Porper Generator for Zombie Time?

[daepp]

Natural gas, diesel or gasoiline?

Natural gas: supply has never been interrupted in my lifetime, cheap, plentiful in the US, burns clean

Diesel: efficient, smelly, fairly safe to store, not as plentiful as gasoline

Gasoline: a lot of it around at this time, dangerous to store, not as efficient as diesel

Any thoughts?

How about good brands and bad?

TIA

[ODDJOB UNO]

the "PORPER MODEL ABCXYZ123" model is the BEST!


mine..............a honda EM2200. owned it since 1990. never ever a problem.

[m21sniper]

In the US i'd say gas just because it's so much more prevalent/common here.

[ODDJOB UNO]

the quieter THE BETTER. my next juan will be a roll around honda generator. right now i have my house setup so as in the event of power loss i can run my refrigerator and freezer and a couple of lights.


swear by hondas. i have abused mine by mounting it on poop deck of my old boat and cant count the times it was totally immersed with water by chopping the throttle and POOPING IT!


run mine in the rain snow sleet dust. have not nor do i think i can kill it and i have tried. total abuse and fires on the 1st 2nd pull.

when hunting camping i bring a 100 ft ext cord and cover 1 side with plywood for QUIET running.

[nota]

I think zombies are attracted to heat and noise

and would suggest a windmill with batterys and a inverter for A/C

plus unless you expect a very short zombie attack time frame
your going to run out of fuel
but winds will blow

even better if you have running water
a dam and hydo set up is even better

[red-beard]

Well, I agree with NOTA, for once. Get the equipment to build several windmills. You can build the blades from large PVC pipes. Car alternators can be used for power gen and are cheap.

As far as a fuel based generator, Diesel stores better than gasoline. Almost all emergancy backup power generators are "Distillate" fueled. And you can buy virtually untaxed diesel as #2 home heating fuel. And Purchasing several home heating fuel tanks won't set off too many alarms.

If the electrical grid goes down, the natural gas supply will go as well, at least eventually. If you are worried about short term electricity disruption, Natural Gas is a good alternative. If you're thinking about long term (months, years), I'd go diesel and store a lot of fuel.

[Westy]

Honda is the quietest (is that a word?). If'n you wanna run a well or water heater, you'll need 6000+ watts. Honda's in that size are pricey. You can store gasoline almost as long as Diesel if you use Pri-G preservative. I have stored gas for a couple of years with no problem. They have a 'D' for diesels, too. When our power goes out I run my freezer, 2 fridges, and a tv with one light, on my Honda 2000. I also run the pellet stove. ONe of the fridges is old, so it has to be rotated on the power line. An hour a day, maybe another half hour when it's hot, will keep your freezer and fridge just fine, as long as their newer ones. My 6500 is on wheels, and is great for the heavy loads, but it's loud and uses considerably more gas. The Honda runs forever on that small tank.

Consider you load requirements. Go to (I think) Generators Direct, and they have a table of what the running/startup surge requirements are, and you can judge what you'll need. Honda also makes a 3000. Good luck,,,,,,,,,,,,

[sammyg2]

I bought an electrically powered generator because it's "green"

[vash]

get the quietest one! no sense advertising that you have one, from the noise. military guy set them into deep holes to dissipate noise.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by nota

I think zombies are attracted to heat and noise

and would suggest a windmill with batterys and a inverter for A/C

plus unless you expect a very short zombie attack time frame
your going to run out of fuel
but winds will blow

even better if you have running water
a dam and hydo set up is even better

All quite true.

Solar would also be good. I have a solar powered radio/device charger.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by nota

I think zombies are attracted to heat and noise

and would suggest a windmill with batterys and a inverter for A/C

plus unless you expect a very short zombie attack time frame
your going to run out of fuel
but winds will blow

even better if you have running water
a dam and hydo set up is even better

Just put a fence around the darned thing.
Zombies can't climb chain link fences. I thought everyone knew that.

