Generators and Fuel

Because we live in the South, where we are happy if we have 1 day of Winter, we do not have a fireplace. We know lots of people who do, but many more that don’t. If you’re one of the lucky families that has a fireplace, you probably have firewood stored up somehow or have a reliable source. If you have a fireplace, but it has fallen into disrepair or you just don’t use it, now is the time to call a chimney sweep. Get that thing up and running; at the very least, get it to where it CAN be used. You have a cooking source and a heating source already in your home. You’re lucky. When my mother was growing up in the frozen north of Alberta, Canada, they used coal oil lamps for light and a single wood-burning stove for heat. They had a huge old farmhouse kitchen that housed their big cast-iron cook stove. This was the only heat source in the house. After chores were finished for the day and dinner had been consumed (in the kitchen), evening life for the family all took place in the one heated room. The girls (my mom was one of 6 girls and had a baby brother) put on plays, they sang, they made up silly games, and they related. One of my aunts was an artist and a poet. She was constantly sewing or writing a story. Everyone had an excellent singing voice. The kitchen was the heart of the home because it was the only heated room. At bedtime, the girls would run furiously up the stairs, rip off their clothes and into their pajamas, then jump under the down quilts. You prayed you didn’t need to use the bathroom overnight, which required the use of the outhouse and work boots. A can was kept in the corner of the kitchen if a need to “tinkle” arose. That could be done in the warmth of the kitchen where the dying embers in the cook stove cast a homey glow. This was referred to as the “pee can”. When I first moved to Georgia, that word was used by most southerners for the lovely nuts that grew all around us. Nope. A pee can is something kept in the kitchen for nighttime visits. Pehcahns (pecans) are the nuts.

Anyway, a fireplace can serve the same purpose should there be an extended loss of power. It can serve as a cooking area, a source of heat, and light. Activities after dinner will most likely occur in this room, where the family will gather. With no tv, video games, or internet, plain old-fashioned fun (and evening chores, like mending) will probably be the rule of thumb. If you don’t already have some, invest in a few board games that your family can play. Consider buying a harmonica or a guitar that everyone can take turns learning to play.

Then there are families like mine that don’t have a fireplace. We’ll probably have to bundle up with blankets on cold evenings and partake of hot drinks. But the more warm bodies you have in one place, the warmer that area will become. Even our kitchen, which stays 10 degrees warmer than the rest of our house, will become cold if the appliances aren’t producing heat all the time. I recently researched whether or not I could convert our oven into a wood-burning stove if the grid ever shut down completely. Apparently, the problem is venting. My exhaust vent over the stove is electric and I don’t have any other venting system. Perhaps, with a little effort, I could figure out how to extend the venting down to the oven, but I’m not yet there. If we could figure out a way to do that, we could cook indoors in cool weather and have a kitchen heat source, like my mother’s family of old. Build the fire in the bottom of the oven, already have a rack in place for cooking. In fact, I have 2 racks, which would afford a good amount of flexibility.

I’m still, however, faced with the problem of fuel. Since we don’t have a fireplace, we don’t store up wood. In a previous post, I mentioned that I had purchased a stainless steel rocket stove for my Stores. These use just twigs for fuel and are tremendously fuel-efficient. But twigs aren’t going to do much for me if we’re able to convert our oven. Once, I was tackling a gardening project that used wooden pallets. I began a hunt for free pallets and discovered that a local store leaves used pallets behind the facility for anyone interested. I was told that they, at one time, sold them, but it just became too labor-intensive, so they’re stored there for customers to take at will. We can get 6-8 at a time in the bed of a truck and they stack easily in the backyard, hidden away where they’re not an eyesore or trip hazard. I like having this wood source around. It can be used for a variety of projects, including fashioning an outdoor planting bench. A few pallets, hammer and nails, and a saw are all that is necessary to use this free wood. So I began to wonder if pallets can be burned as a wood source. I did a little research and discovered that some pallets are chemically treated and give off toxins if burned. But most pallets manufactured in the U.S. are heat-treated in a kiln to reduce moisture, kill fungus, and extend the life of the wood. These are labeled with an HT and are safe to use as firewood. A KD label (kiln-dried) also indicates a safe wood to burn. HT stands for Heat Treated. The difference between HD and KD is the temperature at which this pallet was cured. If you do not see either of these labels, don’t risk burning the wood from a pallet; you can endanger your own life as well as adding toxins to the atmosphere. Drive around behind some of the larger stores in your area or do a little online research to find a source of free pallets in your area. Then you have a fuel source that can be easily stored and is free.

I want to talk a little bit about generators. I know people who believe every household should have a generator. Good ones are a little pricey, though. Generators typically run off gas, which means you have to keep a supply of gas around in order to run it. I have enough trouble keeping propane for our gas grill. A gas-operated generator isn’t going to work for me. Some models can be charged using electricity, then stored. I’m sure the charge won’t hold forever, and they will slowly leak charge if not used, but this may be an option for some families. I’m not too worried about running appliances, but my husband and I both have sleep apnea and use CPAP machines, and I don’t want to try to sleep next to him (or NOT sleep, as it were) without him being hooked up, not to mention the health risks of not using our machines. 

The other need that I’ve pondered is using up all the food stashed in our freezers. A full freezer will keep food cold much longer, up to twice as long, as a sparsely-filled freezer. If this is the criteria, ours should last months! HA! Unfortunately, even the fullest of freezers will only be able to keep food temperatures in a safe zone for 48 hours without power. Of course, that amount of time is dependent on keeping the freezer door tightly closed to maintain the interior temperature. It’s hard to use up food in a freezer if you can’t open the door. Add to that the number of freezers we have, and using up all that food, especially without an oven and stove, will be next to impossible. Also, just for your information, a chest freezer maintains a colder temperature for longer than standing freezers. I don’t know why, but assume it has to do with frozen food being packed more tightly in a chest freezer.

I finally began researching solar generators. Turns out there are a couple of popular brands and solar generators can be purchased at home-improvement stores like Lowe’s. Most are smaller in size and can be used to keep our CPAP’s running at night and charged again by the sun each day. This is something I really need to discuss with my husband. It would be a very good thing to have a small solar generator. But I have found one model that seems to stand out among it’s peers. A website, from which I’ve previously purchased solar phone chargers and flashlights, sells a solar generator that outlives traditional gas generators by a factor of 4 and can even keep a fridge or freezer running. It is the Cadillac of generators and I.WANT.ONE. As soon as I win the Lottery! They are certainly not cheap, but the potential to keep a freezer going long enough to use up the food stored in it may offset the cost considerably. I’m sure, if we lost power, the potential exists for me to lose nearly the cost of the generator in food to spoilage. And the thought that I could have a super-powered generator around to run small appliances and fans, when necessary, gives me a tremendous amount of peace. For now, I may settle for a smaller model that we can afford and begin saving for the mother lode of generators.