Ice Storm 2012

[nybirdman]

Well we just got grid power back on after 26 hours...temps have been at about zero.Don't know how any-one could cope without a generator.Set up my PTO generator on my L4240 Kubota.At PTO speeds I was burning about a gallon per hour,10K big enough to run our whole house and detached garage.
I shut down at nite,I have back-up heat.No problems everything when well.
I was glad I have enough fuel on hand,there were no stations that had power.
We all learned our lessons after the ice storm in 1998,we were down for four days but some folks four weeks.

 

[Thomas]

Now how does that old country song go...Country boy can surive.

Glad your back to normal,and I'll keep my fingers cross for warmer temps your way..melt some ice.

 

[creekbend]

I have experienced two ice storms. It was a good thing you had supplies and a heat source. Advance preparation really paid off for you and your Family.

 

[RickB]

Guess we lucked out. Only a couple flurries.

 

[Kyle241]

Agree on the generator. We escaped the freezing rain just North of you and got a lot of snow instead. Also remember the '98 ice storm all too well. We were without power for 4 weeks! The army came by every once in a while to check on us but our trusty wood stove got us through. Ever since, DW has demanded a generator and she is right!

 

[Harvey9]

Glad to hear you were prepared, so many are not.

Harvey

 

[bennatti]

I agree about the importance of a generator...we lost power for 9 days during the ice storm of 98...thanks to the wood stove we had heat...but no power = no water....we installed a standby generator the following spring.

 

[whistlepig]

It's a lot of hassle to be prepared for such a thing but well worth it when the time comes. We had an ice storm in February of '11 and lost power for four days in minus zero wind chill. A generator is kind of a necessity in the country.

 

[Ken45101]

The big advantage of a PTO generator IMO is that it can run on diesel which is easier to store in larger quantities than gasoline, which tends to go bad.

Too many people buy generators for the "long term outage" and don't think about where they are going to get 50 or 100 gallons of gasoline during a major outage.

Good to know you were only using a gallon per hour of fuel.

If I had a diesel generator, I would be set fuel wise, I just had the tank filled up this week with 175 gallons of diesel ($$$). However, we only have a gas generator we bought for camping. But with the wood stove and rural water, we don't really need much electricity.

Ken

 

[Dana Warner]

During the October storm in New England our power was out for 7 days. I ran my small B7100 at high PTO rpm and slowed the engine down to power my 7kw generator. Voltage was checked often but did not waver once the RPM was set. I only used about 1 to 1 1/2 gallon for 6 hours. The tractor ran our heat and a few lights about 16 hours a day. Just surprised you burned so much fuel.