Big Texas Freeze Out - Lessons Learned

[Steven@147]

We lost power at the Galveston RV Park Monday morning at 0230, we got it back at 0200 this morning and we re not out of the woods yet cause they are warning of rolling blackouts.
The wife and i learned a lot through this. When this started we had about 10# of propane in one tank and the other 30# was full. Had 1/3 full fresh water on board and just by chance we had increased that to 2/3.

When power went off wife woke me up, went outside to howling winds, stinging sleet, snow, ice pellets. Wind gusts 30-40. For 3 days the RV has been wiggling in the wind! Wind chill @ 6*. We got the genny out of the back of the truck and fired up and connected. Its max output is 25 amps. Throughout this we have learned how much a lot of stuff draws by monitoring the EMS power panel L1 - L2 amps. We found in the real world for our RV;
Fireplace on HI-12 Low-6
Electric H2O heater 12
Microwave - 12.5
Convection Oven - 12
Coffee Pot - 9
Converter on average 6-9 depending on the 12 Volt draw
Electric Skillet - 13
Electric Floor Heater - 13
Fridge 5
TV 1
Recliners 1 amp each
Heated H2O hose - 2
Tank heaters - 1 amp each we have 3 switches Fresh Black Grey
Furnace fan 3 shows up on converter draw.

One thing I'm glad I did was put the EMS power monitor inside the coach in the coat closet. If I had installed it in the storage compartment, I would have had to run outside to check the amp draw and I would have lost a lot of heat opening the front door all the time and the storage compartment door to check the amp draw.

We did not run fridge or H2O heater on propane and to conserve propane. At one point I drove a 60 mile radius around Galveston, no propane to be had. We had what we had, it had to last!
The trick to power is to cycle things on and off and keep the draw under 25 amps and the more amps you ask for the more gas the generator eats. Watts / 120=amps
We would run the tank heaters, fireplace on low and fridge, then switch out the fire place for the H2o heater and so forth. And for all the complaining we do about the LCI reclining chairs the butt warmers were a godsend! Keeping the total draw @ 20 amps or below the gen would run @ 7 hours on 2 gallons gas. This is critical as gas became real hard to find. Most stations were without power or out of gas!

We started out keeping the coach in the 56-57* range and the storage compart stayed @40-43. We ended up with trying to keep the coach 53* and lowest the storage compartment got was 37 to conserve propane, we almost ran out after 3.5 days. Then after 50 hours of continuous use the generator started have problems. It kept shutting off like we were pulling too many amps but I know we were not because i kept a close eye on it. It would run for @ 1 hour before it started making noises, so now we are relying more on propane to keep warm and its running out. The generator 1 hour run then cool off and restart later would recharge the RV battery and the fireplace on low to supplement the heat. About every 2 hours or when we couldn't stand it anymore I would go out and fire up the generator for 30 minutes more to conserve the life of the gen but also to conserve gas, .

We had made a pot of chicken and noodles and a pot of chile earlier so it was like dish out some soup, fire up generator, turn microwave on to heat food, turn off, turn fireplace on or give the H2O heater its turn or a tank heater. Damn! It was tiring! Somewhere between cycles we got some sleep.

Somehow we managed to keep the H2O tank and lines from freezing, kept the tank heaters on a lot. The coldest it got in the RV was 52 and the storage compart 37. And through all of this we were better off than most. RVers were down to using jumper cables from their truck to rv battery. Swapping water for food, those of us that had generators sharing gas to run them. Some that had spare propane tanks offered to others that had run out. Some gave up and got a hotel room, but guess what the hotels had no power either, they were just as bad off as we were. Told the wife lets stay put and work through it.

Damn when the power came back on this morning at 0200, we thought it was christmas! We are not totally out of the woods yet but doing much better. Wy wife took this pic on one of my naps.