I was just wondering if anyone else is noticing any shortages of power supplies in your area. I went to G.I. Joes yesterday because they have the propane on sale and they still have plenty of that, but when I went to look for the inverters they were cleaned out. Since it is getting difficult to find generators I guess the inverters are the next best thing because you can get 110AC from a regular 12 volt car battery. Are they getting scarce everywhere?

They still had plenty of flashlights and small batteries because those are produced in larger volume, but near the end of the year it might even be hard to find those.

-- Bender (now@risk.here), March 21, 1999

Answers

Reports are giving very conflicting info from various areas. Some say shortages and some say abundance.

Best to just keep moving toward self reliance.

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 21, 1999.

Lots of inverters at Fry's Electronics last week $50 to $500, inverters suck up a lot of power and create a lot of heat. If you are going with a battery system, 12vdc lights and appliances are the way to go, with a good solar panel for charging. Our local Costco's (3) have been out of generators for several months. Good luck.

-- sigmet (r2k@net.com), March 21, 1999.

Bender,

I live in the northeastern part of Texas and haven't found either generators or inverters to be scarce. I was at the local farm and ranch supply place yesterday and they had a good selection of generators including three welders that would produce 8 KW of 120/240 VAC as well as welding current.

I noticed several inverters at the local Wal-Mart ranging in size from 200 watt to 1000 watt units.

I guess these shortages are a localized spotty phenomenon. Or maybe this area is full of DGI's.

-- Gerald R. Cox (grcox@internetwork.net), March 21, 1999.

Thanks guys,

Sounds like it is still possible if I get a rain check. We also have a WalMart but haven't tried there yet. I'll check it out. Have a good evening. Over and out.

-- Bender (now@risk.here), March 21, 1999.

Hi, Bender!..I was at Home Depot here in OKC, OK yesterday and asked one of the sales clerks about generators. She said "Oh, we're sold out of those, and probably won't get any more for about 3 months..." As I browsed around the store, I saw a pallet sitting in the hardware isle with 4 5000w, 2 7500w, and 2 1650w Gens. still wrapped in plastic. There was one of the 5000w units sitting on top of the stack with a 'sold' tag on it. These were all Coleman, and my guess is they were just received in the last day or so.

\/\/illis in OKC, OK 03/19/1999

-- Willis (justforthe@record.net), March 21, 1999.

Both Home Depot and HQ in my town (east of Detroit) have no generators. Yesterday I asked at HQ about the reason for this. The response from the clerk was that people were buying them because of the computer 2000 problem. 'Afraid they'd lose electricity. A nearby customer laughed. He obviously thought all such people were loons. . .

-- VLS (inbusiness@theoffice.net), March 21, 1999.

Don't know if generators are getting scarce nor inverters. For inexpensive inverters, try the JC Whitney Auto Parts catalog. But, do you really want a generator anyway?? Seems to me that they'd only be useful if power was out for a short period. otherwise, you can't run them forever- especially the Coleman types- Generators break down and need parts/repairs alot- especially those under several grand.

I would think that many other items should be higher up on the list then a genset, such as food, a water source, a way to heat and cook. Alladin type lanterns are great for light if you need it-for reading, etc. Cheapie oil lanterns work for general lighting. There's no way you will run the average household on a generator for any period of time.

For water by the way, if you have a well, check out the gadget that you can drop down the well and haul up 2 gallons with.Lehman's catalog sells them and I think a recent Countryside gave advice on making one.

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), March 21, 1999.