J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
On Wed, 1 Apr 2020 at 04:54:27, Paul wrote:
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It would take a pretty large rack of batteries, to
make riding out all power outages possible. A Tesla
powerwall (~$10K magnitude) is one pre-packaged way
to do it. The longest conventional power failure
I've had here, was 24 hours, for a relatively minor
issue. The longest unconventional failure might have
been three days (nuclear reactors all scrammed). During
the ice storm more than ten years ago, some rural sites
were without power for two weeks. Maybe a $100K worth
of Powerwalls could handle that. At some point, it
becomes absurd to prop up the PC :-)

Paul

There comes a point where a generator becomes economic. OK, you've got
to have fuel for it, but the energy density ... Though you've also
(assuming you truly want the U of UPS) got to switch over while you've
still got enough power to start it, and a way to instigate that.

This is true.

I hate gas, which is why I don't think in those terms.
It's keeping them starting, keeping them running
that bothers me.

You might convince me, if the device ran off natural
gas, as then there'd be no fuel injection scheme,
I'd just have to change the oil (I can do that),
put in a new sparkplug at some point, and that
would make a palatable solution. AFAIK, the
natural gas network stays up during power
failures.

When I was a teenager, I pulled the starter cord
so many times on our gas lawnmower, I snapped the
cord on it :-) These are the experiences I remember.
I would need a "significant incentive" to think
that way :-) My multiple attempts to fix carbureted
devices has left a bad taste in my mouth (probably
the taste of gasoline). Needle valves and all that
jazz. I probably need to take a "small engine" course.

Paul