This may be an old thread, but it’s a pertinent issue.
A generator is something every rural or semi-rural property needs, but we also plan to add a hand pump to our well. (I don’t plan on being the one to pump it, of course.) They are not expensive but would give you access to well water no matter what the circumstances. A handy person could install their own, which means we will be calling our well company.
My method of dealing with a power outage was different as I live in a city. We used to have power outages often as our home is on three phase power from the old days of when this was ranching land. Being one of the few homes that was actually using the three phase power we were very often the last ones to be restored when there was an outage.
The LAST time we had an outage I reported the outage to the proper reporting site. They told me it would be several days before the power would be repaired. I told the person there was no need for for them to send any one as I could see that it was just the line fuse tripped for the three phase feed and could reset it myself since I had a fiberglass tree trimming thing… I told them I had watched the guy reset it the last time and I knew I could do the same.
So I just walked up to the transfer point and presto there was a lineman crew rushing to reset the tripped fuse… I overheard one saying something about they had to reset this line before that idiot that called in the outage got here
“Oh hi three I was just taking a walk to see the pretty sights” …LOL
the next week, the tree trimming crews came to clear the limbs away from the power lines …and now they come by every few years to make sure the limbs are away from the lines
lol, good tip!
Zombie thread but anyways…
When there’s a big storm coming, I fill up some extra jugs. (I keep 2 big gas cans for carrying water). I also crank the heat up a few degrees. If there was an extended outage in the winter, I’m not sure… I guess it depends if we were able to keep heat in the house, like with the generator, or if we had to go to a shelter or something. We heat with oil so we need electricity for that. In the really brutal cold (-20’s and -30’s) I can’t imagine we would be able to stay in the house for long.
In the summer, we have a creek on the property so we could get water from that if needed.
I got excited when I first heard about these–seems like a great option for water with occasional outages (or when the well pump goes out…we had a lightning strike that took out the well. Had power, still had no water :-/)
But you have to have a pretty shallow well for this to be viable. Not an option with a 1000’ well. I think the “deep” versions max out at 300’ or something…
Wow old thread, but a good topic that doesn’t come up much!
I self care board and need to water 3 horses. The farm has well water and has a pump that can go out with no power – for days. When we have a bad forecast (like hurricane Sandy) I prepare by removing the 100 gal trough from the paddock, scrubbing it crystal clean and putting it in the tack aisle, filling it with clean water. I also have several water vessels and I’ll do the same, scrub clean and put in the tack room filled with water. I can “put up” about 250 gallons of water.
The horses will get buckets hung, 2 for each horse, plus a small 30 gal insulated trough I have. I’ll retrieve fresh water daily from the stockpile.
The reason I do this is that 3 horses can foul up the water in a 100 gal stock tank right quick. Especially as I have one “swimmer”. Keeping all the water fresh and clean away from the beasts and doling it out on a daily basis ensure clean water for days.
Normally, I dump and clean the trough daily. Of course, I don’t want to waste water (or make more mud) so I only fill as much as the horses will drink in 24 hours.
If there is inclement but not serious weather in the forecast (ie, might lose power for a day, maybe), I’ll just top off the stock tank so they have a 2-3 day supply.
Great thread and lots of good info.
I would like to hear what people who have standby generators have installed and what the cost is roughly. I have gotten 2 estimates and both recommend burying a 500 gal propane tank and getting the 22 KW generator. Cost $15,000.
All I want to do is have a standby with the ability to keep the well pump going for water for the horses. I don’t need 500 gallons of propane because we usually are not with out power for more than a day or two.
I want a standby that will come on so I could leave the place for a few days and not have the petsitter without horse water.
Has anyone had an install for less than $15,000? That sum poses an obstacle for me. Thank you!!
That is what we have, but a bit bigger one, that comes on once a week, runs on full load for 20 minutes, then turns off again.
A local commercial electric company put it in for us, found it for sale from the local Caterpillar dealer.
I think he said it came from a hospital that was upgrading to bigger units.
Caterpillar sells those and also rents them for court houses, hospitals, oil fields, construction, etc. and sells used ones still working fine.
We installed ours permanently, but they also have some on trailers you can move around.
Yes, those systems are costly, but when you figure others are not cheap and ours has been now working here for 16 years, some winters for a week before we had service again, well, it more than paid for itself and we could resell it right now practically for what we paid.
We have bigger troughs for watering, so they serve as a reservoir if that is all the water we had for some days.
At one time we had a storage tank above the well house, where water cycled thru from the pressure tank as we used it.
I the well quit, we still had water thru gravity flow, low pressure, for a while off that tank for basic necessities, livestock water mostly.
I checked into these as well; our well is deep (536’ but we draw water at 180’). Could not find anyone to install it; put the well system, the east wall of the kitchen with fridge (and coffeemaker!), the deep freezer in the utility room, and my husband’s home office on solar backup. Pricey, but we’re planning on staying here till we croak, and the tax benefits were amazing.
@riverpup we lived in the country with a well for years. Did fine storm prepping by filling an extra trough. Really did fine, very rarely lost power. Moved to the burbs and promptly lost power for 5 days and it was awful. Just moved back to the country and first order of business was installing a generator. It was a big pain as, sounds like you, there was no propane tank here (heat pumps). Our local electric company doesn’t do generators.
I got two bids for the whole job: buying (that’s another story but I won’t lease a tank again), burying the tank and lines, running new propane line in the house, and installing a 22KW with some minor shuffling on the panels (yes, I really do want the barn feed on the panel with the generator feed). Both were close to $15K like yours. I bit the bullet and subbed out the electric and Generator install to our electrician (who doesn’t do propane) and the propane tank and line install to a very local but reputable propane company. Splitting it up gave me a migraine with all the scheduling but brought the total price down to about $11K, actually a bit less as the 11K included the first fill on the tank.
With weather and the good economy whole project took several months so if you are looking to get it down before winter you may need to get moving. One bonus beyond relative piece of mind is for all the headaches I was able to upgrade back to a gas stove 😊. Propane and generator guys independently told me I should be good for 5 plus days: heat pumps, well and septic pumps, lights house and barn (and Netflix for DH). Good luck. As you can tell I’m still recovering from my generator journey. For a lot less you can have a transfer switch installed and run a portable generator. Depending on your needs might work just fine.
We just did this last year, in an expensive locale, and the total was just under 10k. We did not bury the tank, though.
It’s incredible piece of mind, and fabulously satisfying, to hear the generator kick on.
I forgot to mention, our propane tank is also not buried, just stands on concrete blocks, close by the generator.
Thank you everyone. I will talk to more providers and see what I can come up with.
Wow. I got a used generator locally for $400ish and just get a few gallons of diesel fuel. You don’t need to run it 24/7, you can turn it on long enough to fill everything up with water and then turn it off. Some coolers and ice for food and we are set. I’m sure there is less than $200 worth of food and beverages stored cold at any given time.
Agreed. We have a generator specifically for the barn and well. We have another for the main house. We live in hurricane country, so we have to be prepared.
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