LIGHTS OUT??? What were you doing and where?

[5030]

I was sitting with Henro and his wife in Pittsburgh, PA., when the lights went out all over the eastern half of the United States. Pittsburgh wasn't affected, so we got to see the multitudes of people in New York City milling about on the streets like ants in a large cookie jar.
We also got to hear the stupid and desperate remarks made by politicians and the media adding sensationalism with the implication of possible terrorist association.

I was wondering what my fellow TBYN'ers were doing when the "Lights went out"

 

[Inspector507]

Lights only went out for 10 seconds here........ /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[5030]

I called my wife from Pittsburgh, or at least I tried to. The phone's were out too.

When I got home Sunday, all was normal. My wife said the power was off for 29 hours. We lost all the contents of the fridge and freezer. 600 pounds of meat down the tubes.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( power was off for 29 hours. We lost all the contents of the fridge and freezer. 600 pounds of meat down the tubes )</font>

That's tough; makes me not feel so bad about our power outage today. We've had 4 or 5 instances of the power off and back on within a few seconds to 10 minutes in the last two weeks, but this morning, the power went off just after 7 a.m. and by noon it was hot enough (98 degrees F) that we went to an air-conditioned restaurant and took our time. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif When we got back just before 2 p.m., they had just restored the power a few minutes earlier.

 

[hayden]

I was at our solar powered house in VT and was clueless until I turned on NPR in the evening and heard all about it. Sounded like '68 (I think it was then). I remember the lights being out for a long tim eand the tirals and tribulations of my father finding his way home from NYC.

 

[rancar]

<font color="blue">"..was wondering what my fellow TBN'ers were doing when the "Lights went out" </font>

I was cutting the lawn with my JD 425 lawn tractor. When I finshed up around 8:15PM and came indoors the power was restored. JD tractors work wonders....don't they? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

..Bob

 

[TimSullivan]

My wife and I had just greeted the last of our ten guests for dinner when the lights went out. The roast was done on the gas grill and propane gas cooked the rest of the meal. The only problem we had was no power to pump water from the well. Last winter we had a storage tank installed in the basement and there were a lot of trips with buckets to keep the bathrooms working.

A generator is now on our want list.

One thing about my wife she never lets a little adversity get her down. The house got a little warm but we all had a wonderful time.

 

[knucklehead]

Ate supper listening to the radio, then drove to work and helped put them back on. Thought the last night shift was going to be quiet, so I skipped the afternoon nap and stacked firewood. Duh!

 

[5030]

I have to relate this to everyone.

When I got home from Pennsylvania, the first thing on my wife's agenda was for me to go online and order a standby generator.

Last winter we had an ice storm and we were going to get one then but somehow it got shoved under the carpet. I did buy a Yamaha 2800 I (inverter) generator for the camper and it will run the fridge and a few light, but that's all.

Anyway, we have livestock (horses) and a well so we need 220 power for that, besides the furnace and the sump pump. I fired up the wonderful internet and went right to a site I had bookmarked last year. I purchased a 15 KW propane fired standby unit with automatic switching. I contacted my propane dealer and I am having another tank installed to run in series with my present 500. That will take me to 1000 gallons.

The unit I got has 125 amps of 110 volts and 61.5 amps 220 volts on each leg. That should run our entire house with the exception of my machine shop which is on 3 phase anyway.

My wife is extremely happy now. I am sure she will be even more happy when the unit arrives and gets wired in.

I don't want to be an optimist, but I have a feeling that the power outage scenario is going to happen again, even though I hope in my heart it dosen't.

 

[knucklehead]

What's neat is there's a lot of Y2K stuff hanging around people's cellars and attics. I took the opportunity of the ice storm to make reasonable storm prep; and got a nice file going on several subjects. It's kind of fun, the study & practice of self reliance. Anyone familiar with Backwoods Home Magazine? Very nice, not wacko, and a different flavor than Mother Earth. Very down to Earth, actually. I was kind of wondering if there might be interest in the subject, maybe over on CBN.

Briefly, what we found was that you could head in two directions: looking for high tech solutions and sometimes very odd ones, or try to look for solutions similar to our grandparents'. That was very easy, and we found that it was more quickly accomplished and required more changes in attitude than equipment. We did add another wood stove (the wood boiler needs electron flow) and made sure we had various non electric things - like good hand tools and one of those lovely Aladdin lamps. We did buy a generator to run the water pump and washing machine, because we want to live our lives, not become re-enactors. But instead of that constant small engine drone, we now can fire up the beast, shower, wash, and cook, watch TV, surf, then shut it down and enjoy peace and quiet. And we don't wake up to a freezing house. What I'd take for a next step is a battery bank/inverter for low amperage consumption, like the circ pumps for the boiler, and some convenient lighting. That's not a cheap step, and so far the outages have been short. But we do keep the gasoline cans full, and the cars and trucks.

