Originally Posted By: eljefino
What kind of storm will leave you without water?
After Irene we could flush the toilets easily by filling 5 gallon buckets under the gutter, or from the "spring only" stream that came back to life. For potable water, plan ahead and fill some old milk jugs?
An ice storm will have ice all around you that could be melted. Of course you want heat to do that, so we're back to this generator if you don't have a wood stove. I've not heard of this "type T" motor but if your furnace runs on your typical 15-20A breaker, a mechanical (non invertor) 2500+ watt generator will chug through any startup load it demands. After all, it doesn't trip your breaker during the milliseconds of overcurrent.
I killed my fridge after Irene trying to run my shallow well jet pump and the fridge at the same time, with too much inrush current, and had a brownout. If your well runs on 220 it's very expensive to fix, and you don't want to kill it with a brownout.
If you *do* get a huge gas guzzling 5500 watt deal, watch for HF coupons and get their little 2 stroke 900 watt generator for div>
We had a major power line go down here in the south hills about a year ago. That line fed the main pumps for the entire south hills. It was not raining that day, and there was no snow or ice on the ground to use. My sister who lives about 10 miles away had no water, and we had very little water pressure.
So yes, a power outage can take out the water supply, and for thousands of people at one time.