Skip to main content

Backup Plans

In three years running big generators we have had outages and they were always caused by one of two things:

  • Air filter clogged after dust storms. Blowing out the air filter with a leaf blower, or replacing it with a new one, fixed it right up.
  • Fuel running out. This was a big problem in 2022 when BRC Petrol skipped many days of fuel delivery. We also "ran out" of fuel once in 2024 because the fuel level indicator showed empty even though there was still plenty of fuel tricking the generator into shutting down when it didn't have to.

In 2022 we had paid for a backup generator to be on playa that could be swapped in in an emergency, but realized that the truth was it would take so long to get it, it just wasn't worth it to pay for this.

Meanwhile we have the following plan for emergencies to keep a few things going in case of a problem:

  • We can plug the kitchen into the generator that it used to get to playa to keep the refrigerators going
  • If we need to host a party or event, we can plug the public area lights and sound system into a single spider box and plug that into the RV's generator
  • We have two Honda eu-2200 small generators which can be moved around to provide a little bit of emergency backup power at spot locations