Would just have to calculate it and size tanks. I now have a tri fuel and it runs whole house. 2 AC units, 2 fridges and selected items.

My previous generator running 2 fridges plus window unit would use 15lbs propane in 4 hours. $$$

So figure whole house would need max 10lbs /hour. 3 weeks would be 5000lbs.

This off the top of my head and just an estimate.

Just bought a new home lot so I will size propane for general use and 2-3 weeks outage.next house will have less energy demand.

Generac 24kW burns roughly 500 gallons of propane a week.

How big is your new lot? Because based on a quick google search any licensed/permitted backyard tank would need to be ten feet from buildings, property lines, and ignition sources.

Oak Forest

We've only lost power in the big ones. 2021 freeze, derecho, Baryl. But those were days without power. It was a giant pain, and since we are getting on in our years, we threw in the towel and got the gen set. It's not a guarantee, but it is another layer of protection.

Our location typically doesn't lose power on the short term when everyone else does. Not sure why, but we've been fortunate.

in Spring Branch (Houston) we lose power if it's sunny. Or windy. Or Tuesday. If it rains you'll be sure to not have power. One of the deciding factors of me moving away to Katy - but I still work in the branch and it's worse than ever

In the Heights it's not uncommon to lose power in the big storms. Big trees, cramped lots and old infrastructure. We also got a Generac after the 2021 freeze...and are really glad we did.

CDUB98 said:

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Oak Forest

We've only lost power in the big ones. 2021 freeze, derecho, Baryl. But those were days without power. It was a giant pain, and since we are getting on in our years, we threw in the towel and got the gen set. It's not a guarantee, but it is another layer of protection.

Our location typically doesn't lose power on the short term when everyone else does. Not sure why, but we've been fortunate.

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Same. Got the generator after the 2021 freeze. Lost power for 4 days after the derecho and a full week after Beryl. Even if I never have to use it again, I got way more than my money's worth out of my generator and micro air soft start on the A/C s over for those 11 days.

TxAggieBand85 said:

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Martin Q. Blank said:

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Imagine if they had power issues. Everyone running their generators. No electricity or natural gas.

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And there it is.

Next house will have ample propane supply to operate for 2 to 3 weeks.

Any generator solution that requires on fuel to be obtained after the event is risky.

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You plan on getting one of those 10k gallon tanks then?

Tom Cardy said:

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It's not that difficult to drop a couple 1000 gallon propane tanks into a neighborhood backyard

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Depends on the neighborhood entirely.

Your standard cookie cutter master planned community with 1/4 acre lots? Yeah, it's pretty difficult.

Get outside of town a bit and have a 1+ acre lot and it becomes at least feasible on paper. Cost is going to make you throw up in your mouth a bit, but hey - this is texags where errbody has a few hundred thou in their checking and a mil or so sitting in their savings as their rainy day fund.

1.25 acres. All brush and trees at this time. Empty canvas to layout.

In Timbergrove and since 2009, I can only remember losing power more than a few hours in the 2021 freeze, Derecho, and Beryl. I have a 7K watt inverter that powers everything but the W/D and used about 10 gallons of gas per day; I have 4 jugs so can have 20 gallons of gas. Chasing gas everyday was annoying, but now I can go a full day before really worrying.

Lost power 2 days in those 3, but we didn't lose power at all during Harvey, even w/ over a foot of water in the house.

Chewy said:

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The TexAgs generator tangent is always an awesome one.

It's like restaurant talk where there's several ways to enjoy whatever it is but we'll be damned there's really only one way and we're gonna argue about it until another topic takes our attention away.

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RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!

Since living in Spring since 1993, lost power twice for 8+ days. My attitude was that power outages are 2 days at the most.

Between wind and ice events, i think it is smart to plan for long outages.

With my empty canvas, might plan a separate 'cabin' for sleeping and hunker down.

If power goes out due to ice, I believe there is not enough natural gas to operate heat and generators wide spread.

All this talk just reminds me of being 9 years old during Hurricane Alicia when we lost power for 11 days

Ducks4brkfast said:

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Where do some of yall live that power outages are such an issue? Sounds like some of yall are literally living in Afghanistan. I've been in my house for 9 years now and it's not hardly even a consideration. We lost power in 2021 and that's essentially been it.