EDIT: that only applies to conventional zombies. A chain link fence will not slow down a zombie ninja or a ninja zombie, they just jump over the fence like it wasn't there. And chances are you'll never see em.
Damn sneaky ninja zombies.

[idontknow]

Originally Posted by vash

get the quietest one! no sense advertising that you have one, from the noise. military guy set them into deep holes to dissipate noise.

but without ventilation, it'll choke itself out on the exhaust fumes.

[Crowbob]

I just bought a Honda EU2000i. Should be good for short-term emergencies. Long-term, we got bigger problems that will be dealt with on an as-needed basis.

[red-beard]

Zombie Generators

Industrial Diesel Generators: New & Used Generator Sets – We Buy/Sell

They have a lot of good low cost equipment. They stock used and some Pre-order, new/never installed stock. And they can get you anything you want new.

But, real men buy gererators!

Does anyone want a free gererator?

[Dueller]

I'm not worried about the zombies as much as the frequent electrical storms, tornados and hurricanes in my arae. My house came with a huge Generac natural gas unit hardwired into my home...everything is automatic and computer contolled. Comes on once per week to test itself. Power goes out...we have a brief flicker and its business as usual. Have seen no zombies but have lots of friends stopping by to enjoy A/C, TV/cable etc in those summer storms. We lost power for 2 1/2 days last yeaR AND NEIGHBORS (AT MY INSISTENCE) ROLLED THEIR FREEZERS/GARAGE FRIDGES INTO MY GARRAGE TO PLUG IN AND PRESERVE PERISHABLES. oooops...DIDN'T MEAN TO SHOUT.

I should get a commission from the dealer/installer as he sold 6 in my 'hood after that storm.

[onewhippedpuppy]

In the event of a zombie attack, I wouldn't plan on an available fuel supply. After all, who wants to go get gas if there's zombies about? Or go fill up the generator in your backyard, which is loud and attracting the zombies? No, you need more sustainable sources of power. I would suggest some combination of solar and wind energy, along with a battery storage device.

[turbo6bar]

Details on the homebrew windmill, red-beard?

Can't help on the generator selection. I am looking for one myself.

sunelec.com has 60 watt solar panels for $1 to $1.40 per watt. Coupled with tax incentives, you can get very reasonable payback times + power when the sheet hits the fan.

[David]

I bought a 6500 watt honda powered, but not honda generator for about $1,000 after hurricane Ike. If I recall, I was putting about 10 gallons in it a day for the 8 days we were without power.

It's loud as a lawnmower at full power. I put it behind the garage with 10 gauge wire connecting it to the breaker box so we had power to all outlets in the house. If you do this don't forget to cut the main breaker so you don't injure or kill the lineman when they reconnect your power.

I should have bought one of the $4,000 Honda generators a few months after the hurricane when they were selling for a little over $2,000 used, but I guess I got complacent by then.

Several folks around here installed 10 kw natural gas generators after the storm so they don't have to do without again. I didn't hear of anyone losing gas at the house after the storm so I guess it's a good option, but there's always a chance you'll loose the gas supply.

After the storm, I changed the oil, drained all the fuel and tucked the generator in the corner of the garage for next time. I have a 5 gas cans plus all vehicles filled before a storm, but that's still only a week or so worth of running.


There were stories of theives going around at night, pulling peoples lawn mower out of the garage and starting it, then shutting off and stealing their generator under cover of the lawn mower noise.

[David]

I looked into small windmills a while back and everything I read said they don't put out nearly what they advertise.

[Dueller]

Originally Posted by 125shifter

Several folks around here installed 10 kw natural gas generators after the storm so they don't have to do without again. I didn't hear of anyone losing gas at the house after the storm so I guess it's a good option, but there's always a chance you'll loose the gas supply.

Mine is a 30KW unit that will run everything in the house, including a/c. Piped into our nat gas line but has a port/switch that allows you to convert to propane if you lose nat gas supply line. Very convenient but if the prior owner of our house had not installed it 9 months before we bought house I doubt I would go to the expense (something like $8K installed).