standby generator

[rockriver]

i was visiting a good friend a few days ago.we.
about 9 p.m. the electric grid went down
everything went dark.
then very shortly his lights came back on...
he had a generator that ran off propane.
it had come on automatically.
friend lives half rural half city.
the sudden return of electric service in the house was great.
but walking to the porch to see and hear his generator
the example of the community knowing was very clear... no other house was lit up within viewing distance.
in a serious outage, several neighbors would KNOW that he had generator.
gave us a good opportunity to discuss his options regarding using the gen.

[surviort_wwdnet]

We have a 7kw portable gas generator. that we mostly loan to neighbors when there is a power outage, since we had a 24kw Generac and two 250-gallon propane tanks installed to support my late husband's medical equipment. It's great not to have to worry about power; however, it certainly advertises the generator's existence. It's not terribly loud but anyone within our immediate vicinity would be able to hear it running. In an extended power outage, it would be a magnet for desperate thieves. We have one neighbor with a Generac, another with roof-top solar panels, and more who have gas generators. During a power outage, it would be obvious who has power and who is sweating beside battery-operated fans. Keeping lights off at night would be an almost useless decoy because of the noise! There is an alarmed spotlight camera very close to the generator in case someone decides to come in and try to steal it - but that requires disconnecting and setting up the switch and moving very heavy tanks. Stealing a gas generator would be much easier - I'm counting on it.

A solar generator could be used at night as long as the system has enough add-on batteries to keep critical systems (refrigerator, freezer, CPAP, etc.) powered, and enough solar panels to recharge the system during daylight hours, but.it would be faster to charge it on AC power while the Generac is running during the daytime. Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution that comes to mind.