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I'm at the end of the circuit. Used to be worse, but Centerpoint built a maintenance facility not too far from us and magically our power became far more stable and outages get fixed quicker.

Still went a week after Beryl though because we are at the end of the circuit.

cryption said:

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in Spring Branch (Houston) we lose power if it's sunny. Or windy. Or Tuesday. If it rains you'll be sure to not have power. One of the deciding factors of me moving away to Katy - but I still work in the branch and it's worse than ever

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Back of Kingwood is like that for us.

There were months were I could count the number of hours we lost power, during the day, on two hands, each month.

Imelda and Beryl helped finally get them to cut back on trees. But the 'cold front wind/rain combo' always put me on edge because there was a significant risk to lose power.

We lost power for 18+ hours on weekend for 50+ houses a couple years ago in October. Nothing crazy, just lost it.

Now that they have update/upgraded power poles, things are somewhat better now. And we lost power for a work day while they did 'maintenance' on the underground lines to each house.

~egon

Apparently you guys live in some true 'hoods

Ducks4brkfast said:

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Where do some of yall live that power outages are such an issue? Sounds like some of yall are literally living in Afghanistan. I've been in my house for 9 years now and it's not hardly even a consideration. We lost power in 2021 and that's essentially been it.

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Generator sales are depend on creating a worse case scenario for people. It's like selling plate carriers to civilians in case the word ends and they need to go to wal mart. On top of that, they pitch generator requirements as some sort of whole home thing. It's hilarious. You don't need to run your hot tub and 5 ton ac system. But that's what they sell.

If folks bought generators for what they NEED, they could run their NECESSITIES for weeks on a relatively little fuel.

I realize some people think they will die if the AC doesn't run for 6 hours but the sales side of home gen's is kinda crazy sometimes.

By this reasoning no one needs a house or car either. It's just a nuanced circle jerk of one side bragging about being more luxurious and the other being a pretend minimalist bad ass.

You aren't staying in a home in Houston in August without power. Just like it makes zero financisl sense to run a propane generator for more than short periods.

Normal people don't care either way and are just doing as they see fit for themselves.

Chewy said:

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Sorry you don't have a hot tub…

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I kind of am too. I'd definitely probably have used that during the ice storm just because.

BrazosDog02 said:

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Ducks4brkfast said:

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Where do some of yall live that power outages are such an issue? Sounds like some of yall are literally living in Afghanistan. I've been in my house for 9 years now and it's not hardly even a consideration. We lost power in 2021 and that's essentially been it.

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Generator sales are depend on creating a worse case scenario for people. It's like selling plate carriers to civilians in case the word ends and they need to go to wal mart. On top of that, they pitch generator requirements as some sort of whole home thing. It's hilarious. You don't need to run your hot tub and 5 ton ac system. But that's what they sell.

If folks bought generators for what they NEED, they could run their NECESSITIES for weeks on a relatively little fuel.

I realize some people think they will die if the AC doesn't run for 6 hours but the sales side of home gen's is kinda crazy sometimes.

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Well said. I've also worked my current generator to run part of the house, but with the experience of living with people managing during a summer outage, time to run the house AC. Why, because we can. But that is with selective circuits.

Will do the same on next house.

This discussion as I recall started on the possibility of a winter outage and running generator on natural gas. I will size my propane at next to provide 2-3 weeks of generation on part of the house and not the 5000lbs I stated above. Will be done well and in my means.

Isn't it nice we have achieved the level of living to even talk about home power generation.

Quote:

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If folks bought generators for what they NEED, they could run their NECESSITIES for weeks on a relatively little fuel.

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I ran my fridge, neighbor's fridge, a window unit AC, portable AC, some lights, and phone chargers for two days on roughly 3 gallons of gas.

I dunno, man. After Beryl, I borrowed power from a neighbors generator just to run the fridge and a 10" fan blowing right on me. It was still hot as ball and hard to sleep.

CDUB98 said:

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I dunno, man. After Beryl, I borrowed power from a neighbors generator just to run the fridge and a 10" fan blowing right on me. It was still hot as ball and hard to sleep.

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You may be putting yourself in the incorrect of the 3 categories mentioned.