Blackouts Loom in California as Electricity Prices Are ‘Absolutely Exploding’

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That depends. How much power do you need? How many years would you amortize the upfront cost of your generator? Would you go with propane, gas, or diesel? What is your local utility rates? Would your power company allow you to disconnect from the grid? Years ago I had a place in the mountains and I went "off grid" 100%. There was an electric box on my property. The utility company tried billing me a minimum monthly rate even though I wasn't using any electric. After a long fight, where I threatened to remove their electric box with my tractor, they backed down.
Currently I have, gas, propane and diesel generators. The diesel is by far the cheapest generator to operate, for me. My propane generator is rated at 2.1 gph. My diesel uses less than 1/2 gallon per hour. I buy off road diesel in bulk. There's no tax on off road diesel.
Getting a heavy duty generator would be best, but also more expensive.
My home town, a small town, ran on an industrial generator before they got power from dams on the Missouri River. After lines were strung from the dam to hometown, the industrial generator was only used when there was a power fail from the dam. When electricity went out, someone's job was to go flip the switch on the generator. Just a few years ago, someone decided the industrial generator needed to go. Hometown population has fluctuated from current population of around 800, up to close to 2000 when the dams were being built. I have no idea what fuel ran that generator. There were never any natural gas lines there.
 
Geez guys, if you can just go off grid. It will cost a few $ to set up and overall may not be cheaper than the grid depending on where you live, but at least you will be independent.

Surely this is prepping 101.

Quite right.
If I had the funds, I could do solar, wind and maybe micro-hydro.
That pesky funding thing . . .
 
Where I lived before we had outages all the time. A generator will get you through the rough spots until the power comes back on. We went three or four days once in January with several feet of standing snow. You really can't live indefinitely on a small generator though. You need a set up like Amish Heart is getting.
Since I've been on solar for the last 3 years I've had 1 power outage. And that was because I forgot to fill the fuel tank for the backup generator. The generator ran out of fuel, the battery's drained and the lights went out. I won't make that mistake again.
 
Quite right.
If I had the funds, I could do solar, wind and maybe micro-hydro.
That pesky funding thing . . .
It's not that hard to get a start on it. I'm ongrid, with grid-connect solar, but I built a small 12V off-grid system wired to a separate power point for blackouts. It won't run the house but will a fridge and a laptop and a fan.
 
Have they passed a "smart" meter law yet so they can adjust your thermostat to prevent overloading of the grid?
I am sure everyone will appreciate a 78degree setting.
 
Ohhhhh, California...


PG&E wants $3.6 billion from customers to help pay for wildfire-prevention efforts

PG&E wants $3.6 billion from customers to help pay for wildfire-prevention efforts (yahoo.com)

Pacific Gas & Electric asked regulators Wednesday to grant a $3.6 billion rate hike to help it pay for hardening its power systems to prevent deadly wildfires.
That's just the cost of having the convenience of utility power. The electric customers should pay cost, not the tax payer.
 
They did extend the federal tax credit. I thought it was like 29% but whatever it is does help. Even with that help though it isn’t economical to produce your own power. The independence is the number one reason to consider it. I was reading Europe is in worse shape than we are with skyrocketing power and fuel costs. In Lebanon two major power stations are sitting idle as they couldn’t get fuel to operate. I’m afraid we will see more and more of this worldwide in the future. The most reasonable thing you can do cost wise is to get a setup that you can at least cook on. Think of ways you could function without or at least with less electricity. It is a lot easier to run a generator for a short while once a day than to try and keep it going for days or weeks on end. Have a cooler at least to keep perishables for a few days at least. I hope I never see blackouts here but I’m seeing signs of it becoming more likely.
 
It was like this when I lived there in 2008. Could barely afford it as a single parent. Rolling blackouts were terrible - most days didn't even run the a/c.
 
The Peoples Demokratic Republik of Kalifornia is a 3rd World state, economically, politically, socially and culturally, so electrical blackouts fit right into this mess.
 
Looking at possible Planned Power Shutoff in the next 2 days. This will be 3 years in a row to the day each year.
My power is underground for 8 miles away. Somewhere 10 miles away it’s above ground.
Doesn’t this sound like a hole in this part of the grid. But the nanny state Kommunist Republik doesn’t make PGE fix it. They must pay the current Newscums in power off.
 
Has electric problems, moves to batteries charged with electricity. First electric cars, now this.

California law to eventually ban gas-powered lawn equipment
California law to eventually ban gas-powered lawn equipment (msn.com)

But of course this doesn’t apply to the yard maintenance for Governor Nuisance’s mansion....

gavinnewsom_marin16.jpg
 
No gas powered mowers and no electricity to run the electric mowers. You Kaliforyuns better learn to use one of these things. I used one a'plenty growing up:
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I called those out last year as a prep for when gas is no longer available. As a reminder, crutches too. You never know..
 

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