Well, we are back in civilization...power came back yesterday afternoon...seemed like forever, but only off 26 hours. Most of our electric coop customers lost power, and some are still without power...haven't seen the news, so don't know if our governor has ended the state of emergency. Still very windy, but only up to 25mph now. Many dead branches have been pruned by mother nature, but 4 big pines have blown over my path in the woods, so tractor, grapple and chainsaw will get some exercise this week.
Randy, I bought my generator in January 2016 before the predicted massive snowstorm...but we never lost electrity...so had only used it to run the 5 hour break-in period and change the oil. Glad I had it for this outage so we didn't have to throw away a lot of freezer/fridge food that had warmed like in past years.
I got the dual fuel model at Costco, and have only run it on LPG...started up in a couple of seconds, although I hadn't kept up with the battery, it still had plenty of juice. I ran it for about 8 hours during this outage, and used a little more than one LP tank of fuel...took that to TSC to refill yesterday ($9.88) and had to wait in line...like I said, lots of folks lost power.
Here are my notes on my tiny experience the last couple of days...
- had to make a makeshift ramp and move generator into position from the shed where kept now - not real hard, but took a little while
- running on LPG is best for clean reliability and fuel storage - I keep 6 LP tanks (also use them for the grill and turkey fryer).
- I had to run the main generator cord through the window and then extension cords from the outlet box through the house to the refrigerators and one hanging workshop light
- I had to move the microwave to the room where the main generator cord came through the window so I wouldn't have to run it on an extension cord.
- I have a oscillating fan on a stand that can move the woodstove heat to other wings of the house, but it was still cold - 48 in our bedroom yesterday morning (can't get woodstove heat back there) but I like sleeping in cold rooms
- we have a well, so we still didn't have water (except rainwater I had collected in barrels that I could bucket carry to the toilets, but I had to break thin ice to get to it). We also had bottled water to drink, brush teeth, and to boil on the woodstove in the kettles for coffee or tea.
- we don't lose power often enough for a whole house generator
- I do need to get a transfer box installed so I can run the well pump and a couple of kitchen circuits and maybe one to the master bedroom for a space heater in case it is really cold or a fan if power is lost in the summer.
- power outages are like camping - we played cards and read under the one 100 watt equivalent LED bulb we were using near the woodstove...sort of an adventure
- if it had been really cold, snowing or raining the whole time, things would have been much worse and I would have been dreaming of a whole house auto unit.
BEF - my son loves his Forester - great room, mpgs, drives nice and heated seats/leather...no turbo but still peppy. My Tundra is my first vehicle with heated seats...I use them year round...makes my back feel so much better.
No robots doing the vacuuming here, and no IPs, but we talk about it. Glad to hear the roombas are working well...may have to check in tuit.
Temp got down below freezing again this morning, but the wind had already dried the ground a good bit, so mowing and tractor seat time this week.
