What is this thread all about?
Just a place for general discussion. A place to unload whats on your mind and talk about anything - personal, health, help needed, achievements, daily highs and daily lows, theories, predictions and what have you.
Does not need to be Q related.
I'm wanting to do more prepping for what may come when the SHTF. Does anyone know how bad this shit is supposed to get, like what to expect? So that we can prepare more.
We have a generator but need to buy a small window ac before any bad weather comes (Hurricane Season & we live in the south). I'm trying to figure out how many watts (or sq, ft.) in an AC unit I can get with using a 5500-watt (8500 starting watts) generator and still keep it hooked up to the refrigerator & freezer all night. I just need the AC for at nights mostly if the power goes out (we shall just sweat our butts off during the day).
Oh and thinking about getting a smaller generator for our grinder pump, but have to get someone to install an outlet thingy in the control panel of the grinder pump so I can use the generator to flush out the sewage out of the pump. I hate that grinder pump but many houses here have them, they are useless during power outages, and have to keep up maintenance on it or it can be very costly to fix.
Nobody knows how bad it'll get - it could be a really nasty depression or it could be the downfall of society. Regardless of how bad it gets, guns and ammo would be extremely valuable. In a SHTF situation, you will probably want a muffler to go with your generator. You don't want to attract unwanted attention, and generators can be heard from quite a ways away.
I get what you mean about the generator noise. A next-door neighbor we don't like came over to ask "if we were alright" after hurricane Sally, like many hours later. It's because he heard our generator going, and he tried to look past me into our house. I told him we were fine and closed the door.
Though I didn't realize you could get a muffler for the generator. Learn something new every day, well in my case it's multiple somethings a day, lol.
A decent 5500 watt generator should be able to run a refrigerator, or a freezer, or a small/medium window air conditioner. But you might can manage to work all 3 appliances if you plug/unplug them as needed to maintain temperatures.
A high quality 5500 watt generator may be able to run 2 of those appliances together, at the same time time, if you are lucky. There are a lot of variables that are pretty much impossible to predict for what a generator can actually run, in any given situation- without applying electrical engineering formulas. Hands-on trial&error methods are really the best way to know how a generator/appliance combo will work in real world situations. Running A/C+Fridge+freezer all together, at the same time is asking a lot for a portable sized generator.
Tips to getting more out of your generator:
•Keep extension cord length to the minimum needed.
•Use newer, high efficiency rated appliances. With low AMP requirements.
•Buy high quality generators if your appliance electrical draw will approach the rated watt supply of the generator. Generator listed wattage ratings often exaggerate. High quality/more expensive ones tend to perform better in real world conditions.
Any recommendations for a generator, a more affordable budget-friendly one, that would benefit a family of 3 (plus two dogs)? We have several fridges and freezers and should probably plan better for them. And then what about storing fuel for the generators for when shit really hits the fan? We live in the "city".
Honda 6500 watt. Expensive, but built for home use. For fuel storage, I would just use cans, and syphon from automobile tank.
A lot of the stuff I bought in preparation over the years over end of civilization comments had to be eaten before expiration.
No one really knows but comments like that have been going around forever.