backup – Graves On SOHO Technology

On “Solar Generators”

Hi. My name is Michael and I am a pedant. I don’t mean to be, but it really can’t be helped.

I come to this admission when faced with an online discussion of “Solar Generators.” I believe this term arises from really poor use of language.

There really is no such thing as a “solar generator.” Except perhaps the sort of installation found in Nevada’s Ivanpah Dry Lake.

Let me break this down a bit:

Generators

Burn some fuel to create motion, which in turn creates electrical energy.

Batteries

A few nice accessories for your backup generator

August 23, 2024
Michael Graves
Home

I’m told that accessories are the key to great fashion. I can’t remember where I heard this, but it certainly rings true. I have discovered a few accessories that make life a little better with respect to the use of our backup generator.

Battery Operated Liquid Transfer Pump

It always seems that utility power is restored just after I refilled the generator. I tend to put stabilizer in the gasoline I use. Even so, I don’t like to leave the generator fueled while in storage. I prefer to empty the tank and let the carburetor run dry.

Further, I have never acquired the skills involved in siphoning liquids using suction and gravity. I tried, but quickly gave up. I think this only works in movies. So, after Winter Storm Uri, I ran up the street to the local O’Reilly Auto Parts where I procured a cheap liquid transfer pump.

You can get these on Amazon as well. For under $20 these little devices make it very safe & easy to pump the fuel back into the same containers I used to purchase it. Thereafter, I typically just pour it into our cars.

After several days of listening to generators drone on endlessly, silence is most welcome. Nothing is quite so annoying as a neighbor, with an especially noisy generator, attempting to “burn off” the fuel in the tank by letting their generator run for hours and hours with very little load.

On Batteries for Whole Home Backup Power

EcoFlow Ultra Basic In recent weeks I’ve twice given my presentation on an Affordable Strategy for Whole Home Backup Power. The first time was online using Zoom. The second time was live at the July meeting of the Norhill Neighborhood Association. Both went very well. But as ever, the presentation changed a little from one outing to the next. In particular, a Norhill resident had a comment about battery storage.

This inspired me to show a couple of slides I had originally skipped in the interest of time. Simply put, I’m not a fan of whole house battery backup. And I’d like to explain the logic my position.

For the love of sunshine

Our is a modest home. A hundred+ year old Craftsman Cottage built by William Wilson Realty Company. This kind of home has a roof that’s all angles. There’s just not much contiguous space upon which to locate solar panels.

Further, one of the truly great features of our older neighborhood are all the mature trees. The place is just rich with grand old Maples, Pecans, Oaks and Sycamores. Even the occasional Loblolly pine. Our property has a mature Pecan in the center of the back yard.

All these big ‘ole trees tend to shade single-story homes like ours. Those houses that do have solar installations are mostly two-story homes, that manage to peer out beyond the treetops.

Oaks over the east end of Bayland Ave After Hurricane Beryl

So, we don’t have solar panels on the house. Many companies have tried to sell us on the idea, but in the end, it’s just not practical for this house, at this location. That makes this all about batteries, and batteries alone. Not solar+batteries.

Webinar: An Affordable Strategy for Whole Home Backup Power

July 22, 2024
Michael Graves
Home

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.

An Affordable Strategy For Whole Home Backup Power

June 12, 2024
Michael Graves
Home

Predator 9500 Inverter Since 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:

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

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.

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.