Backup Power: Quarterly Testing and Being Neighborly

As we are now well into Hurricane Season 2025, I’m thinking about out backup power arrangement. We’re mostly in good shape.

Quarterly Testing

Last week I exercised the Predator 9500 inverter. It needs to run for about 30 minutes every 90 days, just to keep it limber. I typically put a few ounces of gas in the tank and let it run connected to the garage until it runs dry. While I always add stabilizer to the fuel I intend to use in the generator, I’m very careful to always run it dry. I never want to leave any gas in the tank, or worse in the carburetor.

Happily, these generators have a fuel supply switch that’s separate from the electrical on/off switch. The trick is to turn off the fuel, but leave it running until is shuts off on its own. That can take several minutes. This process ensures that the fuel system is well and truly dry. Thus there’s limited chance it will be gummed up when sitting idle for some time.

If you are running on gasoline, what you don’t want to do is use the electrical shutoff switch. That kills the generator instantly, leaving the fuel system completely full. If left to sit idle that fuel will eventually separate. Normal gasoline separates into water and a gummy substance akin to varnish. Over enough time, that will completely clog up the fuel system, rendering the generator inoperable.

Some advise that we should seek out ethanol-free gasoline to ensure the generator is long-lived, with minimum of problems. I’ve found ethanol-free gasoline is hard to find. So, I use a fuel stabilizer additive that delays separation. The combination is almost as good. It’s inexpensive and available at every auto parts store.

Being Neighborly

I recently stumbled across a Reddit thread that reminded me of our time after Hurricane Ike in 2008. Back then we did not have our own generator. Our elderly neighbor immediately to the north had an 8 kW generator. His house did not not have central air conditioning. With natural gas appliances (like ours) he wasn’t loading his generator very much.

Seeing us without power, he threw an extension cord over the fence. This provided us with a 15A circuit to power the essentials. That meant the fridge, a few lights, fans, phone and laptop chargers, and a TV.

In post-hurricane Houston fuel can be hard to find. I made him a deal. If we could stay on his generator, I’d provide the gasoline. That would save him a lot of running around the city.

In the first few days after Ike, gas was very hard to find. Many gas stations were themselves without power, so their pumps were not working. Very few gas stations have their own backup power. Initially, I had to travel some distance to get fuel. And wait in long lines.

Luckily, we had four gas cans between us, so I was able fetch a reasonable quantity in each outing. We were burning about 10 gallons/day. Each morning, I made the trek to fill our empty cans, along the way discovering how the city was recovering.

It took some days for power to start being restored. During that time many people were seeking fuel. As a result, some gas stations that had power were running out of fuel. Distribution was not yet restored. That made it more difficult to find gas after a few days.

A small group of neighbors started an SMS group chat, so we could keep each other informed about where/when we found gas. Sometimes we’d travel together on a fuel run.

After about a week, finding fuel started to get easier. Gasoline distribution was restored and gas stations nearby were getting their power restored. My daily fuel outing got shorter and shorter.

While gas got easier to find, the temperature started to rise. We had an older dog, Dickson, who was a Lab/Shepherd mix with thick fur. He suffered in the heat. We eventually put a small window air conditioner in our bedroom window, to make sleeping easier. Dickson appreciated the cool air.

We did all of this on just 1500 Watts, delivered over an extension cord.

Around the block people were sharing their food. Some did not have backup power, and making plans to escape to a hotel that had power. Before they did, they unloaded their freezer to whoever could make use of the soon-to-be-thawed foodstuffs. There was a lot of back yard BBQ going.

It was actually a nice time from that perspective. Neighbors pitched in to help each other in various ways. While there were definitely inconveniences, it was still quite a heartening experience.

“Do what you can, where you are, with what you’ve got.” – Theodore Roosevelt.

We were fortunate. There was no-one around us who had serious medical issues, or needed to keep medicine refrigerated. This is something to bear in mind when the power is out. While you may be able to keep your home powered, someone near you might benefit tremendously from an extension cord draped over a fence, or down the road.

Be truly good neighbors. Check on each other. Make sure everyone is ok.