AppleJacks
Contributing Member
If the power goes out and you have some alternative power - how long do you need to run your freezer each day (?) to keep things frozen? Any input?
Ener If the power goes... ?
- Thread starter AppleJacks
- Start date
It depends!! Chest or upright? In a warm house, cool basement or cold garage? HOW FULL IS IT? (this is, truly, the most important factor)
A "full to the top" freezer *which isn't opened*, can be kept frozen solid in an hour a day or even less. If it's only 3/4 full or less, it may take twice that. If you are opening it daily (make sure to plan ahead and write a list- only open once daily or less, and be in and out as quickly as possible), it's going to need more time to cool back down.
We put gallon jugs of water to take up empty spaces in our freezers. If the power goes down, we immediately gather sleeping bags or down comforters and wrap the freezers. PUT A SIGN ON THEM SO NO ONE TRIES RUNNING A FREEZER WITHOUT REMOVING THE WRAPPERS!! It's vital that the area where the ventilation/fan blows is OPEN when the freezer is running.
But if you keep them full, wrap them up to insulate when not being run, and only open once every day or two, you should be able to keep everything frozen solid in an hour or so of generator run time daily.
Summerthyme
A "full to the top" freezer *which isn't opened*, can be kept frozen solid in an hour a day or even less. If it's only 3/4 full or less, it may take twice that. If you are opening it daily (make sure to plan ahead and write a list- only open once daily or less, and be in and out as quickly as possible), it's going to need more time to cool back down.
We put gallon jugs of water to take up empty spaces in our freezers. If the power goes down, we immediately gather sleeping bags or down comforters and wrap the freezers. PUT A SIGN ON THEM SO NO ONE TRIES RUNNING A FREEZER WITHOUT REMOVING THE WRAPPERS!! It's vital that the area where the ventilation/fan blows is OPEN when the freezer is running.
But if you keep them full, wrap them up to insulate when not being run, and only open once every day or two, you should be able to keep everything frozen solid in an hour or so of generator run time daily.
Summerthyme
AppleJacks
Contributing Member
Thank you Summerthyme. I have one upright in the garage ( in Florida) and one smaller chest in an unused bedroom (also in Florida LOL). Both are full and yes the one in the garage has some water bottles in spaces as things are used. Thank you again.
1911user
Veteran Member
If you can plan to have "emergency use" food in the chest freezer, it would be much better to only open that one, if one must be opened. An upright freezer loses all of the cold air inside when the door is opened. A chest freezer only loses the top foot or less of cold air.
hiwall
Has No Life - Lives on TB
While I mostly agree with Summerthyme, I think newer freezers are way worse than the older ones for as far as keeping things frozen with no power. Most new freezers have very thin walls and concealed inside those walls are the cooling/condensing coils leaving little space for insulation. The new ones are cheap to run but require the unit to be run often. My personal experience with a new small, fully-packed chest freezer required multiple daily run times of my generator to keep anything frozen. If your freezer has a run light, just look at it many times on a normal day and you will see that it is running (because it needs to run).
Obviously every model of freezer is likely different with some being better than others.
Obviously every model of freezer is likely different with some being better than others.
nomifyle
TB Fanatic
My freezers are completely full. We do have two new cheap small ones. Last power outage last month we ran the generators for about 12 hours, at least, during a 24 hour period. It was very very hot. If the power goes out during the cold months I don't plan on running it that long.
God is good all the time
Judy
God is good all the time
Judy
Raggedyman
Res ipsa loquitur
plan here in long term grid down situation is to power circuits that run refers/freezers ONLY 45/min AM & 45 min PM
thou shall not open but once each day
have a way to blackout your windows at night and to silence/deaden the noise your generator makes . . . nothing says "y'all come see me" like the sound of a generator in the night
thou shall not open but once each day
have a way to blackout your windows at night and to silence/deaden the noise your generator makes . . . nothing says "y'all come see me" like the sound of a generator in the night
parsonswife
Veteran Member
Question on how to keep generator noise down.... because of the fumes DH won’t let generator in the house or detached garage. (Instructions say to keep it 20 ft from anything that breathes). Can I build some kind of box/dog house thing to mitigated the noise?
Raggedyman
Res ipsa loquitur
absolutely can NOT be run in the house/garage due to CO . . . your "box" idea - there it is . . . but do so in a fashion that allows it to breathe . . . also suggest you run it during the day and NOT at night.
back up gen here is propane fed GENERAC and sits in an "L" shaped space 6 block high to the rear and R side of it. to the L side is the solid poured basement wall. there is 18" between the generator and sides. the front and top are open.
7/16 chip board painted and hinged makes a very easily stored top and front cover. the top is "propped" open 12-16 " to the rear allowing for air in and exhaust out. throws the vast majority of the noise back to the mountain. allow that 18" breathing space for your front and top. adjust those dimensions based on the size of your unit . . . but BIGGER is going to be better.
can it still be heard? - YES but it is greatly reduced and now easily confused for my Massey 561 or my neighbors John Deere. I have also gone to the ridge direcly across the road - 1000 + yards distant. there is an indistinguishable "noise" that requires great effort to locate and impossible to ID
Illini Warrior
Illini Warrior
you should have plenty of the cheap moving blankets from Harbor Freight - you can use them for the freezer & frig in the warmer weather and keeping yourself warm in the winter ....
just make sure not to block off the electric motor & condenser area when you are operating .....
unless you have a small 1K KW sized generator - you'll have left over wattage for doing other things while the freezer cools down >>> might want to do the running in the evening and get some lighting and maybe some entertainment - run a load of wash - ect ect ect
just make sure not to block off the electric motor & condenser area when you are operating .....
unless you have a small 1K KW sized generator - you'll have left over wattage for doing other things while the freezer cools down >>> might want to do the running in the evening and get some lighting and maybe some entertainment - run a load of wash - ect ect ect
AppleJacks
Contributing Member
Thank you ALL for the input and contributions.
It was already in my head to have the chest freezer be the more often used one - thanks for the nudge to make sure items are properly distributed....and the reassurance that I had been thinking in the right direction.
While we do have a 1k emergency gas generator, the freezers will function on solar 'generator'. I don't have whole house coverage so will have to portion out the usage and that was where my question came from.
It was already in my head to have the chest freezer be the more often used one - thanks for the nudge to make sure items are properly distributed....and the reassurance that I had been thinking in the right direction.
While we do have a 1k emergency gas generator, the freezers will function on solar 'generator'. I don't have whole house coverage so will have to portion out the usage and that was where my question came from.
parsonswife
Veteran Member
What type of system are you using for the freezers? Do you have a whole house set up or just for the frig/ freezers. Any particulars you would like to share would be helpful thanks
hiwall
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Its a 3000 watt system. I just have two house circuits on solar. It happens that both the freezer and fridge were all alone on their separate circuits. At least during daylight hours I could run a bunch more stuff but we are happy just knowing we don't have to worry about keeping things cold.
After all we can't let the ice cream melt.