It’s the wind and fire season in southern California. That means every time the wind blows a little too hard, Southern California Edison starts a public safety power shutdown (PSPS). That happened four times in my area in January. The shutdowns varied between 12 hours and three days. That being said, it’s still better to lose power than to lose entire cities and neighborhoods like what happened earlier this year to Pacific Palisades and Altadena. 

Keeping the power on

Of course, in today’s technology-driven workspaces, being without power makes it difficult to get my work done, so I need backup power of some type. The first time one of these shutdowns happened, I had a bid due the next day. I needed to keep working, so I used a small camping generator to power up my office. That required taking the generator outside, running an extension cord into the house, through two doors, and into the office. 

Then, I had to pick which devices get plugged into the extension cord. This was time-consuming and I had some problems, such as not being able to close the doors all the way, and not having enough power for other essential loads, such as the freezer and refrigerator. I started looking for a larger generator and found a 2,500W Champion model at a very low price. 

By the way, you should not use the cheapest generator you can find. They can output dirty power, which can damage your electronics. Always purchase an inverter generator. While they are more expensive, they are very quiet and generate clean power at a steady voltage.

Now, it was time for my new game: extension cord strategies. My first try was a complete failure. I started out well, running a 30-foot, 12-gauge cord from the generator in the side yard into the garage side door and over to the freezer. The cord had a three-outlet receptacle built in, so I plugged the freezer into one of the outlets. 

The next step was to plug a 50-foot, 12-gauge extension cord into another outlet, and route it into the kitchen near the refrigerator. My wife promptly tripped on it, as it crossed the main pathway and ran across the kitchen. After apologizing, I rerouted the extension cord along a seldom-used path around the back of the kitchen. This worked better, as the extension cord ended up adjacent to the refrigerator, making it easy to move the refrigerator’s cord from the wall to the extension cord. It was a win. 

A perfect solution?

The next problem had to do with local regulations that did not allow generators to run all night. My wife solved this one. Being campers, we were aware of battery-­powered devices with built-in inverters. At the time, a unit with the capacity to run the freezer and refrigerator all night was ridiculously expensive. 

One day, my wife called me to come upstairs. She was watching the shopping channel QVC. (Please, no stereotypes here. She is very responsible and saves us a lot of time and money by shopping there.) 

Anyway, they were selling a 2,000W unit at 50% off and throwing in a 240W solar panel to charge it. The unit could also charge with 120V AC or a 12V DC outlet in a car. They were calling the unit a solar generator. She purchased the unit for me, and it was the perfect solution. 

When it came time to turn the gas generator off, I set the solar generator next to the freezer and plugged the freezer into it. I also plugged in the extension cord from the kitchen. It easily ran the two appliances all night. In the morning, I started up the gasoline generator and plugged the appliances back into their extension cords. Finally, I plugged the cord from the solar panel into the solar generator to get it charged for the next use.

What’s next?

Because my power goes off for the duration of each windstorm, that sometimes means we need to use generator power for a few days. My gasoline generator and extension cord system does not have the capacity to run all the appliances and loads we needed for an extended power outage. Also, the number of PSPS outages has been increasing. My current system was never meant to be a solution I had to set up and tear down four times in one month. 

The Santa Ana wind season runs from autumn though May, and there are 10–25 Santa Ana windstorms per year. I need to seriously consider my future strategies for keeping the power on in my office. I’ll fill you in on my research next month.

Denis Rozhnovsky / stock.adobe.com