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I bought and filled a chest freezer in pandemic preparations. Cost of the chest freezer: CAD 1,000 Cost to completely fill the freezer with good food: CAD 2,7

I bought and filled a chest freezer in pandemic preparations. Cost of the chest freezer: CAD 1,000 Cost to completely fill the freezer with good food: CAD 2,700 Given that, during a pandemic or a winter storm in Canada, a power failure can be a prolonged event... Cost of a good gas powered generator to keep the freezer viable beyond a day: CAD 1,000. This article seems to validate the generator purchase.

walrus01 6y ago
If society and food supply chains had actually broken down due to a massive pandemic (imagine ebola with a 30% fatality rate tearing through a population of 350+ million in the USA and Canada) you would have been much better served by a stockpile of rice, beans, canned food, multivitamins and other true disaster supplies.
- stblack 6y ago
  The scenario we are planning is power down for several days. Not the collapse of civilization.
- ghaff 6y ago
  >other true disaster supplies. A lot of people panic buying early on weren't really thinking things through. They were stocking up months of canned food and rice but many weren't stocking up on fuel, they were buying a few gallons of bottle water rather than big containers to fill with water, and I assume many weren't stocking up on ammo--which may be controversial but if we're positing societal collapse...
tzs 6y ago
I'm a little unclear on how one efficiently uses a generator to power highly intermittent loads like fridge/freezer. Does one monitor the freezer temperature, and when it starts warming start the generator, then wait for the freeze compressor stops, and then turn off the generator? Or does one keep the generator running all the time, so between times of the freezer running the generator is idling? The second option is certainly more convenient, but seems like it would waste fuel while idling. The first option would last longer--but the generator is supposed to be kept away from the house and it could get annoying to have to keep going out to start and stop it.
- dmckeon 6y ago
  Run genny to cool freezer, refrigerator, UPS batteries, and all rechargeable devices. Stop genny overnight, or when all is cooled or recharged. Repeat as needed. The less expensive generators may run at a constant speed, regardless of wattage load, so there may be no concept of “idling”. Thermal mass as jugs of water, or bags of water ice (if available) is a win.
- stblack 6y ago
  Those are all valid points. As another commenter says, the freezer isn't the only device that could be powered in an outage. Also, in Canada, when you run a generator in a power outage, after awhile you have neighbours who appear with long extension cables. Which is fair, because the generator is noisy, and there are periods of excess capacity. Also some neighbors will appear with gasoline because, during a power outage, you can't buy gas.
MatthiasWandel 6y ago
Problem is, freezers typically run 40% of the time. If you let it get up to -10C, the duty cycle will be a fair bit lower, but still quite high, while only drawing about 100 watts. But that's a lot of money to spend protecting food hoarding. Dry goods would be better for emergency cases.
- stblack 6y ago
  The idea is more, if the freezer contains between CAD 1,000 and CAD 2,700 worth of food, how to keep it viable and not lose everything in a 1.75+ standard deviation power outage. The generator is insurance, not a lifeboat.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    I think what parent is saying is that buying that much food "just in case" and then having to buy generator backup because you now have such an investment in that food is expensive insurance. Personally, I did buy some extra frozen food early on when grocery stores were pretty wiped out but nothing remotely like that. What makes me periodically think about a generator is a sustained outage in freezing temperatures in winter. Given that more or less the worst that can happen in summer is I have to throw out a bunch of food, I'm not sure the generator makes sense.

walrus01 6y ago

If society and food supply chains had actually broken down due to a massive pandemic (imagine ebola with a 30% fatality rate tearing through a population of 350+ million in the USA and Canada) you would have been much better served by a stockpile of rice, beans, canned food, multivitamins and other true disaster supplies.

stblack 6y ago
The scenario we are planning is power down for several days. Not the collapse of civilization.
ghaff 6y ago
>other true disaster supplies. A lot of people panic buying early on weren't really thinking things through. They were stocking up months of canned food and rice but many weren't stocking up on fuel, they were buying a few gallons of bottle water rather than big containers to fill with water, and I assume many weren't stocking up on ammo--which may be controversial but if we're positing societal collapse...

tzs 6y ago

I'm a little unclear on how one efficiently uses a generator to power highly intermittent loads like fridge/freezer. Does one monitor the freezer temperature, and when it starts warming start the generator, then wait for the freeze compressor stops, and then turn off the generator? Or does one keep the generator running all the time, so between times of the freezer running the generator is idling? The second option is certainly more convenient, but seems like it would waste fuel while idling. The first option would last longer--but the generator is supposed to be kept away from the house and it could get annoying to have to keep going out to start and stop it.

dmckeon 6y ago
Run genny to cool freezer, refrigerator, UPS batteries, and all rechargeable devices. Stop genny overnight, or when all is cooled or recharged. Repeat as needed. The less expensive generators may run at a constant speed, regardless of wattage load, so there may be no concept of “idling”. Thermal mass as jugs of water, or bags of water ice (if available) is a win.
stblack 6y ago
Those are all valid points. As another commenter says, the freezer isn't the only device that could be powered in an outage. Also, in Canada, when you run a generator in a power outage, after awhile you have neighbours who appear with long extension cables. Which is fair, because the generator is noisy, and there are periods of excess capacity. Also some neighbors will appear with gasoline because, during a power outage, you can't buy gas.

MatthiasWandel 6y ago

Problem is, freezers typically run 40% of the time. If you let it get up to -10C, the duty cycle will be a fair bit lower, but still quite high, while only drawing about 100 watts. But that's a lot of money to spend protecting food hoarding. Dry goods would be better for emergency cases.

stblack 6y ago
The idea is more, if the freezer contains between CAD 1,000 and CAD 2,700 worth of food, how to keep it viable and not lose everything in a 1.75+ standard deviation power outage. The generator is insurance, not a lifeboat.
- ghaff 6y ago
  I think what parent is saying is that buying that much food "just in case" and then having to buy generator backup because you now have such an investment in that food is expensive insurance. Personally, I did buy some extra frozen food early on when grocery stores were pretty wiped out but nothing remotely like that. What makes me periodically think about a generator is a sustained outage in freezing temperatures in winter. Given that more or less the worst that can happen in summer is I have to throw out a bunch of food, I'm not sure the generator makes sense.