I'm in the Hurricane Ike zone, and went without power for 6 days (and then another 12 hours yesterday). We didn't have water, internet, or air conditioning, but by golly, ol' Zippeee! was chugging away out in the garage running my refrigerator. We hooked up an inverter off the battery, and while the time was just TOO long to save everything, we did at least eat for a few days without problems. We also had a couple of reading lights, and when the weather was hot, a fan.

Hubby says the MINI has a particularly nice battery setup. Even though it's tiny and is shoehorned into what seems an even tinier battery box, he said it was easier to bolt onto than our BMW's. We ran about 1 1/2-2 hours on (idling), and then about 6 hours off. Several of our neighbors have generators, but they are impossible to buy in the area now. Even areas that have them (a couple of hundred miles away) are seeing outrageous prices--$1,000 has been quoted on the radio! In any event, they consume far greater quantities of gas--which was also in extremely limited supply for a time. (There was no gas within nearly 100 miles of us, and we are almost 100 miles inland!)

I had to go to the Dallas airport to get my husband, as he'd been on a business trip when the storm hit and Houston's airports were closed for days. The BMW was held hostage at the airport, so I drove the MINI. I took 3 LARGE ice chests with me, and stocked up ice, 10 of the gallon jugs of water, another large lantern, batteries, food, etc, not to mention his large suitcase. It was a good thing, because during the week I saw lines for ice that were literally 2 MILES long, even as far from the coast as we are! We thought we were well prepared, and did the usual--round up the flash lights, get bottled water, fill the bathtub so we could flush the toilets, etc. It had been about 25 years since a bad hurricane hit the area (Alicia), but this one was worse. Even though we now live about 30 miles farther north, we had power within 4 days the last time. There are quite a few things I will do differently the next time--I'll list them if you'd like.

It was an...interesting...experience. I hope it's over for us, as I'm going to try to find a grocery store open today, and restock. And yup, I'm driving Zippeee!

 

Hang in there Deb. I'm on the west side of Houston and we lost power early Friday and just got it back yesterday. Loaned our generator (bought after Rita) to a friend on the south side. Very cool that you're able to run an inverter off the MINI battery; I've got a small inverter that plugs into the cigarette lighter for charging laptops and stuff but I don't think it would handle a fridge! How many watts is your inverter?

This storm was a real PITA for everyone in SE Texas, but a lot of people on Galveston island and the Bolivar peninsula have just been wiped out. On the plus side, everyone's been pitching in and they're turning away volunteers. Quote from the NY Times, "When the going gets tough, the tough get to barbecueing!"

 

Just out of curiosity, do you know how many gallons/hour the mini was burning while it was just idling under load?

 

It's 1500 watts. Hubby got it a couple of years ago at Best Buy, Lowes, or somewhere like that--he can't remember. This was the first time using it.

Standek, do I know you from HMMS?

Dan, I don't know, but the gauge went from one light down to 3 lights down. Far less than the 1/2 gallon an hour a friend's burned, at any rate. Remember, this was a few hours per DAY, x 6 days.

 

Haven't been to an HMMS event yet although I've been meaning to, maybe Autumnbahn. Have to wash Sherman tho', he's a mess!

The inverter solution sounds like a good fallback idea although I've got to think that a four cylinder MINI is going to burn more gas at an idle than a single cylinder special purpose constant duty rated generator would. I calculated my generator's fuel consumption at about 3 hours per gallon. It's a Coleman Homelite 6000 watt / 6250 surge with a 10 hp Boggs & Sputters OHV engine. With the six gallon tank, it will run two refrigerators, a TV, a PC and some fans overnight with reserve capacity. Our neighborhood sounded like Baghdad for a while with all the gennys going.

 

I actually think that a car would burn less gas. The generator is going to have to be at full throttle the whole time to produce the power that is required. While the Mini is going to be running at idle. Zippeee isnt going to produce the watts but she has more torque.

I was on a standby crew to go down after Ike to help with rescues so I almost got to come over and see you. But the Coast Guard ended up not sending us. Hope everything goes well and you get your power back.

 

I'm glad your MINI helped you through the aftermath. I hope things get back to normal for you and everyone in Houston, galveston, and LA soon.

 

Hey! Good idea! 1.6L engines consume so little at idle so I could see this being better than a generator? Now, with the power that is built up from the Mini, is any of it stored?

 

Ummm, I looked at the gas gauge today. Guess it was more than I thought, but still...a good thing in a pinch.

Things are still unstable in the power department. They're trying, though--I talked to a crew from Ohio today, and saw a truck flying the Canadian flag. There are 10 THOUSAND electrical workers down here, and we need every one of them! I imagine they had other plans for the weekend, but they gave them up. Hope they are getting paid well--but it's HOT now. Our "cold" front gave way--it had lowered the temp about 10 degrees to about 85. No longer.

 

I spent four days on Galveston and Pelican Island this week. Days on Pelican and nights on Texas Clipper III. When I left Friday I was pretty tapped. Drove past 8 miles of traffic jam waiting to get on the island.
The last of the family members that evac'd to here left for home this morning. They finally got power back.
Hey Deb, we were at DFW on Friday, too. Left College Station at 4 am and got there at 8:30. I-45 made a great parking lot.

Pretty cool idea with the generator. MINI comes through again!

 

Here's the "ins and out" of using a car to power household appliances:

In a car, the battery is just for starting the car - once the car's running, all of the electrical loads are powered by the alternator. The alternator has a certain current capacity that depends on how fast the engine is turning. As long as the total electrical load is less than that current capacity, the battery doesn't come into play at all.

