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danny burstein

In writes:

[snip]

The water heater, all by itself tripped the breaker on the generator
(5500w). Same with the dryer. I can run the oven but that is 97% of
the output.

I take it you've got an electric water heater. It should be
possible to rewire the connections so that instead of 240V it
gets 120V. This will reduce the amperage by half, and with
the similar voltage cutdown, means the watts it pulls will
be only 1/4 of the original number [a].

(Natch, this also means a _lot_ longer to heat up waer
from a, so to speak, cold start)

I did this type of rewiring in areas where the electrical
utility hit the user with "peak demand charges".

Oh, in regards to getting diesel fuel when the gas stations
are closed...

Quite often it's a "ran out of gasoline from the tanks" deal,
but they often (if they stock it, of course) will still
have diesel fuel.

(Natch, this only works if they have electric power
themselves. More and more gas stations are putting
in their own backup generators...)

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