Hurricane Irma has come and gone and Moving Picture Rental is still experiencing post-storm effects. Luckily, we have rental generator and hurricane relief supplies! Since 1991 we’ve been through many storms starting with Hurricane Andrew that devastated Miami and Homestead.  We’ve learned and we’re ready to endure a CAT 4 or 5.

However, we’ve discovered in the immediate aftermath of a storm, that no power, no gas and poor communication can be even more trying.  In fact, four days prior to Hurricane Irma we prepped our rental generators that we normally rent to the film industry. We had all of ours serviced directly — changed their oil, plugs and air filters. We wanted to be ready!

So, here’s our Definitive Post Hurricane Survival Guide with our many survival hacks and products we love from our shared post-storm experience.

 

Post Hurricane Survival Guide & Rental Generator Hacks

Our all-time favorite generators are the Honda’s. We have some that are 10 years old in rent and still going strong!

• The Honda EU3000 can be lifted by 2 people. It is an ideal size. This generator sips gas on its variable throttle control. You cannot power your home AC but you can power a small window unit AC with this unit.

 

 

• Want to go smaller? This Honda 2000EU is a real work horse and super light weight.

Interested instead in purchasing?  Check out:

http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/Compare/?modelid=EU3000ISAN

http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu2000i

• Generator Hack – If your rental generator runs 8 hours a day or more it’s always a good idea to capture power in block batteries such as car batteries and then invert power at night to power your fans, alarm systems, small refrigerators, and charge cell phones.
• Safety tip – you must keep your rental generator outside. To provide shelter for your generator to keep it out of the rain. A piece of plywood placed above it always works.
• Read this GREAT guide for power management. You can use a smaller generator than you think to power your home!

Hacks for Staying Cool Without AC

Interested in staying cool at night when your rental generator is off? Our secret weapon is a DC battery powered fan. We’ve had these for over 10 years. We discovered this Fan-Tastic vent fan while training working dogs semi professionally and used these to cool the dog’s kennel when training outside. Expensive but worth it. Run this all night on (1) 32 amp hour battery.

Battery Power Hacks

• Obtain batteries such as these Power Sonic block batteries. This 32 amp hour is ideal as it is easy to carry. One per fan is advisable and will power a fan for up to 10 hours with no issue. Charge your cell phone etc.

• Truly, this is the battery charger you need. We own 5 of these Interacter Battery Chargers and they are great. Some we’ve had for 8 years, using them every week for our rental business.
  

• You’ll need a 2-way adapter splitter to allow you to connect two of your favorite 12-volt devices at the same time.

NOCO GC020 12V Adapter Plug Socket 2-Way Splitter

• You’ll want to power your favorite 12-volt devices, like tire inflators, coolers, heated blankets, inverters and more:

NOCO GC017 12V Adapter Plug Socket with Battery Clamp

• Without a doubt, you gotta have one of these battery testers.  Do not be intimidated.  Check if your battery has enough charge.  Should be no less than 12.5 volts before taking of charge.

Tacklife DM02A Classic Digital Multimeter

• Also very handy, have two of these Inverters to power small devices that use AC.  Run laptop computers, desktop Computers and some smaller AC powered fans.

 

• You’ll  need one of these to turn a car battery into a cigarette socket to run devices. To turn this into 2 cigarette adapters you need one of these. At night after running your generator all day power your DC fans off these batteries and stay cool.

Gas Hacks

We’ve have found that whomever can consume the least amount of gas wins the game after hurricanes. Gas can be painful to find and deal with.  For siphoning gas you need one of these as contemporary gas tanks in cars are very difficult to siphon.

Communication & Lighting Hacks

• Stay in touch during the hurricane with one of these. This is a small digital TV that has a built in battery. However, during Hurricane Irma we weren’t impressed with its battery life. It comes with a cigarette adapter.

• For Internet access post-hurricane, our favorite is the Verizon MIFI 7730L 4G Internet Router.  Using Verizon’s Network is the best for LTE. We rent these with unlimited data.

• This is our favorite lantern from REI. It consumes very little power and looks good!

Refrigerator Hacks

• Before the storm freeze gallon water bottles and after you lose power place in fridge on top shelf at night so you don’t have to run your rental generator all night. You will be amazed how cool your fridge will be 10 hours later — as long as you don’t open the fridge a bunch of times.

• Prior to losing power, you may want to tape your freezer door shut if it is stuffed with food, since it might open. This could be disastrous.

Water Storage Hacks

• The hot setup for water storage is a 5 gallon jug with a pump.  The Original Dolphin Manual Drinking Water Pump is great.  Then you don’t need to buy bottles of water that go bad and fill up landfills.

To sum up, we hope this  information is useful in easing the stress of post hurricane. Moving Picture Rental is here for you.  Here’s hoping for smooth sailing the rest of this hurricane season!