What have you done this week to prep?

[Meister]

What makes everyone think the ground would be noisy? A ground is just that, what you attach it to is what is responsible for causing issues. Non inverter genny's aren't the best sine wave but it's better than freezing. Don't over think it.

 

[woowoo2]

Because CM is talking about running two homes from the same power source. In those homes there may be a water pipe ground, ground rods at the telco and cable demarks, grounds for off air antennas, CB antennas and ground potential on the cable line. In a perfect world one would want one central ground for all sources. I have seen noise on the ground / neutral before and it is a pain to get rid of. On modern furnaces, the flame sensor works on millivolt signals, bad grounds mean it wont run. for lights and fridges it wont really matter.

 

[Iroquois]

Ran the genny just to check it out. Had a discusion with the wife about power outage when I'm gone or stuck at work. Genny's in the barn and I gennerally move it to the house only when needed. She can't do that ....so she'd have to get by for a day without power.
Instuctions are...turn up the blue flame heaters in the basement and open a window upstairs and down for ventilation about 2 inches . prop the basement door open. ..gather the battery lanterns. Leave the freezer shut....don't open the fridge unless you have to.
So the obvious question comes '' what if you don't get home and every thing starts to thaw in the freezer and fridge''......I just frowned at her.
"What?" she asked. I pointed to the frozen wasteland outside the window.....not her fault I suppose...she's from texas...they don't get below zero.

 

[churchmouse]

From this discussion and ideas put forth I have again backed up and simplified my plans. Yes, I tend to over think most everything....
Utilizing the main panels in the houses with proper switch gear will be the easiest plan.

The grounds will all tie back to the aux. power source.
Initial change over will be on the battery bank. This should give plenty of time to make the genny switch over. I will have the capacity for several hours from the battery's . Simple for the wife or the daughter.

Stopped at the Honda dealer. No 10k's in stock but they can get me one.

Looking at other brands as well.

 

[Meister]

I can explain the ground situation a little more since it seems to be a point of contention for some. After every utility meter, at the first disconnecting means, there must be what's called a "Bullseye" where the Equipment Grounding Conductor (Ground) must be bonded to the Grounded conductor (Neutral). At this point there must also be an earth ground of some type. This action makes the ground in one house the exact same potential in the next house due to the pole connections on the neutral at the pole. This negates any earth ground to earth ground potential voltage. If the houses were on separate transformers, you might be more at risk, but doubtful. When we build large buildings we surround them with a large conductor ground field and attach it to an adjacent building to ensure there is no potential voltage difference. The power co does the same thing with the neutral to ensure that 2 houses don't have a funky voltage that could overload the phone system or cable system.

CM, a central genny with #10 AWG 4 conductor wire run to each house for a backup transfer panel would be optimal with your setup. If you want more info, PM me and we can go have some coffee and chat about it. If it's warm enough, maybe go for a spin on the scooters.

 

[churchmouse]

I can explain the ground situation a little more since it seems to be a point of contention for some. After every utility meter, at the first disconnecting means, there must be what's called a "Bullseye" where the Equipment Grounding Conductor (Ground) must be bonded to the Grounded conductor (Neutral). At this point there must also be an earth ground of some type. This action makes the ground in one house the exact same potential in the next house due to the pole connections on the neutral at the pole. This negates any earth ground to earth ground potential voltage. If the houses were on separate transformers, you might be more at risk, but doubtful. When we build large buildings we surround them with a large conductor ground field and attach it to an adjacent building to ensure there is no potential voltage difference. The power co does the same thing with the neutral to ensure that 2 houses don't have a funky voltage that could overload the phone system or cable system.

CM, a central genny with #10 AWG 4 conductor wire run to each house for a backup transfer panel would be optimal with your setup. If you want more info, PM me and we can go have some coffee and chat about it. If it's warm enough, maybe go for a spin on the scooters.

Deal. Have to be coffee....sold the scooters........

 

[Meister]

Ordered the last of the supplies for my next cache. Found a suitable container as well for a safe storage at a secure site. Heavy duty tote with a 500# load capacity.

