The energy suppliers in my area all have contracts I do not agree with. My gas & electric service may be cut in a couple weeks.
What’s my best move? I need enough electricity to power a mid-sized refrigerator (but could downgrade to a minifridge if needed), a few lights, router, laptop.
My boiler is gas but I have an old previously used mazut tank and furnice which I could possibly get working again with some effort.
Not sure what to do for cooking. Maybe use a portable electric cooktop.
(updates)
I’m favoring diesel over gasoline, for these reasons:
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My large mazut tank could store a year supply diesel but I doubt I could safely store gasoline in that quantity. It’s questionable though because it has mold or something growing in it so I’m not sure if it needs to be cleaned (or whether cleaning it is even possible). Or maybe the mold is harmless.
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Mazut and diesel may be compatible (not sure). That is, maybe a diesel generator can burn mazut or perhaps the mazut furnice can burn diesel. Guess I should find out how different they are.
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Clean biodiesel can be made in a basement from waste cooking oil and lye. I can probably get the waste oil at no cost.
W.r.t renewables, it’s in a densely packed city with a tiny terrace so wind turbines are probably impossible. Solar panels may be viable, I need to look into that. But I would be really surprised if solar could warm the house in the winter – it’s not a passive house (in fact not even insulated). I think solar would be a nice clean & quiet supplement.
Camping propane or butane stove may be the way to go for cooking.
Gasoline and diesel will get you power fast, but remember it’ll cost 10x per kWh compared to the grid, so it’s a temporary solution unless you’re a millionaire.
Does it though? At $2/L and 20% efficiency, electricity from diesel is 25c/kWh or less than my local grid charges.
Horrifically polluting, but not expensive compared to grid electricity. Would even take a year or two to pay off ground mount solar at 40c/W
Meanwhile culpa, power is a quarter of that here.
10 x 6c is still 60c, so you were still way off (and how much is generator oil where you live)?.
One way to improve efficiency is to make use of the wasted energy. So my question is- are most generators liquid cooled or air cooled? Would it work to replace the radiator with a heat transfer component that heats radiators throughout the house?
Perhaps a long-term option would be to refine waste cooking oil into biodiesel. A former colleague did that and copious research along with it and found biodiesel to be so much cleaner burning than petroleum diesel that the life of a car diesel engine doubles when burning biodiesel (something like 500k miles before the engine needed a rebuild).