tell you one way or the other (or an oscilloscope).
I suspect that using fiberglass insulation on the *inside* of a shipping container is just asking for problems. Moisture is going to get in there and condense when it hits the cold metal.
I think some type of exterior insulation would be less of a problem, e.g., foam for the roof and foam or straw bales for the walls.
There is a need to be cautious about piling earth up against the walls also — the containers are not made to be stressed in that fashion and could collapse if it is overdone.