Yeah, this is where I landed, too. Except propane bottles only get me about 3-4 hours per bottle and it's pricey. It ran $50 for one day of AC during the last outage.

I just bought a kit to convert to natural gas though. Most people who've done it are happy to not change bottles all the time. It won't help after an earthquake but the regular PSPS outages I get make natural gas a better fit for the moment.

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iamnothere 18 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not everyone lives somewhere with natural gas service, and gas service could also go out in some types of disasters.

It’s possible to get larger propane tanks and refill them more cheaply (rather than exchanging expensive grill tanks at the store). Some hardware stores will refill tanks directly. You can even get very large tanks (refilled by a truck that comes to your house) if you want weeks of power on tap. But this is probably overkill for most, unless you’re very remote.

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mrj 18 hours ago | parent [-]

I tried that but services want regular deliveries and aren't interested in refilling emergency tanks. And a tank large enough for decent power backup will be hard to move.

	▲	iamnothere 18 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Ah, ok. They make auto-change regulators that allow you to hook up two tanks, and two 30-60lb cylinders should last quite a while. But if you have natural gas service and aren’t in an earthquake or hurricane zone then that’s probably better.

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alt227 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Im not sure AC is the sort of thing most people are thinking about needing power for in an emergency or disaster scenario, its one of the most power hungry things you can use.

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jermaustin1 18 hours ago | parent | next [-]

As a person in the deep south where summer temps are over 100F and RH is in the 80s, having a generator powered window unit in our smallest room is more necessary than even the fridge. Thankfully the window units only pull 400-500w or so, so even a small dual-fuel running propane would run all day on a 20lb tank.

This is a common enough occurrence in rural Louisiana, at least. And I think almost everyone I know has a 200gal or larger propane tank in their yard, specifically for multiday outages. My father-in-law doesn't have a single propane appliance, but he does have a 250gal tank, for his generac.

We don't we have a single 100lb tank, but that will run the little AC for 3 or 4 days.

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mrj 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

During the last outage my neighbor had to leave his house because of the temperature. He had a generator running for days (off of the natural gas line) so I thought he was fine, but his old AC wouldn't start so he texted me as he was leaving to stay at a hotel.

This is important enough to me that I researched slow start AC units ~8 years ago when replacing my AC. I learned that almost any heat pump will do, so that's what I have.

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80fj0348i 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

In large areas of the US if your AC goes out during the summer you can be dead within a day or two. There's many deaths of elderly people annually when their AC failed and they didn't have the mobility to leave for a cooling center before they passed out.

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/heat-waves-and-annual-death-ra...

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alt227 18 hours ago | parent [-]

Thats crazy to me. I would never live in an area where electric power is required just to exist and not die.

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ifwinterco 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's not so much the temperature per se, it's the fact modern houses are designed around AC and American houses in particular are basically giant wooden garden sheds.

In a traditional house with thick brick/stone walls and large roof overhangs you'd be uncomfortable but a lot less likely to die

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27183 13 hours ago | parent [-]

It would be smart (assuming a properly insulated and air sealed house--which to your point is uncommon in the US) to build an insulated room with a dedicated hvac zone in the center of the basement or somewhere similar that is basically your "safe room" for such a situation. Would not take much to cool it and has the advantage of being maximally distant from the exterior walls to in case you are worried about radioactive fallout ;)

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80fj0348i 13 hours ago | parent [-]

For most people their car would work fine, of course not everyone does drive. Sometimes cities will open "cooling centers" (school gyms, event venues, etc.) for those cases.

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27183 13 hours ago | parent [-]

It takes a large amount of fuel to keep a car cool (or warm) compared to a properly insulated interior room in a properly insulated house. Cars have almost no thermal insulation to speak of, just sound deadening material, and they're made of thermally conductive materials.

	▲	80fj0348i 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah but people already own them and you can drive to somewhere else that has AC where you can hang out.

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17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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asadotzler 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

We got a 500 gal propane tank. Get it topped off every so often, can power two large portables and one built in generator for longer than we've ever needed, even close to it.