Electrical Power Back-Up

Get Peace of Mind with a Back-up Power Supply So You Can Focus on Keeping Your Vibrations High

In my last post I wrote about how we need to have our own backs with essential items such as food in order to be able to stop the fear and worry and ultimately get into a positive vibe to create a future in which we hopefully will never need our back-up preparations. In this post I write about back-up electrical power. I’m neither an electrician nor an engineer but I and my family spent the last three years intensively researching possible power backup systems. Living in South Florida with the ever present possibility of a hurricane or tornado, we experienced power outages several times in the past. Our power lines are so fragile in fact that the power goes out every so often when a bird farts on the power line.

What are the possible power back-up systems?
There are gasoline and diesel generators, usually in a portable size. Though the larger ones weigh so much, you can hardly move them. There are permanently installed propane generators, portable and fixed installed solar generators and wind generators.  Let’s look at the pros and cons of these systems:

Gasoline Generators
About 10 years ago I bought the largest portable gasoline generator by Generac at the time with 17.5 kilowatt capacity. It hooks up to the house via a so called transfer switch. This switch either lets through power from the electric company to the main panel or when switched, from a special plug where the generator is plugged in. The reason for a transfer switch is to prevent an explosion and subsequent fire once the power is restored. If the generator were hooked up directly to the panel providing power and the power from the electric company comes back on, you would get two sources of power feeding the panel leading to an explosion.

This generator can run most of the house when the 5 ton air conditioner is not used. It can run the AC but nothing much else except a few light bulbs. But one needn’t run the AC all the time. So you can switch between the AC and other things like fridges, freezers, lights, TV, water pumps and so one by turning on and off the respective breakers or simply turning off the AC when not needed.

The pros for this type of generators are the relative affordable cost of the generator and the transfer switch. The generator costs around USD 3650.--. The transfer switch installed is around 1200.—whereby the main cost is the installation. It can power most of the essential things in a house such as refrigerators, freezers, ceiling fans, portable air conditioners, lights, TV, computer, modem, well pump, house pump OR it can power a 5 ton AC. It’s portable as you will have to move it away from the house a bit to prevent inhaling carbon monoxide fumes. 

Now let’s look at the disadvantages: Obviously it needs gasoline. This entails buying large gasoline canisters with either a manual or battery operated suction device to transfer the fuel from the canisters into the generator or your car. Gasoline can only be stored a certain amount of time before it goes bad. When you use a fuel conditioner liquid you can keep it for a year, but then you should begin using it in your car. Don’t let it sit around longer as it can kill your fuel injectors in the car as I learned the hard way. Once gasoline is too old to use, there is no place to safely get rid of it. You’re stuck with it for the rest of your life. Handling and storing gasoline is a stinky business and can be dangerous. If stored in a hot garage or outside, it needs to be vented once a week as fumes build up inside the canisters. Another danger of gasoline generators are the carbon monoxide fumes spewed out of the generators exhaust pipe. You will have to install battery operated carbon monoxide alarms in your home to warn you if fumes get into the house. The generator when running doesn’t only stink but it’s very noisy. Everybody in your neighborhood will know you have one running. Since it’s portable it could make an attractive thing to steal. Another disadvantage is that it is dependent on gasoline. If the gas stations are out of it or don’t have the power to run the pumps, you can’t get gasoline.

Diesel Generators have the same pros and cons, but diesel can be stored a lot longer than gasoline. In order to use diesel once the storage time reaches its limit, you would need a car that runs on diesel to use it up.

Tips for using these generators: don’t stop the engine by pressing the off switch. Turn it off by closing the fuel valve. This way all the fuel in the fuel line is used up. If fuel stays in there unused it gets sticky and begins to clog the fuel line. You should start up your generator about 3-4 times per year and do an oil change once in a while. Keep the battery hooked up to a trickle charger.

Propane Generators are usually fixed installed generators with up to 150 kilowatts. The Pros are that they can run the entire house with no problem. It is fueled by an underground propane tank. The generator is very quiet and doesn’t smell, and the system turns on automatically when the power is out. So there is no need to schlepp around a portable gas generator.  

The cons are the costs. Such a system can easily cost up to USD 25 000.—for a 30kW system. The tank holds enough propane to run the house for about a week. Getting it refilled currently costs about USD 1000.--. This means you pay about 1000.—for one week of power! The other problem is getting someone to refill it. After a hurricane some of my neighbors and our local grocery store couldn’t get a truck out to refill their tank.

