Home

Webinar: An Affordable Strategy for Whole Home Backup Power

Slide1

As promised some weeks ago, I’ve created a presentation that describes our experience arriving at a strategy for whole home backup power. Since there seems to be some interest in this sort of thing, I’ll be presenting it via Zoom on Thursday, July 25th at 7pm CDT.

The presentation draws upon the experiences from Hurricane Ike in 2008, Winter Storm Uri in 2021, the derecho in and Hurricane Beryl in 2024. It traces our evolution from a wholly ad hoc approach, to running our entire home (including 4T AC) from a portable inverter.

Read More

An Affordable Strategy For Whole Home Backup Power

Predator 9500 InverterSince the crazy storm of May 16th took out power for much of Houston, there has been a lot of chatter about strategies for backup power. So much so that I posted to NextDoor to see what interest there might be in a seminar on the matter. My intent being to share our own experience and that of a few friends who have followed a similar path. The response was very strong, the thread resulting in over 160 comments in just a couple of days!

So, I guess I have to get busy crafting the presentation. While I do that, and for the very impatient, here is a list of related items I’ve written previously:

  1. Decisions: 2021 Household Projects – Describes our strategy for backup power and a new air conditioner.
  2. Connection Options for Backup Power – Details four ways so connect a portable generator to your home.
  3. Backup Power: 9kW-ish Portable Invertors – An overview of large, portable inverters in the 9 kW class.
  4. Central Air Conditioners: Variable-Speed vs Soft Start Kits – Considering how central AC can be run from a modest generator.
  5. How-To Geek: Be Careful Before Running Your Computer From a Gas Generator – Comparing a generator to an inverter.
  6. NYT on Household Energy Monitors – Using a cheap energy monitor to learn how much power our home uses, which informed our choice of generator.

It will take me some time to tie everything we’ve learned into a single (hopefully) coherent presentation. Given the level of interest, it will most likely be conducted as an online webinar. Details to follow as it progresses.

Read More

Connection Options for Backup Power

A spate of recent storms over the past month has much of Houston once again thinking about strategies for backup power. The crazy derecho weather event on May 16th had parts of the city without power for up to 6 days. This particular event was our first time actually using the backup power strategy we put in place after Winter Storm Uri in 2021.

Unlike a hurricane, this storm was very short-lived. Largely a wind event, it raged past just after 6pm and was truly gone by 9pm. We were fortunate. Our pecan tree took a beating, but we only lost power for about 10 hours. Even before the rain stopped, I had the Predator 9500 invertor running, just as I had planned.

Predator 9500 Inverter Getting some exercise on a dry day in March

As detailed previously, the Predator 9500 inverter powers the entire house, including our 4T central air conditioner. So, we were comfortable overnight. Only in the morning did we see the carnage the storm wrought upon all the trees in the neighborhood.

Read More

Houston, I’m Feeling Can-tankerous

Houston 311 in PixelYes, it’s true. I’m feeling cantankerous. In this instance it’s because of the City of Houston department of Solid Waste Management. They broke one of our  trash cans. And after over a month, I’m still struggling to get it repaired or replaced.

There’s a bit of tale to this. It started on February 29th. On this date, the driver made the routine pickup, but proceeded on down the street before putting the can back on the ground. To our security cameras this looked like they were taking the can with them. They just drove out out of frame.

In reality, they put it down about 10 yards to our North. However, it was damaged. The wheels had broken off. They must’ve gone into the truck, because they were nowhere to be found.

Strike 1

I used the Houston 311 mobile app to open a ticket with the city. The 311 app requires that your select a category for the ticket. There was no category that corresponded to repair or replace a trash can. So, I had to choose “Other” and put in some notes.

I attached this very snippet of video to illustrate what happened. As well as a picture of the damaged can sitting at the end of our driveway.

There was a flurry of automatic email resulting from the ticket. One noted the ticket had been “Reclassified From Other to Container Repair Referred to Solid Waste.” They projected it would be addressed within 10 days.

Read More

Parallel Kits for the Predator 9500 (or similar) Inverters

Our strategy for whole house backup power involves a portable inverter generator connected to the house using an inlet and mechanical interlock. As is my habit, I did quite a bit of research to arrive at this strategy. Now that we have a couple of years experience with its use, I am happy to share that knowledge with those who are following down the same line of thought.

One of the most common questions I see in various online space involves how to deliver more power by connecting a pair of inverters in parallel. On the surface, it’s a simple question, but as ever, there’s some detail to the answer.

Five Inverter Generators

For the sake of this discussion I’m going to consider the Predator 9500, AIVolt AT20-2100001E, Duromax XP9000iH, Pulsar 9500, and Genmax GM9000iE. These five popular models are all made in the same Chinese factory. They vary only slightly from one to the next. They all have a built-in facility for parallel operation.

Read More

Holidays Lights 2023: How Much Power?

As I’ve noted many times recently, instrumentation is addictive. Or perhaps it’s just my latest affectation? As I went about putting up our usual outdoor holiday lights, it occurred to me that I should change up how they are powered. In so doing, I’d collect some data on how much power is used by the festive presentation.

Holiday Lights 2023

The lighting design is the same one we’ve used for years. Its has a 5-pointed wooden star mounted to the top of the porch, with a cascade of mini-lights falling from the base of the star to the fence line. It was inspired by the fact that, long ago, Stella’s father had a 5-pointed metal star that he put atop their homestead in Thorndale, TX.

Read More
Back To Top