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Hurricane Maria Knocks Out Power To Entire Island of Puerto Rico (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Hurricane Maria's eye has left Puerto Rico, but the mammoth storm is still lashing the island with devastating winds. Maria weakened to a Category 3 hurricane Wednesday afternoon, hurling winds of 115 mph. But hurricane-force gusts topping 74 mph still extend over much of Puerto Rico, the National Hurricane Center said. Maria's brute force wiped out electricity to the entire island. "We are 100% without power," a spokesman for the Puerto Rico governor's office said Wednesday. The storm also ripped trees out of the ground and caused widespread flooding. "This is total devastation," said Carlos Mercader, a spokesman for Puerto Rico's governor. "Puerto Rico, in terms of the infrastructure, will not be the same. ... This is something of historic proportions." Maria is expected to dump a total of 12 to 18 inches of rain on Puerto Rico before barreling toward the Dominican Republic starting Wednesday night.
Don't forget to use the hand-crank radio/flashlight/usb charger in case of emergency.
If you have family members in Puerto Rico and want to do them the greatest favor possible, buy them a 3000-3600 watt inverter-type generator, four 5-gallon gas cans (empty, of course), and one or two Carbon Monoxide detectors (or smoke alarms with CO detection built in), then FedEx (NOT UPS) it to them tomorrow so they'll get it by Monday.
Why 3000-3600 watts? Big enough to start the air conditioner & refrigerator, with enough spare capacity to throttle it down to half-speed to keep them both running overnight. Trust me... if the climate in Puerto Rico is anything like the climate in Miami, air conditioning isn't a luxury, it's life-support.
3000 watts is also big enough to run a second window a/c unit or a washing machine (tip: don't use the dryer... even if your generator is big enough, dryers cause large amounts of outside air to get sucked into the house... including outside air with lots of carbon monoxide from the generator sitting 10 feet away from the door or window that's cracked open so you can feed the extension cords through it.)
Why inverter-type? Fuel efficiency. They're going to be using it for a few weeks, minimum. A traditional 10hp 4800-5600 watt generator burns through about 15-25 gallons of gas PER DAY. It's kind of like comparing a 1970 Cadillac Eldorado to a Toyota Prius. An inverter generator will literally pay for itself in gas savings after 2-3 weeks. Post-Irma, I spent more than $250 to keep my old generator running until the power was finally restored a week later... and THAT was with 4-8 hours/day of non-usage. They're also a LOT quieter than conventional generators, especially when running in "Eco" mode. Imagine trying to sleep over the noise of a typical window a/c AND two lawnmowers running in the back yard... that's what it's like trying to sleep with a traditional generator.
Why gas cans? Gas cans are utterly IMPOSSIBLE to buy for at least a few weeks after a major hurricane. With an inverter generator, four 5-gallon cans should be enough to let them get away with going to the gas station every other day. Five or six are even better, but I was BLOWN AWAY last week when I saw how expensive gas cans are now (I paid $10/can post-Wilma and felt ripped off... now, they're more like $25-30 apiece AND have shitty new safety spouts that turn refueling into a 10+ minute exercise... if you have any old gas cans, treat their spouts like gold).
Why the carbon monoxide detectors? Safety. Carbon monoxide can easily get into the house, and the fumes WON'T wake them up if they're asleep. Put one detector near the door/window that's open for the extension cords, and another next to wherever people are sleeping.
Another tip to share with them: a typical American electric water heater (one or two coils, 240v, approx. 4500 watts) can be powered with 120v from a generator without problems. It'll draw 1/4th the total wattage (ie, around 1100 watts at 120v) and take longer to heat up the water, but it definitely works. Wire it up as follows: generator 120v "hot" to water heater's "240v hot #1". generator's "neutral" to water heater's "240v hot #2". generator's ground to water heater's chassis ground. Try to use an extension cord with at least AWG14 wire or better... AWG16 will work in a pinch, but you'll end up wasting 10-20% of your wattage heating up the extension cord instead of the water.
Other nice features for the generator to have: bluetooth or wifi so you can check remaining fuel/runtime and current power draw using your phone or tablet. Push-button starting (esp. if someone who's not very strong has to start it).
A generator able to sustain 1800W and surge to 2500W might be OK, but inverter-type generators in THAT range tend to have absurdly small gas tanks. Trust me... getting up in the middle of the night to refuel really, REALLY sucks. Especially when it's 89 degrees and 80% humidity outside.
Typical current draws I noted after Irma:
6000 BTU air conditioner: 5A, 550 watts
8000 BTU air conditioner: 8A, 900 watts
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