Ever wish you had more snow?

milkman636 · Dec 22, 2013

The last three days have been a steady diet of rain, freezing rain, freezing fog, and ice. Temps have been rock solid in the 31º-32ºF range until they finally started to drop after sundown today.

Our town has three gas stations, one grocery store, two pharmacies, and not one of them had power. All but one of the restaurants are without power and several of the neighbors are on generators too. Branches were still falling as I was cleaning up this afternoon. Thank God that none hit me and we had power throughout this whole event.

This stuff takes about 4 times longer to remove than snow. I miss the snow and 0º temps we had earlier in the week.

Thomas · Dec 23, 2013

I agree,snow better than frozen mess clean up any day...bent trees to cut,tops snap off,more fallen limbs/branches from wind,if lucky enough no damage to home and autos.

Buppies · Dec 23, 2013

Ice is about the worst you can have in winter. Please be careful

milkman636 · Dec 23, 2013

Buppies said:
Ice is about the worst you can have in winter. Please be careful

Thanks I will, my only injury so far has been pride after I fell on my butt Friday heading out the door for the first time. The good news is that we are back to snow with three inches in the forecast.

Thomas said:
I agree,snow better than frozen mess clean up any day...bent trees to cut,tops snap off,more fallen limbs/branches from wind,if lucky enough no damage to home and autos.

Had a couple more branches drop over last night. The tip of one was just touching the front passenger side of the car. Fortunately no damge.

The McDonalds is back open with a rented generator that is costing them $5000 for 3 days. One gas station has power and it was lined up out into the road this morning. My neighbor is still without power so he came over for coffee and breakfast and gave me an update.

milkman636 · Dec 24, 2013

Well the three inches predicted turned out to be only one, and power finally came back on for almost all the businesses today. I can see more houses lit up around the neighborhood tonight as well. Things are looking up.

I was at my neighbors hooking my generator up to give his furnace a run when his power came back on. I was in the panel with a tic tester verifying the back feed from his outdoor plug and just happen to check the mains and got a tic. I had just broke the main and shut of all the loads 5 minutes earlier before going back out to the truck to start the generator. He suggested that I start going door-to-door to see if the generator would continue to produce such miraculous results.

After I got back home my wife called some other friends that live about 20 minutes away to see if they were still without power and needed a visit from the generator after we had dinner. They called back 20 minutes later and said their power came back on shortly after we called. We're starting to think we have a real good generator. Seems like just threatening to use it was curing power failures today.

My neighbor was at our house having dinner again tonight and said I seriously should consider charging for this service.:laughing:

tcreeley · Dec 24, 2013

Some years ago I got a generator for days the power was out- generator wouldn't start and I gave up on it. But before I reached that point I re-arranged my panel so that when I plug the generator in out in the shed that has a 100 amp feed, I can run 1/2 my panel in the house.
We heat with wood, so I set it to run the water pump, refrigerator and some lights. Even get internet!
I bought a new generator this summer and have been using it the past two days. I can check to see if the power is back by flipping the 100 amp feed off and switching on the main breaker. If there is power I walk out and turn off the generator, if not, I just flip two breakers, and run off the generator.
Walking with a cane I appreciate every step I save, especially through snow.

jgayman · Dec 24, 2013

tcreeley said:
I can check to see if the power is back by flipping the 100 amp feed off and switching on the main breaker. If there is power I walk out and turn off the generator, if not, I just flip two breakers, and run off the generator.

You need one of these handy devices. I use one with my generator and it works great.

Reliance Controls PowerBack Utility Power Return Alert-THP108 at The Home Depot

milkman636 · Dec 25, 2013

jgayman said:
You need one of these handy devices. I use one with my generator and it works great.

Reliance Controls PowerBack Utility Power Return Alert-THP108 at The Home Depot

That seems like a good idea. I don't have a transfer switch though, just a normal service panel. I shut the mains off and back feed from the 100A sub-panel in my barn through a dedicated two-pole 30A breaker with a twist-lock plug attached. The generator sits inside the back door of the barn and out of the weather that way. For my neighbors connection I had to be creative because he isn't prepped at all for generator.

jgayman · Dec 25, 2013

I don't have a transfer switch either, just an approved mechanical interlock. You simply wrap the sense wire around the main feed in your service panel and it will chirp like a smoke detector whenever power is sensed on the feed wires. It is especially great for power outages during daylight hours. I've used it for 3-4 power outages and it works 100% of the time to get our attention that power has been restored.