Power outage from northeaster 24 hours no power no heat

[BizCT]

Round 2!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[turkeyfeathers]

 Be safe out there with round 2 approaching. Doesn’t look good for you guys. 

[Bionic]

No mention of wind though, thats the killer with heavy snow. 

[goosifer]

12 hours ago, Storm914 said:

I was prepared for a blackout had plenty of lithium backup batterys to run Electronics and lots of flashights 

Just not expecting a hurricane in the middle of winter time and having no heat never happened here before .

Every blackout that I can  remember always in warm.weather here .

 

This is what I am thinking of getting anyone hook up a generator this way?

 

I'd suggest you get a gas powered whole house generator with an automatic switchover. That way, if you lose power, you are automatically back up in less than 60 seconds and you don't have to refuel it every few hours. The thing you are looking at allows you to connect a portable generator to your entire electrical panel. The thing is, a portable generator won't be able to power your entire panel, and or for not a long time before running out a fuel. If you are going to go the portable generator route, get a heavy duty, like 12 gauge, 100' power cord to connect to the portable generator. Connect it to your gas furnace with a "pig tail", your refrigerator and a couple floor lamps in one or two rooms, and maybe one additional appliance at a time like coffeemaker, computer, etc. Really, that's all you should expect to run on a portable generator for a few days.

[Hunter007]

4 hours ago, bigpaul said:

My electric company sells and installs these.  I think around $750.  Safe and easy hookup.

Well if you can get the power company to sell/ install   for that price  I will differently at least get the connection.  

 

[Hunter007]

34 minutes ago, goosifer said:

I'd suggest you get a gas powered whole house generator with an automatic switchover. That way, if you lose power, you are automatically back up in less than 60 seconds and you don't have to refuel it every few hours. The thing you are looking at allows you to connect a portable generator to your entire electrical panel. The thing is, a portable generator won't be able to power your entire panel, and or for not a long time before running out a fuel. If you are going to go the portable generator route, get a heavy duty, like 12 gauge, 100' power cord to connect to the portable generator. Connect it to your gas furnace with a "pig tail", your refrigerator and a couple floor lamps in one or two rooms, and maybe one additional appliance at a time like coffeemaker, computer, etc. Really, that's all you should expect to run on a portable generator for a few days.

Yea But with a portable generator you can use it for other things seems more useful to me .it is not like I expect to have power problems often here  last time power went out here was almost 5 / 6   years ago for any real amount of time.

[chas0218]

Go the portable route and do an interlock on your panel. It allows you to legally back feed into your panel. In order to use the breaker supplied for the generator you have to flip your main off then turn the generator breaker on. Below is an interlock setup.

[reeltime]

no matter what route anyone takes for hooking up generator power you have got to make sure that there is NO way you are backfeeding the street. There have been numerous occurrences of someone jury rigging a generator hook up and back feeding the street power lines.  One of the ones I remember was the ice storm in CT. where 2 fireman were electrocuted when they were walking up to a house fire, the back feeding generator was a block away. I have seen some unbelievable wiring jobs from utube amateur electricians. 

just a general safety statement, if you do not know what you are doing have an electrician do the installation.  also remember that some appliances do not handle generator power very well, without getting into a lengthy explanation to sum it up generator power is dirty current and some appliances, tvs, fridge/feezer compressors can be damaged.

 

[chas0218]

10 minutes ago, reeltime said:

no matter what route anyone takes for hooking up generator power you have got to make sure that there is NO way you are backfeeding the street. There have been numerous occurrences of someone jury rigging a generator hook up and back feeding the street power lines.  One of the ones I remember was the ice storm in CT. where 2 fireman were electrocuted when they were walking up to a house fire, the back feeding generator was a block away. I have seen some unbelievable wiring jobs from utube amateur electricians. 

just a general safety statement, if you do not know what you are doing have an electrician do the installation.  also remember that some appliances do not handle generator power very well, without getting into a lengthy explanation to sum it up generator power is dirty current and some appliances, tvs, fridge/feezer compressors can be damaged.

 

And aside from the electrical issues keep your generator OUTSIDE and away from windows. Also make sure you check your furnace and hot water heater exhausts to ensure they aren't covered under snow. Carbon monoxide is not something to mess around with.

Edited March 6, 2018 by chas0218

[BizCT]

Safest & cheapest bet. Just rough it with no generator

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[turkeyfeathers]

24 minutes ago, Biz-R-OWorld said:

Safest & cheapest bet. Just rough it with no generator

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Says a guy with no power for 4 days.  No shower and eating KFC. Cmon man , you gotta be thinking about one now. Don’t snow job us ( see what I did there ?) 

[BizCT]

Says a guy with no power for 4 days.  No shower and eating KFC. Cmon man , you gotta be thinking about one now. Don’t snow job us ( see what I did there ?) 

I was joking about the shower. I’m definitely not thinking about a generator. My neighbors all said they bought ones after Sandy and this was the first time they used it. All that money could be spent on other things. Odds are what happened won’t happen again for a long long time so I’ll take my chances!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chas0218]

20 minutes ago, Biz-R-OWorld said:

 

I was joking about the shower. I’m definitely not thinking about a generator. My neighbors all said they bought ones after Sandy and this was the first time they used it. All that money could be spent on other things. Odds are what happened won’t happen again for a long long time so I’ll take my chances!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

All that money? You just paid $10k for a deck! Next time you are in Upstate pick up a 5k watt generator brand of your choosing for $500-$700 and be done with it. I'm not sure what they go for down there but for the $500 it's a nice piece of mind.