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

From this discussion and ideas put forth I have again backed up and simplified my plans. Yes, I tend to over think most everything....
Utilizing the main panels in the houses with proper switch gear will be the easiest plan.

The grounds will all tie back to the aux. power source.
Initial change over will be on the battery bank. This should give plenty of time to make the genny switch over. I will have the capacity for several hours from the battery's . Simple for the wife or the daughter.

Stopped at the Honda dealer. No 10k's in stock but they can get me one.

Looking at other brands as well.

CM, check out Northern Tool. The prices look pretty good and they do some free shipping from time to time.

 

[churchmouse]

CM, check out Northern Tool. The prices look pretty good and they do some free shipping from time to time.

Just glanced through. Good selection. Prices are good as well.
I am looking at inverters right now. I have some ideas for them.

Thanks.

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

Look at the Outback inverters. Military grade.

I'll look for a link.

Here: http://www.outbackpower.com/outback-products/inverters-chargers

 

[churchmouse]

Look at the Outback inverters. Military grade.

I'll look for a link.

Here: Outback Power Inc. - Inverters / Chargers

Those are high end live off the grid units. Very adaptable.

 

[Desdinova]

Unfortunately, all I've been able to do this week is expand my firearms and ammo collection. 200 rounds of .308 Win added to my supplies along with a Savage Axis .308 bolt-action rifle. I'll be posting pics of it in the Gunsmithing forum later on as I am planning to do some modifications to it.

 

[churchmouse]

More canned foods. More freeze dried foods and 10 flats of water.....
There can never be too much water in your stores.

 

[LoriW]

Just getting back to starting to prep but I got a 4x4 and had a rhino liner sprayed in the bed

 

[churchmouse]

WE have pretty much finalized the plans on a central back up power source. Picked out the battery's/invertors/genny and most of the required gear. At this point allof the power supplied to the houses will be through the invertors. The genny will be for recharging during daylight hours and running the shop at full power as needed. There will be zero noise at night for security reasons.

Miester, I will take you up on that cup of coffee. Just want to verify what I am doing will work. I am confident it will be never hurts to use another minds knowledge.

 

[ghunter]

I'm set to bottle 2 gallons of Kilju (pronounced "kill you"), which sounds fancy, but it's just the Finnish name for cheap homemade booze based on sugar water, citrus juice, and turbo yeast. I'm going to stock up on sugar and use the cheap booze as a trade item. Or maybe just drink it all to forget my post-apocalyptic worries.

 

[churchmouse]

I'm set to bottle 2 gallons of Kilju (pronounced "kill you"), which sounds fancy, but it's just the Finnish name for cheap homemade booze based on sugar water, citrus juice, and turbo yeast. I'm going to stock up on sugar and use the cheap booze as a trade item. Or maybe just drink it all to forget my post-apocalyptic worries.

Location after the apocalypse please.....

 

[ghunter]

I'm in Lawrence, just off Carrol Rd. If you arrive around midnight, just follow the cackling. If you stop by just before dawn, just follow the barfing. Have no fear, this stuff is cheap as hell to make, so we'll have plenty left.

 

[churchmouse]

I'm in Lawrence, just off Carrol Rd. If you arrive around midnight, just follow the cackling. If you stop by just before dawn, just follow the barfing. Have no fear, this stuff is cheap as hell to make, so we'll have plenty left.

...................Perfect.

 

[WETSU]

Lets see. The past week, what did I do.

After a week in Ecuador, I jumped back into my workouts HEAVY. I've been rehabbing a bum hip, related to my ACL surgery, and its good to be back 100%. So, running, weights, swimming, biking and rucking the past week.

4 Dryfire sessions: G19, 870, AK and bolt gun

1 Fight Night: Focus mits, heavy bag, drills and sparring.

Crew Range session. Cold (no warm up) tests, followed pistol and rilfe marksmanship, and a few 4 man team drills-breaking contact.

12 mile hike around Roush reservoir after sleeping in the snow in a shelter.

Bought 1000 rds 7.62x39