K eep your colemans ready at hand!!!!!!!!!

[Shadow Catcher]

We have a number of battery powered LED lights that are now with rechargeable batteries, these go with us when we camp. I also bought a 5000 W generator for back up and wired the main panel for it. Since getting it we have lost power only a couple of times for only a few minutes
Toledo Edison has been on rampage of tree trimming on branches that come close to the wires, and it has worked.

[suckerpunched]

I use the Helen Keller method, and have the bruises to prove it,,,,,,,,,not really,,,,I've got a 200a thats bound up like a fat cheese eating baby,,,,and a few LED lanterns.....

[stumphugger]

Those little LED head lamps are good and will keep your hands free to get whatever you have going. I buy them "bulk" at Costco in the Fall. Since my bathroom has no windows, it has a light plugged in that comes on if the power goes out. Instead of Coleman lanterns, I have Aladdin Lamps which throw out a good bit of light. The woodstove works no matter what.

[Redhawk2]

I have a few headlights, a few flashlights, some lanterns, and battery backups ofr my tvs. If power goes out that long, I'm going to sleep. Anyhow thanks for the reminder, it helps keep me on my toes.

[DriverOne]

I have... ...battery backups for my TV's.

How did you do that? Do you have an inverter setup, or do you use an APC?

[Vindi_andy]

When the power goes out here I just flick a switch, generator fires up and it's back to normal.
I do find it annoying as I have to get up to do this, maybe a remote is out there to help with the situation.

What you need is an auto switch over system. It senses the mains power outage send the start signal for the genny the waits a short time for the genny to get up to spped the pulls in the the switch to connect the load ie your house.

Alternatively just use a 4 pole changeover contactor with a signal contact. Use mains to energise the coil, when the mains drops out it changes over connecting house to genny and signal contact send the signal to start genny.

That way you dont even need a torch to find the remote, just sit and wait whie the system does its thing.

just dont ask how I know I could bore you to death on this sort of thing.

[jss06]

I have a Coleman LED Lantern that I keep charged in the house as well as a couple of LED flashlights. I also have a Coleman Dual Fuel stove and Lantern. I can run them off of gasoline if necassary.

In my office I have 2 - 1400 Watt APC UPS systems. One for my computer equipment and one for my HAM equipment. For a prolonged outage I will shut down the computers and use both APCs for the HAM equipment. When those are exhausted I have a battery in the trailer I can use and I can recharge with my Jeep.

We also have a natural gas fireplace that works even when the power is out. So if it is cold we can camp in the living room in front of the fireplace. Our water heaters are natural gas and don't require power to operate. I have a natural gas grill on the back porch and my Coleman camp stove. I am not worried if the power is out for a while.