 

[PBMAX]

Was in the air. I had left Islip airport on Long Island at 11:30 am E time.
Landed in Baltimore/Wash. and couldn't figure why I was having so difficult a time calling out. guess all the lines were busy and switches were getting clogged or down. found Out When I landed back in Bham what was going on.

Glad I got out when I did I almost took a later flight.... /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[_RaT_]

Had Fox news on and saw <font color="red"> FOX NEWS ALERT </font>. Thought oh now what, Scot Petersen, Kobe Bryant alllowing cameras in the court room. Oh no, a power outage back East, well at least it was important this time I thought. Was it a deliberate outage by unfriendlies. Saw a clip on East coast power generation and was amazed at all the smoke stacks and what I determined to be coal generators. Looks like there will be some upgrading ahead all the way around.

 

[5030]

Knucklehead:

We are not "survivalists", but living in the boonies and at the end of the power line does pose it's problems. When our power does go out, it usually goes for at least a day.

To that end, we heat our house with a pellet stove that I mix 50% pellets and 50% corn. I heat our old barn for about $600.00 per year. I have a high efficiency furnace in the basement to keep the pipes from freezing and my shop is heated as extreme cold is very hard on close tolerance machine tools.

We always keep a good supply of food on hand and in the winter, there is always a snowmobile gassed up if needed.
I too have a sort of "Alladan" lamp. I have an old Coleman-white gas lantern and I also have a German made lantern called a Petromax. They are pretty expensive, but will run on any fossil fuel (I am a fossil too!!). I have never tried it on diesel, but gasoline, alcohol and kerosene as well as coleman fuel all work good. This is without a doubt, the best lantern I have ever bought and gives the most light by far

Now that our new genset has arrived to my amazement 2 days after I ordered it and the electrican has committed to the install right after labor day. We have complete peace of mind, I hope.

I don't have a web address for the Petromax, but Cabella's outdoor store sells them. I believe it's www.cabellas.com

 

[_RaT_]

Cabelas and the Petromax Lantern

 

[5030]

RaT:

Thank you for the link. I'm sure you are aware that I am not "computer literate" I do know about "transmissions" though!!

Anyway, it's a tremendous lantern. If anyone gets one, I suggest getting the schrader valve accessory that replaces the coleman like hand pump. That way, you can use a foot pump to pressureize the lantern as it takes quite a bit more pressure than the "coleman type lantern".

I have the large one with the large shade. I also have the nylon case. It's nice to store the lantern in when you are not using it. It also has a pouch for spare mantels and the tool kit.

 

[Trev]

I was in NH visiting my mom... and got a frantic call from my wife. "How do I hook and and run the PTO generator??" My reply was "You don't! If the power stays out, I'll come home. None of my friends have bothered to read the tractor manual, or the genset manual, or understand the circuit breaker setup, and to try to rig this up yourself would be suicide."

In the middle of our conversation, her power came back on.. so that was that. Made me think, though. I'm not usually gone without her, but if I am.. it would be good if my neighbor knew how to do this stuff. Trouble is, he "doesn't have time" to learn it all. Which to me means, he isn't touching it. The tractor key stays in my pocket, period.

Maybe we need a little generator people can run with no knowledge of what they're doing? No. Silly waste of money. Maybe I need to lay down the law and make them learn this stuff? I dunno... I may not have that much clout! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Any ideas, that won't cost me money? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bob

 

[Inspector507]

Bob,
During the recent outages, I sat down with my wife....with full power /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif , and asked her which we were going to get, the PTO style, the portable, or the BIG KAHUNA? She's the one that said the permanent/automatic one. The PTO unit was out of the question. She could probably do it physically(the portable one) but didn't want to worry if I wasn't home. I'm trying to make sure she is taken care of, now and in the future.
So......now the 12KW unit, with auto tranfer, is on order

 

[5030]

Inspector:

What brand did you order? I got a generac 15KW packaged unit from http://www.norwall.com I ordered the unit on Sunday evening when I got home from my travels. The unit was delivered on Wednesday afternoon that's 2 DAYS after I ordered it. It came commercial frieght and the freight company delivered right to my door or should I say into my FEL bucket!!

That is faster delivery than I even get from UPS!!!!!! I have had to speed up the install of the tandem propane tanks and the electrical install too. Should have everything done by the week after Labor day.

 

[Inspector507]

Daryl,
I ordered the Generac 12KW. Same price as Norwall. Free shipping as well. But since the company I went with is in OHIO, I had to pay tax /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Jerry

 

[5030]

Inspector:

There is another thread running concurrently with this one about PTO generators. I just replied to F350Lawman. He just bought the same unit that I did. Rather than typing the post again, please read that thread. I got a little insight from another Generac owner about mounting the unit.