Roof Solar Generators

There are fixed installed solar generators with solar panels on the roof. Such a system can easily cost USD 100 000.--. Here in Florida they are being pushed with the incentive that you pay monthly which is supposed to be less than the monthly electric bill which is around 500.—per month for my house. They can do that because the system creates more power than the homes needs and thus feeds the excess kilowatts back to the power company during the day which pays you for the power you feed them, though it’s a pittance compared to what they charge per kilowatt during the night. There is a tax credit one receives when installing a solar system and the loan for the installation is transferable to the next buyer of the home. The system is quiet and creates no fumes.

Here are the cons: The cost obviously is very high. Worse though is that you have no solar power during the night and overcast days and are dependent on the power company. Even worse is that when there is a power outage in your area, you have no solar power either to prevent your solar power from running through the power lines that may be downed and need to be worked on. The only way you can have power during the night, overcast days and during a power outage is if you have battery back-up, which easily adds another $ 70 -80 000.—to the cost of installation. Another problem is the solar panels on the roof. Your roof may not be large enough to hold all the panels that are required to generate enough power. In Florida there is a risk that a hurricane or tornado will tear off the panels (and possibly part of your roof) and they are not insured by a homeowner’s insurance plan. The solar panels have a life span of about 20 years they say, though their efficiency begins to wane before that. It will take about 20 years to pay off the debt incurred to install the system. So once your debt is paid off, you will need to buy new solar panels. You never get out of debt. Once you reach my age it simply isn’t worth it.

Portable Solar Generators

There are several companies that make portable solar generators. The company I chose is called Ecoflow. Yes they are made in China and have Lithium batteries, which isn’t ideal- I know.

2 Generators in the middle with one battery each

The pros are that the system is expandable. The Delta Pro generator puts out up to 3.6 kilowatts and each generator can be hooked up to two batteries. Two such generators can be hooked together so it can also supply 220W for running the well pump or dryer (not essential) or a stove. Two generators with two batteries each supply up to 21.6 kilowatts. The system can be expanded with a breaker panel that can feed up to 10 power lines inside the house. When there is a power outage, the system switches automatically to the solar back up power. It can’t run the 5 ton AC but it can run the water pumps, portable AC’s, fridges, freezers, TV, ceiling fans, computer and lights on the 10 circuits. 

Ecoflow breaker panel for 10 circuits hooked into the house breaker panel above and to the two generators in the room adjacent to the garage through the bottom two holes.

There are a few cons here as well as with every system: Two generators with four batteries, the breaker panel, the solar panels and cables cost around $ 22 000.—without installation. This system will run the house for a good 10-12 hours. This means you need another set of this system to run during the night, thus doubling the cost. You can only plug two generators into the panel. Once these two generators and batteries are empty, you need to manually unplug them and plug in your back up generators and batteries. They can’t be stored in the garage as it’s too hot and they take up quite a lot of space. They each weigh 45 kg or 100 lbs. though they come with two wheels and a pull out handle. The maximum input from solar panels per generator is 1.6 kilowatt which I think is little compared to the possible output of 3.6 kW. The solar panels are real space eaters. You need a lot of solar panels to charge and power the generators. If you don’t live in a hurricane or tornado area, you could have them mounted on the roof. I designed and constructed wooden frames on wheels (for the larger panels) to mount the solar panels with an adjustable angle to match the solar angle which changes during the year .They are sort of portable so I could store them in the garage in case of a storm. But they fill up a good part of the driveway. You need to pound an 8 foot long copper rod into the ground so you can ground the panels in case of a lightning strike which was no fun. An eight hundred pound Gorilla would have been nice to have to do this. The Ecoflow system can be controlled with an app on a phone but it requires a connection to the Wi-Fi which can be an issue. I would have preferred a manual control option but that doesn’t exist. Obviously you need sunshine to power the generators. Living in the sun shine state of Florida that is usually not a problem here though the intense chemtrailing these past two months have been blocking the sun every day except for a few days.  With enough battery back-ups you have power during the night.

8 panels of 400 Watts each in the back and 8 panels with 200 Watts each in the front. I connected the solar panels with the appropriate cables and then ran these through PVC tubing into the garage.

All in all I decided this to be the best solution as it allows me to power everything I need, independently of the power company. It is the back-up to my gas generator back-up in case gasoline becomes unavailable. It switches on automatically so I need not drag my gas generator out of the garage for short power outages.

Wind Power

I have a bird paradise in my back yard and wind turbines are deadly to birds which is why this option was out from the beginning. Secondly, unless we have a hurricane, we don’t have much wind in my area.

As this was out of the question from the beginning, I didn’t look into the details of such a system. If roof mounted, that again would be a problem in a hurricane area. You would need your whole roof full of these to produce enough power for the essential things and you would need a battery back-up.

The above solutions are viable if you live in a home. If you live in an apartment it becomes more difficult. You can’t run a gas or diesel generator on your balcony as you would poison yourself. If you have a balcony that is large enough with sun exposure you could charge a portable solar generator to at least be able to charge a mobile phone, a satellite phone, run a few lamps, a small TV, and maybe a small fridge on and off.

In summary there is no perfect power back-up solution. All of them have down sides, but even so, it’s better to have some power than none at all. The only real solution would be a free energy device in every home, but so far inventors who registered a patent were raided, murdered and their research taken. The only way we will ever get such devices is when inventors put out the information open source. This way the information is out and can’t be contained. I realize this would minimize monetary gain for inventors, but surely crowd funding could be used so inventors can begin building and selling such devices. No inventor would ever have the capacity to build enough devices for the entire planet anyway. I believe they still can make plenty of money even when they share the information with the world.

Resources:

Gas & Diesel Generators and Gasoline containers:

www.generac.com for gas, diesel and propane generators (portable and non-portable)

https://www.northerntool.com/products/flo-fast-gas-container-with-pump-and-cart-15-gallon-red-for-gasoline-model-31015-r-64490?cm_mmc=Google-pla&ogmap=SHP%7CPLA%7CGOOG%7CSTND%7Cc%7CSITEWIDE%7COOT%7C%7C%7C%7C168428156%7C8709875156&gad_source=1&gclsrc=ds :

15 Gallon gasoline container with hand crank pump. Tip: unless you are able to lift 15 Gallons, don’t buy the cart as you will never be able to lift a full container into it. In addition, the container expands and no longer fits into the cart once it’s full. You need a pick-up truck or SUV with a large trunk or hook up a device to the trailer hook to transport these containers to and from the gas station. Use a fuel stabilizer.

Solar Generators and Panels

www.allprogenerators.com for solar generators, solar panels

https://shopsolarkits.com/pages/watt-hour-calculator?nbt=nb%3Aadwords%3Ax%3A20466594857%3A%3A&nb_adtype=&nb_kwd=&nb_ti=&nb_mi=&nb_pc=&nb_pi=&nb_ppi=&nb_placement=&nb_li_ms=&nb_lp_ms=&nb_fii=&nb_ap=&nb_mt=&gad_source=1 Calculating solar power needs

www.ecoflow.com Ecoflow solar generators and batteries. Don’t buy solar panels from them. They are too expensive and often don’t have enough wattage.

Calculations for Solar Panels Angles

https://footprinthero.com/solar-panel-tilt-angle-calculator : find out the optimal angle of solar panels depending on your latitude and time of year. Just put in your zip code. For example at my location the angles are as follows:

Your optimal year-round tilt angle:

24.8° from horizontal

Your optimal tilt angles by season:

• Spring: 24.8°

• Summer: 9.8°

• Fall: 24.8°

• Winter: 39.8°

Your optimal tilt angles by month:

• January: 34.8°

• February: 29.8°

• March: 24.8°

• April: 19.8°

• May: 14.8°

• June: 9.8°

• July: 14.8°

• August: 19.8°

• September: 24.8°

• October: 29.8°

• November: 34.8°

• December: 39.8°

https://www.calculator.net/right-triangle-calculator.html : helps you calculate the length of the horizontal and vertical support bars when the height of the solar panel is known and the optimal angle to the sun. For example:

My large solar panel has a height of 66 inches. The angle I want to use is 24.8. My wood construction seen from the side is a right angle triangle so we can use the Pythagorean formula:  a² + b² = c² to calculate the base and the height of the wood frame with the help of the known angle a:

a =c × sin(α)=27.68384 inches

b =√c² - a²=√66² - 27.683837441448²=√3589.6051445155=59.91331 inches

Don’t worry about the calculation. The above website will calculate this for you.