sweasel.com

Just a little wind and rain here and the power goes out, sounds like it’s going to be a lot more windy there.

Have a nice safe weekend! 🙂

“Bert” will be moving umbrella carrying nannies and hottentot chimney sweeps all over London.

That’s a bad case of mold though ain’t it.

If it makes you feel any better I had to turn on the pool heater this week. My gas bill already took a hit when Hurricane Milton came thru. I lost power for a couple of days. Good thing I have that Generac whole house generator so I continued to live in uninterrupted comfort but I definitely coughed a bit when I saw my gas bill. So here I am, cranking up the pool heater like I’m made of money or something. And I’m ok with that…comfort uber alles!

Armybrat, I’m sure you realize your whole-house generator is survivalist porn for every read-blooded male reading this thread. You flirt!

We did buy a generator last year or the year before. We were convinced we’d see brownouts and blackouts during lockdown. Not yet, but we are on a collision course with the iron laws of supply and demand.

It’s just enough to keep our freezers ticking over and allow us to recharge our gadgets. It’s dual fuel and, come to think of it, we really should fire it up just to run it in a little.

Survivalist pron!
We tore up the yard yesterday for new sod laying with a 40v tiller. Looks to me that it’s only good for say, 500 sq ft on a charge, but time will tell in future experiments.

Then played with recharging the solar battery generator that had juiced two hot logic plates keeping mac and cheese casseroles warm for transport to “the bosses” office – which ate 17% of the available charge.

Might keep the fridge running for 6 hours or so, but I already tested it on the meecrow-wav-aa and it don’t run that, or the air fryer, because it can’t handle the start up surges.

So, we’ll be able to till a small garden plot, and….charge our phones and kindles, which will connect to nothing, during the end times.

You have a HUGE storm developing off your west coast. Hunker down and stay safe and dry!

ArmyBrat — We, too, have a Generac whole-house setup, but our area doesn’t have natural gas so we’re stuck with propane. Used about 55 gallons this past hurricane season which cost us 388 bucks. Very much worthwhile.
Bad part, the damned thing is NOISY.
Now I’m gonna check up on a battery back up system rather than needing to depend on the generator.

Very worthwhile, though.

@Oldfert…yeah, we’re plumbed for natural gas so the Generac is a breeze for us. We have friends who live 1/2 mile from us…their neighborhood doesn’t have gas. They’re getting quotes now between propane tank install and Generac vs. solar panels and Tesla power wall. We run the whole house (including the pool…because we can). They’re looking to run whole house but will settle for a/c, freezer, kitchen and a few other outlets depending on the price. Running a/c is the deciding factor for them. Believe it or not…solar with a couple of Tesla power wall panels may be cheaper than propane…oh… and the largest part of their roof faces south and west.

Running that Generac for ~3 days (whole house including pool) ran me about $50. Not cheap but far less expensive than loosing the commercial size freezer in the garage packed so tight I can’t shove so much as a fart in there. And what is in there you ask? Well, among other things 3 prime prime ribs cut into various rib lengths, 4 prime tenderloins cut into medallions and lengths for beef Wellington, 4 pork loins cut into different options, probably a half dozen baby back rib planks, I’m pretty sure there’s 2 whole briskets, 2 spiral cut half hams, one full city ham, 2 turkeys, a plethora of ham hocks, a variety of homemade soups and stocks and I’m sure some stuff lost way in the back.

@Armybrat – you’ll be eating way better than us during the end fimes!

Guys two houses down from us have a Tesla setup. Only lights in sight when the windmills froze a couple years back and the fields of solar iced over.
Their panels didn’t ice coat for very long.

Question on the Generacs, can you not build more around them sound insulation wise, assuming you leave room for maintenance access and air flow/cooling?

@Durnedyankee — I’ve checked on soundproofing and it’s quite a pain. No one around here seems to know anything about it, and youtube doesn’t seem to show it to be a simple job.
Nonetheless, I’ll figure something out.

@oldfert – thanks! I’ll poke around some too.
Reason I ask is – assume end times. Two things will stand out and attract zombies because of the change in the profile of the new environment.

The scent of food cooking over a fire will become more noticeable, as, of course, will “smoke”, well, after everything that can burn has burned….

And any mechanical noises, like a generator, will be like a pneumatic hammer working under your bedroom window because all the other ambient noises of civilization will have stopped.
I wonder if diverting the sound “up” is effective as I’ve noticed oil/gas machinery hereabouts often uses vertical baffles when the sites are located close to, or sometimes in, residential neighborhoods.

Once the typical urban or suburban background noise—cars, HVAC systems, distant chatter, birds, even wind—disappears, our perception of “intrusive” sounds shifts drastically. A generator that seemed tolerable in a noisy city can feel jarringly loud in near-silence. It’s not just psychological; it’s physics. Sound stands out more against a quiet backdrop.