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I was wondering about that. It seemed a shame to have a generator and not use it to keep the fridge operational at least intermittantly. Strike off the electrician's head. ;>)

I also made a modification to the truck so that I could get all of the gasoline out of the tank (safely) to run the generator. The truck has a 32 gallon tank, so in the event of a power hit, I knew I always had at least 15 gallons of fuel on hand, and probably more.

We also had (and Trill still has, until I move it, if I do) the solar power system with batteries more than 1000 amp hours at 12 volts to run the 1.5KVA inverter.

The panels are undersized, but I can run the generator to charge the batteries for a short amount of time, and still have long-term continuous power. The system cost me about $3.5K to put together.

I have an entire notebook of information that I put together in 1999 about each appliances current draw and power factor. I also had an energy budget worked out that we tested repeatedly in differing scenarios.

/john

I didn't get anywhere near that elaborate. The goal was simple: get through five days w/o electricity or outside help and cover as many contingencies as possible. Fortunately, we covered the no power to the fridge possibility. (That came about because we had assumed the possibility of five straight days of rain in the worst-case scenario and no possibility of outside help. Five straight days of rain would preclude the use of the generator. That is why we also filled the bathtubs--all of them--with water. It is also why we cranked the fridge and freezer to max. We prepared for the worst and hoped for the best--that's what we're supposed to do, right?) BTW - The fridge is a built-in, so I couldn't just get to the electrical cord for it and run it directly from the generator, vice through the power panel.

It's the first acid test of our disaster preparedness plan since my wife and I have been together. I'm happy to say I think it went pretty darned well, all things considered!

[BTW - Interestingly, we never did reach into the supply of bottled water we had on hand!]