Outage fun in NC

[nikdfish]

Well we had a fast mover roll through, high winds, hail, etc. & a bunch of scattered outages. Power dropped here around 2:00 PM, followed by phone (& DSL) a half hour later. Phone (& DSL) returned around 7:00PM but the power is still out and no ETA on the fix yet (Progress Energy outage map still says "assessing damage").

The good news is no damage at the house or neighborhood. Cranked up the portable 5K generator & ran lines to the freezer & refrigerators and another couple to stop the beeping from the UPS's hooked to phone, WiFi, Dish, TV & laptop. No AC, but fans help out. Nothing run to the well pump, but the recently added 60 gallon pressure body is near full pressure & looks to be good for 19 gallons or so of draw down (plus there's a couple of 50 gallon poly barrels if needed).

This is a reminder I need to quit putting off adding in a connection for backup power! And I need to go ahead and pick up a deep cycle 12v battery as emergency power for the CPAP (a fully charged battery is good for around 3 or 4 nights use).

They are usually pretty quick around here in attending to outages (a major generation facility is only a dozen miles down the road) so it will probably kick back on by morning unless crews get pulled for the large number of outages farther east.

Nick

 

[General Lee]

Sounds like what I do, but I have a 40 amp breaker for generator in the panel box. Plug it and carefully select circuits I need. Well pump gets run by its self shower and fill bladder. Water heater gets run by itself for 30-40 minutes to heat up for a shower. After that its a few lights, TV, and a computer. Hard to stay cool in summer outages. I have a 5500 watt genny and I'm shopping for a 10,000 watt now. I'd like some AC.

 

[creekbend]

We live in Caswell County right next to you. We lost power two different times. I sincerely feel sorry for those in West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, D.C. area. The evening news last night stated that power may take up to a week more to be restored in some of those areas. One just has to adapt. I am grateful for our blessings and I wish the best for the more unfortunate.

 

[EE_Bota]

I lost power sometime Friday night late, and power returned Saturday Morning at around 8:00 AM. I don't know what caused that outage, but the "Power-on" phone service made it sound like it effected Greensboro and surrounding areas. I am on Duke.

All I did is lay around until the power came on...at around 8:00 AM. If it had been much longer, I'd have been out and about trying to hook up the PTO generator, which could have used the workout.

 

[creekbend]

I lost power sometime Friday night late, and power returned Saturday Morning at around 8:00 AM. I don't know what caused that outage, but the "Power-on" phone service made it sound like it effected Greensboro and surrounding areas. I am on Duke.

All I did is lay around until the power came on...at around 8:00 AM. If it had been much longer, I'd have been out and about trying to hook up the PTO generator, which could have used the workout.

We are on Piedmont Electric. BTW, how are you doing? I only work outside during early morning and late evening now, during this heat wave.

 

[dex3361]

Sounds like what I do, but I have a 40 amp breaker for generator in the panel box. Plug it and carefully select circuits I need. Well pump gets run by its self shower and fill bladder. Water heater gets run by itself for 30-40 minutes to heat up for a shower. After that its a few lights, TV, and a computer. Hard to stay cool in summer outages. I have a 5500 watt genny and I'm shopping for a 10,000 watt now. I'd like some AC.

We were slammed as well and I am running my 6500 watt Chinese diesel generator. I been out since Friday evening and my father in law is out of oxygen bottles and I am running his oxygen concentrator and a window AC unit. I operate just like you and add in the window AC my generator will not run my 3 ton heat pump. It is times like this that I am thankful for insulating the house well. I have a detached garage and a welder receptacle that I tap the generator in on.

 

[EE_Bota]

We are on Piedmont Electric. BTW, how are you doing? I only work outside during early morning and late evening now, during this heat wave.

It is unusually hot, and you are wise to avoid the extremes of it for sure. I am at work today, and my office is like an ice box because the woman next door controls the thermostat, and she is going through "the change." Most days I wear a jacket in my office, but peel out of it to hit the factory.

We have been really lucky this year in terms of temperatures until we hit this hot dry snap. I took full advantage of the cool weather last Tues and Wednesday.

 

[EE_Bota]

We were slammed as well and I am running my 6500 watt Chinese diesel generator. I been out since Friday evening and my father in law is out of oxygen bottles and I am running his oxygen concentrator and a window AC unit. I operate just like you and add in the window AC my generator will not run my 3 ton heat pump. It is times like this that I am thankful for insulating the house well. I have a detached garage and a welder receptacle that I tap the generator in on.

