There are the occasionally high wind events here in the Olympic Penninsula. And those can cause short-term power outages. Has happened twice this storm season, with each outage under 12 hours.

A friend is selling their very slightly used generator at a great price, so that is our next self-reliance purchase. Initially I will use it for wind-caused power outages, with heavy-duty extension cords for the fridge, freezer, and my CPAP (I don’t sleep well without the CPAP).

Ultimately, the generator will be connected to several house circuits via an manual transfer switch. I got a circuit tracer from Harbor Frieght (here http://goo.gl/17qeZI for $19.00) to identify the circuits at the main panel. I’ll then instaall a 30 amp manual transfer switch and wire several circuits through the transfer switch (I’m thinking fridge, freezer, and the DirectTV/TV, plus bedroom).

With that in place, I’ll be able to fire up the generator, connect to the transfer switch, flip the transfer switch to isolate the main (so I don’t feed back into the power grid), and I’ll be OK for the next power outage. I can watch DirecTV during the outage, and keep cell phones charged.

With a couple of battery-powered LED camp lights, plus other FLASHLIGHTS , and the propane fireplace (which may also get connected to the transfer switch to power the fan for better heat), I figure we’ll be in good shape for a power outage. Around here, they last under 12 hours (the last two were about 8 hours), so a couple of five-gallon cans of gas will keep things working until the power is restored.

In the meantime, work continues on the WordPress plugins, with some final fine-tuning of the code and operation.