At idle, there may be 30-40 amps of excess capacity available from the alternator. That equates to about 400-600 Watts of DC power. If you connect an inverter to give you AC power to run appliances, there's a little efficiency loss, but you'll get fairly close to 400-600 W of AC power.

That means that you can run 400-600 Watt's worth of household appliances from an idling car without overtaxing the alternator. If you do draw more power than the alternator can provide, it will start draining the battery to provide the extra power.

So compared to a dedicated generator, an idling car's electrical system can't provide great gobs of power, but for smaller loads, the fuel efficiency isn't too bad.

With a full-size generator, you can handle much larger loads (even small generators are often in the 5000-6000 W range), and the fuel efficiency still isn't too bad (see the one gallon per three hours that standeck gets out of his 6000-W generator). But, they're more expensive than an automotive DC/AC inverter, and in the midst of a storm, you may have a hard time finding one.

 

Nice explanation/details Scott. 400-600 watts. Thanks. Sounds to me like the people I see using generators at tailgate parties to run TV sets and crockpots are wasting gasoline galore!

 

battery drainage!
I also know a few people who took that alternative instead of generators.

And i believe now there is no need to search for stores.. most should be open. Although alot of people are still power-less!

8 days of vacation in medieval times

 

I feel your pain, It brings back memories of Hurricane Francis and Jeanne in Sep 04 here in Florida. We were out of power for 8 days, fortunally I had a small B&S very noisy generator that I fired up every 4 hours for about 1 hour to run a small window unit and cool down the fridge and freezer. it was a manual start and I pulled my back out starting it. I have since invested in a Honda 6500w, electric start, twin cylinder, liquid cooled, 2year old gen, never used, that I found in the local papers for $650. Im ready for the next big one . Glad to hear that the power is getting back to those who need it.

 

Question: the OP mentioned hooking an inverter to the Mini battery to run the fridge. Isn't an inverter something that allows things that run on AC to run on a battery bank? A friend has a big houseboat and he says he runs his fans/lights/fridge during the day with in inverter and he fires up the generator morning and evening to charge the batteries. I think the OP ran their fridge from the car's alternator hooked to an AC power strip.

 

What your friend was doing in the boat situation, is basically the same as what the OP was doing with the Mini charging system. the difference being that the Mini alternator was kept running to suppliment the battery to supply DC power to the Inverter, otherwise the battery would soon go dead without the constant recharging provided by the alternator.

 

I don't "do" electricity, but I can say the box said inverter. It was hooked into the battery, both positive and negative, and there was a wire hooked as a ground. When the "box" switch was turned on, we got house current. We idled the car when the refrigerator was on, but didn't when the lights and/or fan were on. No problem with that light load.

Mattsenpai--yes, I went to my regular Kroger, but there wasn't much in it--no frozen at all, dairy pretty much stripped, shelves stripped. There was plenty of meat, though no fish. The employees say the trucks are coming in daily, but it depends on the warehouse stock.

We are still having problems with electricity--some traffic lights are still out even up here, and the power went out while I was at the store. It was only out for a couple of hours, though. Fortunately I was able to take the back roads and avoid most of the backed up traffic.

4XAAA--how in the world did you get on the island? They had a "look and leave" policy for a short time, but that was discontinued pretty quickly. Residents will be allowed in on Wednesday, but those west of the seawall will again be on a L and L basis. There is no sewage service on that part of the island.

 

Despite ALL of the issues and what a pain it must be, I'm SO glad to hear that you all are okay. And...that your MINI was able to help when needed. That is a story to be sent to MINI USA and the MC2 Magazine when you can... I cannot even imagine what you have been going through....

Donna

 

Well, then again, you have EARTHQUAKES.

Hmmm. Wind or a crumbling earth? I think I'll stick with wind.

 

I'm with you, Deb. At least we saw the wind coming.

 

Job skills, as an Environmental Safety Manager, I am trained as a First Responder to the Incident Commander level and I have a certification in hazardous material operations (CHMP). Eight of us went in, three engineers, four utilities specialist, and me. We did the initial size up and got the recovery ball rolling for the A&M campuses there.

 

Having lived through both the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in SF Bay Area and Ike here in Houston, I'll take the earthquakes. Why?

1. Far less anxiety with an earthquake. You don't get 24/7 news coverage of an earthquake "coming".
2. The earthquake doesn't last 6 hours!
3. In the US, most damage is much more localized for earthquakes and impacts fewer people. In '89, we were without power for about 6 hours. After Ike we we without power for 3 days, and we were the lucky ones!
4. There isn't an earthquake season, but there is a hurricane season

Overall we were very lucky--no damage and got power back pretty quick. Next time, I'll have a much better idea of what to expect and better knowledge of when to leave.

 

true about the anxiety and that 24/7 news coverage.. i think they seem to over exaggerate the storm's potential, BUT people can get ready for hurricanes.. not earthquakes.

You can have your MINI stored safely in your garage.. but as for an earthquake.. what if you're driving your MINI on the road when it happens?! eek

 

Just FYI, many M3 owners over at the m3forum actually switched to mini battery...it's great and it saves weight over the stock m3 battery...glad your mini did more than just motoring for you and your family.

 

I've been in one of those too. You actually can't feel it because the suspension of the car absorbs the movement of the earthquake. People in their cars during the '89 quake described the sensation of having 4 flat tires all at once.