Grid-down living after storm takes out our power - Day 3

Storms came through the area Friday and took out our electrical power. Grid is still down Sunday and isn't supposed to be restored until late Sunday night. We got to test out our preparations and have learned a few things. 1. LED lights are going to be a must-have item to extend the battery life of our solar power setup. 2. Using a transfer switch with our gasoline generator allows us to safely power essential circuits like the sump pump, refrigerator, furnace, well pump, ejector pump, etc. 3. Grid down = less TV watching.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• power outage
• generator
• transfer switch
• grid down
• solar
• storms
• shtf
• teotwawki
• wrol
• third world

[wildhearts1999]

I can't do the " switch", unless we have it legally installed, due to florida law. I do like your solar panel set up though. I bought one for camping. LED lights and a USB set up with the battery. Lights up the whole campsite without using a electrical hook up. Goal zero has a good set up if you don't want to make one . I have a small set up from them for my iphone. RV stores sell individual led lights units and there's a guy on eBay that sells the bulbs 10 for 10. Thanks again for

[Eman5697]

hey, what wattage is your generator? because i have a 6500 watt coleman powermate and was looking to do the same setup. thanks

[artcancro]

This setup is illegal! The little pushbutton breakers on that "transfer switch" are what electrical inspectors call "supplemental overcurrent devices" and they are NOT an acceptable substitute for full size circuit breakers. When you switch to generator power, those little guys are all you have protecting your house wiring on those circuits. An inspector would fail you for that, and your fire insurance company will cancel your policy if they see this video.

[ATXGB]

May be wrong on this since don't know much about solar panels. The battery you were using is a great battery but wrong application, that one is made for cranking. Need a deep cycling product. The yellow top version is the best but the blue top is the same with marine terminals, and will be about $30 cheaper. The deep cycling product will get you closer to 300 cycles compared to 100 for the red and will probably take the charge better from the solar panel due to the internal makeup

[jaked19991]

where did the braker box go?

[jennpower1]

A Little suggestion for cheap LED lights for survival is buy strings of White LED Christmas lights after Christmas. They are quite bright, easy to distribute and hang from the ceilings and you can modify them to run off of solar power.

In fact, I found strands of LED lights that are connected to their own solar panel. I have them outside in my garden year around - they last about 6 hours on one day's worth of charge.

[72fr250]

I love how you have made over 120 videos and people are still trying to tell you how to do things

[Mrwilson0506]

if you dont want to spend a lot of money on LED lights try 12v fluorescent lights they work really well and they use a lot less power that the standard 12v bulbs.

[TexasScout]

First, you will never charge the battery fully until you get your SP in FULL SUN. The second pane of glass is cutting WAY back on the light and UV radiation that the panel SHOULD be gathering. I'll bet if you check the "unloaded" voltage of the panel as it sits, it will be less than 12 VDC. It should read 18-22VDC in Full sun. You also need a charge controller for it. That will keep you from overcharging and and ruining the battery.

[jpizfulful]

I think from this you should consider a auto generator to run on LP or NG that are automatic. Look into generac corepower and guardian series for essential circuits or maybe a whole house application. Go to electric generators direct .com

but mash the words together to get there and uses the isolation of the circuits like what you have, but auto.