Power outages all over the place

[PTmowerMech]

Here in south central arkansas, there's power outages all over the place. They're saying it'll be close to 2 weeks before we get power back on. Very rural area. And we're the last house on the line. So it may take longer.
We have a pretty big gen going to power certain things in the house. I dug my old 1500w gen out and got it running. LOL.. Just have to use a shop towel for a filter. (Spread flat over the housing with a rubber band keep from sucking up too close to the carb)
Have taken two extremely cold showers. Gonna run the water hose out into the yard, (in the sun). So this afternoon, I'll run it through the bathroom window, into the shower for at least some luke warm water.
I've fixed 4 generators already. have two more that I know of, coming today. Luckily, they were just carb issues. Did some research this morning to learn about some other stuff. Like how to check the voltage coming out of one.
Still have a lot to learn though.

 

[logert gogert]

Gonna run the water hose out into the yard, (in the sun). So this afternoon, I'll run it through the bathroom window, into the shower for at least some luke warm water

thats a great idea, good out of the box thinking

 

[StarTech]

Two weeks not bad I have been a few times out of electricity for 5 weeks in North Alabama. One time it was that the main feeder lines were taken out.

 

[Rivets]

Back country campers trick for warm water if you have the sun. Take a black heavy duty garage bag and fill half full of water and lay it on something that will not puncture it. Let it sit in the sun all day and by late afternoon you’ll have warm water. Does not have to be warm out, just above 40.

 

[tom3]

I like that hose idea. Have several lengths of hose to reach all the sheds, could fill and heat, run in the tub a couple times and have warm rubber smelling bath water. Free solar heat.

 

[logert gogert]

or you could just fill your tub up with water and just get all your heat guns and plop em in the water ?

@tom3 I've been noticing that orange car with that certain rim style in your profile pic, is that a uhhhhhhhhhh......chevy? camaro? chevelle?

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I guess i am lucky. My house is on the same line as the town's small sewage plant. So when the power is out ours usually back before a lot of other people. I can see the plant from my house and i am on my own septic system and well. I still have a 6.5kw generator and a transfer switch. Feel sorry for you guys.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I like that hose idea. Have several lengths of hose to reach all the sheds, could fill and heat, run in the tub a couple times and have warm rubber smelling bath water. Free solar heat.

Just don't drink it or use it to clean your teeth.
Lots of nasty chemicals in garden hose.

It always surprises me how few people fit proper stand alone solar hot water to their houses.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

30 years ago i bought a house with a supposed working solar water heating system. HA! The solar tank was rused out. The circ pumps were both too small and crap. The heatexchanger was made wrong. Only thing that was good were the 2 panels and the differential controller. I rebuilt the system with stainless steel Grundfos pumps, a proper cross flow heat exchanger. And converted a standard tank to a solar tank. The local power utility noted the drop in energy useage and came out to "investigate". After that they had a guy come to grade my system. He gave it an A and said it was better than most commercial ones he had seen.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I used a boiling tank I got from a closed down lolly factory
They used steam to heat the tank which was of course stainless .
Bought it for scrap price $ 150 then welded an outlet to it & ran it as a gravity tank
When we sold the property the new owner had it ripped out and installed a mains pressure off peak system
Some people have no idea .