On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:15:12 -0800, Bruce L. Bergman
wrote:

Yes - It will work, but... Save your gasoline for the generator for
useful things that only electricity can do, like running the computer
and the refrigerator and microwave.

You are just stacking inefficiencies turning gasoline into
combustion heat into engine power into electricity and then /back/
into resistance heat again. Too many conversions.

Agreed, it's inefficient. My thoughts were (a) I don't have a propane
stove [do have one on order, though]; (b) generator is on in the
evenings anyway, so I'm not turning it on just to run the cooktop; (c)
the wife knows how to cook on the stovetop so I won't have to do so...
:-)

For the cooking duties in a disaster situation it's far more
efficient to go buy a Propane Barbecue, preferably with a "Side
Burner", and a few 20-Pound (5 gallon) exchange tanks. (I have four,
so there are always two full tanks.) And for all-night light and
incidental heat, a propane lantern and a post adapter.

Already got a propane lantern, two 20 lb tanks, and a catalytic
propane heater. Up to Wednesday it was way too cold to run the BBQ.

Or a good old Coleman Lantern and Camp Stove, the new ones (designed
for it) will work fine on plain Unleaded Gasoline if you can't get
Coleman Fuel. Same reason - single conversion Fuel to Heat.

Thanks for that tip; my neighbor has a coleman lantern and camp stove,
and looked all over for coleman fuel during the outage. I'll let him
know that he can use gasoline, thanks!

And keep both the generator and the BBQ outside the main house -
Carbon Monoxide is NOT your friend. A lantern you can chance, as long
as you provide ventilation for it. NOT if you have the house super
sealed with triple storm doors and had the air infiltration tested.

Generator is just inside the garage door, with the door all the way
up, and exhaust pointing outside. I didn't put the wheels on it
because there are some unscrupulous types out there. A friend's
neighbor noticed too late that his generator was running but the
heater wasn't. Turns out someone started his lawn mower, left it
running by the generator, then stole the generator...

Best -- Terry