Power to the People

I've had this idea knocking around in my head and I haven't done anything about it so I thought I would just write it up here. Feral Genius was without power for a week or so, a couple weeks back. Why not get a generator, Jen? Compartment, that's why, which got me thinking, why not? Because the CO (carbon monoxide) will kill you! OMG (oh my gawd) we're all gonna die! Never mind that we have all kinds of appliances that burn fossil fuels in our houses without killing us. It should be possible to set up a generator so that is properly vented and therefor safe to use inside, but that could be a lot of hassle, and we would probably lose a few people while we got all the kinks sorted out. So what else we got?

You could leave the generator down on the street and run an extension cord up the side of the building. As long as you weren't than ten floors up (one hundred foot extension cord is the longest commonly available), and you lived in a crime free neighbor hood where no one would ever dream of stealing your generator. Or you could put it on the roof, as long as it wasn't more than ten floors up, and you could get there, and there was a flat place to put the generator. Lot's of if's, and's or but's here.

How about we hang it outside a window from an arm that holds it a couple of feet away from the building? Hanging in mid air, no one is going to steal it. It's close by, easy to refuel. It's outside, the regulation two feet from the building. Perfect, as long as you keep your windows closed, and you've got the gap where the extension cord comes into the house sealed up.

There. Another big idea. Go ahead and run with it.