I heard about you folks up further north, and we are praying that your service will be restored as soon as possible. On the TV, it looked like the wind and weather took an extra special swipe that the power lines; poles seemed to be knocked down in a long line like a huge hand just pushed them over. I'm sure many of us will be watching and pulling for you guys.

 

[dex3361]

My emergency plan does not normally include running 24 hours a day. With the 95-100 degree heat I have had to keep it going. I found that in a wide area long term outage diesel is easier to find even when all of the gasoline was depleted. I went Sunday morning to Charleston WV looking for diesel driving my old diesel truck to conserve the gasoline. There were a few stations open with lines for blocks. Power was out in sections of Charleston. People were acting like it was the end of the world. This was after the news released that our power would be out till July 6th or 7th in our county. I think rural areas my be out that long but not near the town. I had enough diesel to make it 5 days but was trying to be on the safe side. It has normally been a luxury but with the heat and running my FIL oxygen concentrator it was a life saving necessity. I am not considering a PTO generator to add to the small diesel and sell the 4KW gas unit.

 

[dmccarty]

We drove down to GA on Friday afternoon and returned Saturday afternoon. Everything was fine at our house. The irony was the idea of driving SOUTH for cooler weather! Home was supposed to be 105ish on Friday and Saturday. My parents was 90 and 91 in FLA!

I really feel sorry for those people around DC with the power out in this heat. We were lucky in that we have power and the humidity was low. We were in GA last year and I remember being sweaty wet looking at the planes at the Eighth Air Force museum first thing in the morning. While the temperature was higher this year the humidity was low. At our house over the weekend the humidity was as low as 25 percent which does help.

The news pages are report 3 million people without power in this heat. YUCK!

We had some very strong winds at 0230 this morning. The winds even woke up the wifey which never happens. We had a bulldozer clear out some trees that might fall on the house. With those trees no longer threatening the house I was able to sleep better. I looked at radar this morning and the wind was from a strong line of storms that were 60-90 minutes west of us. The line never made it to us but there were plenty of branches down this morning. We sure have gotten lucky with the storms so far.

Later,
Dan

 

[riptides]

The greater DC area still has about 300k people without power. This is four days after the storm came through. Word has it, maybe by Friday for full restoration. The heat index is about 100, and the next four days will be the same.

It is a mess in and around this area.

I heard at the height of this storm in the mid-atlantic area it was 5.1 million without power.

Check out the graphic. "The ferocious storm that blew through the Washington-area Friday night is a weather system known as a derecho."


http://wtop.com/41/2925683/Timeline-of-derecho-that-hit-Friday

 

[creekbend]

Our local News Station reported this evening that there were still 70 substations and 93 transmissions lines still down due to the storm. We were very lucky. We lost power only twice - once for 4 hours and another for around an hour. I feel sorry for the elderly in retirement facilities. They showed on TV that portable generators were incorporated just to run fans. Here's wishing everyone the best.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Nothing run to the well pump, but the recently added 60 gallon pressure body is near full pressure & looks to be good for 19 gallons or so of draw down (plus there's a couple of 50 gallon poly barrels if needed).

I would strongly recommend storing a week or so's worth of water for your family/household. Estimate 1 gallon per person per day. Places I've seen give higher estimates per person, but honestly, I have tested this, and 1 gallon per person per day is plenty for me and mine. Maybe I don't wash my hands as much as other people do. I don't know. It's really cheap insurance against a problem. If you like, you can usually find plastic, food-grade, 55 gallon drums for $10 or so on Craigslist. Or buy 5-7 gallon containers at Wal-Mart. Whatever you like.

Whenever the power is out, I take solace knowing there's 40 gallons or so of water downstairs and I don't need to fret about using up water pressure.

 

[nikdfish]

I agree absolutely. We put those barrels in a while back & keep them filled & treated with bleach. The end of the summer I'll dump, refill & treat again. I keep a dedicated potable water RV hose & a self priming siphon hose (in sealed storage) for use with them with them. I also keep a lb. or so of HTH granular calcium hypochlorite stashed in case of emergency where fresh bleach is unavailable...

Nick

 

[dmccarty]

Don't forget you have a bunch of water in the water heater.

One of the reasons we went with a conventional water heater was for water storage. A whole house instant water heater would not work for us because we have an all electric house. We ended up with a very efficient 80 gallon water heater which would give us quite a bit of drinking water during an outage.

Later,
Dan