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California has banned generators.

buellistic said:
Sounds like your buying red dye...saves money.
Have you looked into a generator Welder combo?
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Yes, red dye for my tractors and equipment: no road tax.

https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/?sl=41QSCI22607005[/QUOTE]

Nice! Even has rec tubing set up so it could be moved with my skid steer forklift attachment!

I've got a full shop set up and don't need a portable welder, but something that will run a 1.5hp submersible pump, a bunch of led lighting, celling fans, etc, the bare minimum to keep 20 people washed and fed.

Ritche Bros has stuff that comes up and I'll be looking there as well as the local auction site.

I think all this snowfall shows how silly this legislation can be. I'm sure there are a bunch of elderly folks out there camped next to an electric space heater run off a portable honda generator right about now....

Good point below on the gas operated small motors needed to clean up the mess so PG&E can get in to restore normal services.

Once manufacturers make competitive solutions to the gas thingy consumers will drive the market.
 
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Since this storm ended it has been a constant drone of chainsaws from professional fellers and homeowners and all the portable power equipment required to rebuild transmission, distribution, communication, fences and homes that were damaged in our area. Whilst we got power back over the weekend it has switched off and on a couple of times since. Glad I don’t have to rely on solar or batteries to clean up this mess.

And we have another storm rolling in right now. It will be rain so the ground will be further saturated, let’s just hope there is no wind or we could have some additional cleanup.
 
oobus said:
I've got a 500 gallon gas tank and get a great discount on fuel at this volume. Would last a lot longer than propane. Or go diesel for a generator, no road tax and it is cheaper than regular at volume. We have 1,500 gallons of capacity at the ranch. I'm looking for a portable diesel generator at this time. Part of our business is supplying housing for fire crews/migrant labor.
Interesting how this is all panning out for the folks in the hills: there is some great use case info in this thread!
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A lot of people down here are looking at liquid cooled generators they can apparently be bought off some auction sites and are way more reliable than the Generac air cooled style gennies and a bonus is the parts are supposedly easier to get as the motors are usually automotive type engines. Not sure about diesel versus gas though.

Or if you have a tractor you could get a PTO driven generator and depending on your PTO HP you can get a fairly large one with a lot of KW power. For my small Kubota I got a 12Kw one and mine is like 30HP.
 
jt2 said:
In my experience having bought our first place up here ~12 years ago, this (and last winter) are indeed outliers. We spent last winter in Arnold, and the storm in January was subjectively worse than this one. Before that, the only one that came close was 2011(?), where we had over 6' berms all winter.

last January, we went without power for 8 days burning a little more than a gallon a day on a Honda 2k gen and a wood stove. I keep three 5-gallon cans full at all times up there so no problem. Still no power in Arnold since Monday, so it is possible that this one will surpass in duration.

That seems like a lot of fuel to burn, even running 7/24. How are you monitoring usage?
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good question. the unit is 24kw, and we know what it burns per hour at 50% and at 100%. hours are easy, and we know the price per gallon of the fuel - what we don’t know is the level the unit is running at (the chip needed to tell us that is back ordered for months now). our power is still out, per PG&E, estimated to be restored at 8pm on the 6th. if the unit is running at 50% (which i would guess it is based on our power usage), the cost will be slightly north of $1,500. if it’s running at 100% it would be slightly north of $2,500. my estimate of $2,000 was based on 2 weeks, and we’ll be shy of that (9 days + 15 hours v. 14 days if the PG&E estimate holds). so am in the ballpark plus or minus.
 
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You could check your gas meter in the morning and then again the next morning and see how much you are using per 24hour period then you can get the hourly usage from there and it should give you a better idea.
 
littlebeast said:
good question. the unit is 24kw, and we know what it burns per hour at 50% and at 100%. hours are easy, and we know the price per gallon of the fuel - what we don’t know is the level the unit is running at (the chip needed to tell us that is back ordered for months now). our power is still out, per PG&E, estimated to be restored at 8pm on the 6th. if the unit is running at 50% (which i would guess it is based on our power usage), the cost will be slightly north of $1,500. if it’s running at 100% it would be slightly north of $2,500. my estimate of $2,000 was based on 2 weeks, and we’ll be shy of that (9 days + 15 hours v. 14 days if the PG&E estimate holds). so am in the ballpark plus or minus.
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I don't know what your house requires but we run 2 generators. The big one for furnace,
Hot water,and well...after everything is hot we shut it down and run the small one.
That one keeps the fridge cold, lights on and the internet working for 6 hours a gallon.
 
Sharxfan said:
You could check your gas meter in the morning and then again the next morning and see how much you are using per 24hour period then you can get the hourly usage from there and it should give you a better idea.
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yeah - we’re total newbs when it comes to back-up power. i’m kinda in the ‘i don’t want to know’ camp, but my SO keeps running the numbers in his head - and apparently feels compelled to share. right now i’m more focused on the damage to the trees.

buellistic said:
I don't know what your house requires but we run 2 generators. The big one for furnace,
Hot water,and well...after everything is hot we shut it down and run the small one.
That one keeps the fridge cold, lights on and the internet working for 6 hours a gallon.
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great info. when we had the unit installed, we weren’t really focused on a prolonged event like this (very rare for our area), so we just had one sized to run the whole house. after the dust settles, will probably talk to the contractor about additional options.
 
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