@ricmci This house was built in 1988 and still standing. I’ve never experienced a hurricane, so it’s going to be an interesting experience the first time. That said, as I stated previously, I have a 3 story house on the top of a hill on a slope. From the front of the house, it’s 2 stories, but from the back, it’s 3 stories. The bottom floor is a 2 car garage, and some storage, with 50% underground, and cinder block walls, as well as a 11’x18’ office. That floor has it’s own dedicated sub panel, and it’s what will be powered with my generator in the event of a hurricane knocking out the power.
A 1 ton mini split is far more than a room that size needs, however, I can open the solid core door from the office into the garage and let the cool air reduce the temp of the garage as well. I just put in top of the line insulated Hurricane rated garage doors (the 2 car garage has 2 single car doors). This means I have additional space to help neighbors as well if they don’t have backup power. They can bring mattresses or sleeping bags, and sleep in a comfortable temperature.
The mini split I’m putting in, also has a stand alone dehumidifier mode as well. Since it’s so oversized for the room, a mini split without this option would cool the room quickly, but not have enough time to properly dehumidify it before shutting off. With this dehumidify mode, I can run it when I’m not cooling the room to pull the excess humidity out.
Lastly, there are no windows on the first floor to be broken. I have a large chest freezer in there with a few hundred pounds of froze meat, and multiple butane burners with at least 10 spare butane canisters, so I have food heating covered. I have 2 cases of bottled water, plus a water dispenser that I keep a backup 5 gallon jug for, so I should have enough potable water to last me as well. The only luxury I would be without during such a time would be internet (assuming it’s out, and cell towers are down), and hot water, so cold showers it is.
