Power Out - Day Two

[JoelD]

Not much of a Kioti topic but thought I'd share. We had a big ice storm night before last. We lost power at about 11:30pm after a couple of loud transformer explosions. Many Many Many trees are down and power is out in the entire town. Some are saying we'll not have power back for at least a few more days. Tonight's forcast is for single digits. I've been running on generator since the power went out. The generator is a 5500 wat PowerPro generator I bought at PepBoys last year during their black friday day after thanksgiving sales event. I paid $329 (hard to believe). The machine has a 13 HP overhead valve motor and a 6.5 gallon fuel tank, she'll run at least 10 hours straight. I hook into the panel via a 240V receptical and a dedicated 30 amp breaker. She runs the entire house with ease. I have forced hot water heat. The big draw is the well pump. I am affraid a lot of people are going to run into trouble tonight. One guy has already killed himself with CO2.

I've got my miller welder which is also a 5500 wat generator, was thinking about maybe trying to hit the road and help out some folks but man the liability is huge I would think.

Thought you guys might find this stuff interesting.

Joel

 

[Egon]

Sounds like you are prepared for the long haul.

Like your weather shield!

 

[Dmace]

After dealing with too many power outages (like the 10 days with no power back in 98) and the lack of response time from PSNH, we decided to purchase a full propane powered stand-by generator. Let me tell you, I will never own another house without one. It's a 24hp Honda engine powering a 12Kw (12,000 watt) generator with automatic power switching. When the power goes out, the generator waits 20 seconds to be sure it's not just a flicker and then starts up. The power is on immediately after it starts and you would not even know the power was out until you went outside and heard it running. When the power returns, it switches back to line power so fast the lights don't even blink, you only know the power is back when you hear the generator shut off. It also auto-cycles the engine once per week at any time you program.

The power company told me they would not be in my area until Sunday night at the earliest. I said take your time, I am going to take a hot shower.

Click thumbnail for larger image

 

[JoelD]

After dealing with too many power outages (like the 10 days with no power back in 98) and the lack of response time from PSNH, we decided to purchase a full propane powered stand-by generator. Let me tell you, I will never own another house without one. It's a 24hp Honda engine powering a 12Kw (12,000 watt) generator with automatic power switching. When the power goes out, the generator waits 20 seconds to be sure it's not just a flicker and then starts up. The power is on immediately after it starts and you would not even know the power was out until you went outside and heard it running. When the power returns, it switches back to line power so fast the lights don't even blink, you only know the power is back when you hear the generator shut off. It also auto-cycles the engine once per week at any time you program.

The power company told me they would not be in my area until Sunday night at the earliest. I said take your time, I am going to take a hot shower.

Click thumbnail for larger image

Dmace, that is a really nice set up. I should really consider hard, the beauty of it is the fact that the boss does not have to do anything. I went to work yesterday, and the boss had to switch it off once. Not good without me around. Thanks to my neighbor he kept me gassed up throughout the day. 12K is more than enough juice to run the entire house, dryer, oven an all. Real nice, thanks for sharing. You've given me something to think about. I am asuming your fuel of choice splices into your home supply? I run oil. Therefore, I would think diesel may be a better choice for me? I'd just need to keep her full and have diesel one hand, generally do for the tractor anyway.

Thanks,
Joel

 

[irvingj]

Guess we were lucky-- only lost power yesterday for 8 hours, starting at 3AM. We got some ice, maybe 3/8" coating on branches, but lots of limbs & trees down. This was preceded by 4" of snow; sounds like you guys "down south" must have had ALL rain/ice. National Grid (sometimes pronounced "Greed" ) is generally pretty good up here about getting things back on line quickly. Hope you folks get your power back soon. Pretty darned chilly this AM up here, about 8.

 

[JoelD]

PSNH stated this morning at 8:00am that 313,000 customers are without power. Predicting a few more days to return power.

This looks to be a big deal.

I am really glad I had the foresight to the get the generator and wire up the panel, makes hooking up a lot easier than pulling breakers.

The gas stations that are running within a 5 mile radius are packed with people all filling up gas cans.

A couple years back we lost power for 3 days and I ran my house and my neighbor's furnace all off of my Miller Bluestar welder. Ran a 200 foot long extension cord from my generator to his house and hard wired to his furnace.

I'll shut down the generator this afternoon to do an oil change.

Joel

 

[Dmace]

That is a good idea to change the oil when it is running full time for more than a day or two.

Our house is heated with an oil furnace (forced hot water) so we had to get a propane tank installed, no charge since it is the same company we get oil from. I figured the generator would use a lot of propane so I asked for a 500 gal tank. They filled it to 40% (200 gals) and after 2 years with a few outages here and there for 8-24 hours a piece plus starting up and running for 15 mins every week we are still at about 31% (155 gals +/-). If I had known that, I would have had one of those little 100 gal tanks put in. This 500 gal tank is huge!

 

[EddieWalker]

From what I read online, it looks like over a million homes without power and there's no idea how long it will take to get it going again. Lots of down trees that have taken out the lines will need to be cleared.

If you are worried about friends and family, invite them over. I wouldn't under any situation bring a spare generator out to somebody else. Odds are very good that they will not take care of it. Keep it with you and take care of your family first. Your generator isn't rated for long term use, so if this lasts for a few weeks, you might very well burn it out. If your spare is off at another house, you might not get it back, or it might also have burned out.

Change the oil every day. Get an extra spark plug or two. Have allot of fuel on hand. More then you think you will need, and then some!!!!

We lost power for four days and it was a big eye opener. I'm still researching propane generators, but have a small coleman gas one and a big onan diesel in my Parents RV, so it's not a rush to get anything right now. This is looking to be the coldest winter in a very long time. We're breaking records here in December, so I'm a little worried what January and February will bring.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Wow, guess we were lucky around here.

Joel, you can find an hour meter that works from vibration here, Bailey Hydraulic Cylinders Manufacturer. I put one on my generator as it calls for oil changes every 50 hours. Takes the guess work out of it. The hour meter counts when it senses engine vibration, they work great.

Good luck, Andy

 

[ragkar]

I think that I ought to get that hour meter for my generator.