Edited March 6, 2018 by chas0218

[Robhuntandfish]

43 minutes ago, Biz-R-OWorld said:

 

I was joking about the shower. I’m definitely not thinking about a generator. My neighbors all said they bought ones after Sandy and this was the first time they used it. All that money could be spent on other things. Odds are what happened won’t happen again for a long long time so I’ll take my chances!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

if it gets bad enough I see you becoming Negan and taking over most of the neighborhood anyway.  lol 

[turkeyfeathers]

if it gets bad enough I see you becoming Negan and taking over most of the neighborhood anyway.  lol 

Claimed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BizCT]

All that money? You just paid $10k for a deck! Next time you are in Upstate pick up a 5k watt generator brand of your choosing for $500-$700 and be done with it. I'm not sure what they go for down there but for the $500 it's a nice piece of mind.

 

 

$15K for deck but that will be used a million times.

 

What can a $500-$700 generator do? I’m an all or nothing guy. If I am going to spend the money, I would get a generac full house generator or however you spell it. Instead I’ll save the thousands and get a hotel in 10 years when this happens again (if ever).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BizCT]

if it gets bad enough I see you becoming Negan and taking over most of the neighborhood anyway.  lol 

For sure. I would just light someone else’s house on fire for warmth and encourage anyone who has a problem to come at me!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[airedale]

5 minutes ago, Biz-R-OWorld said:

What can a $500-$700 generator do?

A big whole house generator is certainly nice and they are fine if you have every circuit in your house plugged in with something using electricity at the same time. My generator is 5500 watts, takes me about 10 minutes to get plugged in and fired up, it is hooked to what I consider the most important circuits, I have a well so my water pump has to have power to work, lights and wall plugs in the main living areas and kitchen, fridge and freezer so food does not spoil, Main TV, radios and computer all can be used. My generator cost me a grand  and it handles all the important stuff fine, I don't need every circuit in the house hot to get along nicely and with all the comforts for as many days as needed. 

Al

 

[BizCT]

A big whole house generator is certainly nice and they are fine if you have every circuit in your house plugged in with something using electricity at the same time. My generator is 5500 watts, takes me about 10 minutes to get plugged in and fired up, it is hooked to what I consider the most important circuits, I have a well so my water pump has to have power to work, lights and wall plugs in the main living areas and kitchen, fridge and freezer so food does not spoil, Main TV, radios and computer all can be used. My generator cost me a grand  and it handles all the important stuff fine, I don't need every circuit in the house hot to get along nicely and with all the comforts for as many days as needed. 
Al
 

But how many times have you used it? I wouldn’t even want to spend $1K and never need it for 10 years. I guess I’ll wait for the next big outage and see how it plays out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[airedale]

15 minutes ago, Biz-R-OWorld said:

But how many times have you used it?

Some years I do not use it for power outages at all and frankly I am quite happy that I do not have to fire it up, this past summer I had the power go out three times because of severe thunder storms, a couple of three or four hour deals and one that was about six, this last snow storm was almost a full day. All in all for power outages I have used it about a dozen times or so over the last twenty years. For me as much as anything  it is the peace of mind I have knowing I can hang in there for as many days as it takes for the power crews to make repairs.

Al

Edited March 6, 2018 by airedale

[Steuben Jerry]

13 minutes ago, Biz-R-OWorld said:

But how many times have you used it? I wouldn’t even want to spend $1K and never need it for 10 years.

It's just another form of insurance. I'd guess you paid much more than $1k in homeowners insurance since you've owned your house but hopefully have never needed to use it (I get it - that's for catastrophic need).

Murphy's law would probably kick in here meaning you'd never need it once you bought it, or you'll need it 10 times in a month if you don't buy it.

For me, we lost power for just shy of three weeks after a bad ice storm in the 90's. After a few days, I thought I'd go buy a generator because temps were getting cold and I was starting to worry about freezing pipes. Guess what? None to be found in the entire region. Now we never knew it was going to be three weeks, every day we were expecting it to come back on that day.

The biggest pain was that wife and daughters could not go for three weeks without a blow dryer or curling iron. That was getting to be a problem!

Edited March 6, 2018 by Steuben Jerry

[Robhuntandfish]

4 minutes ago, Steuben Jerry said:

It's just another form of insurance. I'd guess you paid much more than $1k in homeowners insurance since you've owned your house but hopefully have never needed to use it (I get it - that's for catastrophic need).

Murphy's law would probably kick in here meaning you'd never need it once you bought it, or you'll need it 10 times in a month if you don't buy it.

For me, we lost power for just shy of three weeks after a bad ice storm in the 90's. After a few days, I thought I'd go buy a generator because temps were getting cold and I was starting to worry about freezing pipes. Guess what? None to be found in the entire region. Now we never knew it was going to be three weeks, every day we were expecting it to come back on that day.

that would be my worry.  Frozen pipes bursting in a wall etc.  At least having a backup heat source.  

[Steuben Jerry]

19 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

that would be my worry.  Frozen pipes bursting in a wall etc.  At least having a backup heat source.  

Yup, we actually did have a fireplace/woodstove insert with a blower. But with no AC to the blower we just camped out in the room using it as a radiant heater for 3 weeks. But I was worried about getting heat down to the basement. If I recall, the temp down there was hovering around 33-34 degrees.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Steuben Jerry

[BigVal]

When the power doesn't go out I still use my generator. I bring that thing to concerts and bills games, etc. and run TV's radios, stoves, microwave, hot tub, neon signs, etc. (The necessary items) 

Then I watch the ladies flock towards my set up. 

[mlammerhirt]

Safest & cheapest bet. Just rough it with no generator
 
 
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Wait till you have kids.....the wife will bitching she has to pack them up and head to a hotel....not easy to entertain a whole family in a hotel room for multiple days on end!
You will buckle my friend....easy to talk now while it's just the two of you to worry about.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk