5 reasons why you shouldnt count on a generator when TSHTF.

[bigpaul]

http://www.prepper-resources.com/5-reaso...en-t-shtf/

[Mortblanc]

My third retreat was built off grid using gen power for the power tools. I seldom used it for full power unless a race was on TV. Too stingy to part with the fuel money.

I used solar on a battery bank for lights. Propane fridge.

I was there 2 years before grid electric arrived. That was a dollar a day I was glad to spend.

[I-K-E]

depends on what you use a generator for and where and when you use it

whilst they will run out of fuel and assuming your not compromising OSPEC then they will make the switch over to an alternate way of life a little easier. For example you could still keep the lights on and/or the fridge working whilst your scavenging enough solar and batteries to do they same thing.

[bigpaul]

noise will be the problem, they tend to be very noisy, not a problem now but post SHTF when the power is off and no traffic the noise of a generator will be heard for miles and i do mean MILES, this will clearly give away your location and the fact that not only that you have power but that you probably have supplies(i.e. FOOD) too!

[MCavity]

Yup. Loads of hungry people with nothing to do all day but look for food would make a B line for anything that may possibly provide for them. Not to mention the amount of fuel you would have to stock for any serious use of a jenny.
Solar power has its drawbacks, but its deffinatly what i'm looking at to start off with.

[Straight Shooter]

It is possible to silence a generator , i have 3 ....1 is old and very noisy ...the others are fairly quiet....my plan is to dig a hole ( already done ) pipe intake , and exhaust outlet and filter down the noise , this does work, I have tried it .....but when you consider there will be almost complete silence pshtf the risk IS still relevant....solar may well be silent but it is visible ....but you could hide ...if portable .....generators may well have to wait their time later on down the road.

[Scythe13]

Interestingly, B&Q stores are powered by huge solar arrays on their roofs! Scavengeable.....

As for generators. Suitcase generators are VERY quiet. One in the shed with 2 pipes (exhaust and air intake) and you can EASILY make the genny totally silent.

[Mortblanc]

Several years beck we had an inland hurricane come through our region. It enlightened us to several shortcomings of the local infrastructure, including the fact that our closest major urban area only had a 5 day water supply.

At any rate the power outage in my sector lasted for 10 days. Gas became a problem of one neighbor when he decided to run his genset 24 hours a day and after the first day discovered that none of the gasoline stations in our town was operating!

I was living on a lightly traveled residential street at that time and helped the neighbors through the event mostly by enlightening them to the resources they already had and how to use them. One neighbor almost lost $5000 in tropical fish before I reminded him that the same inverter he used to power the computer while in his car would run the fish tank filter! And that a propane grill would cook food even if there was no barbeque scheduled.

One of the things we did was to run electric cords between 4 houses and plug in the deep-frezers at each house. If we ran the genset for 1 hour each day we could preserve the frozen food at each of the 4 houses and no one lost anything. I saved half a beef cow in that effort and the neighbors did not even lose any icecream. I do not remember using a full tank of fuel during that 10 day effort.

[bigpaul]

post SHTF its not just generators, ANY noise will carry, i can hear the freezers in the local farm shop half a mile away and i can hear noise from the market stalls a mile away, traffic can be heard as they come over the "cut" in the hills nearly 2 miles away and i can hear the dogs being fed in the kennels a mile down the road, so we will ALL have to be very careful with noise giving away our location post shtf.

[Highlander]

The way I see the generator in the first stage is as I-K-E said, a way of making do with the best equipment you have for as long as you can, it will enable me to eat what I have in my three freezers before I start to use my stores,...it will give me breathing space.

Generators are a way of life up here, we often have power cuts that last for several day, and the noise of generators is a common sound,.. they would not cause any concern to anyone.

I have more fuel than I need to run the generator to finish the freezers, but after the freezers have been empted I would turn the generator off, it would not be needed just for light,...I would keep the generator for a time when most people have hopefully left the area, and only use it for certain jobs,............... its a tool like any other, use it wisely