re: #53 goddamnedfrank

When this was first announced I thought about two things, people who need powered medical devices to survive, and people with lots of money invested in aquarium set ups. I can definitely get by without the CPAP for a few nights, especially now that I’ve lost so much weight and gotten in shape, but there are loads of older folks with far more serious conditions who need constant power for shit like oxygen concentrators who’d be fucked and likely don’t have a week worth of backup power available.

Then there are aquarium owners. I installed a 12 volt 100 amp hour deep cycle battery backup for Dad’s aquarium but I doubt it would last a day in limp along mode. Forget about the freezer and fridge. Add to that, red flag weather is necessarily hot and dry, some people in frail health really need the air conditioning in that weather. So a real, robust battery power backup setup to deal with the worst case contingencies could easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Gas generators solutions would be cheaper, but they’re also more dangerous fire wise, noisy, polluting, and therefore not a viable option for a lot of people like condo dwellers.

My son-in-law bought a propane powered generator a few months ago because they have aquariums and also to power the fridge and freezer. He got major props from my daughter a couple weeks ago when their power got turned off for 21 hours.
Obviously this isn’t a solution for everyone.
So far we’ve lucked out on the power cuts, but there are no guarantees. I’m of 2 minds about the generator thing for us.