Testing my new generator

[jinman]

I'm on TBN this morning thanks to my generator humming along in the driveway. I just have some extension cords out to the "important" things like my computer and microwave. I'll hook up the refrigerator if this keeps up until noon, but they tell me power should be fixed soon.

Last night at midnight a powerful little storm blew through. We needed the rain desparately, but the straight-line winds with this storm were more than I've seen in a long time. I have half a dozen 6" to 10" diameter limbs down in my yard to clean up. Luckily, one landed just behind my pickup and the other just to the side of my Pontiac Vibe. No damage to either vehicle. I guess when you get an inch of rain this time of year, you have to take the bad with the good. This is the first time we have been without power more than three hours in a very long time. It's good the crews don't have to work in ice and snow to restore power, but it was a bit scary. On a scale of 1 to 10, this would have to be around a 2. The generator makes up for about 5 points on that scale.:thumbsup:

 

[jinman]

My wife is going to her mom and dad's house this morning. She called to tell me that power poles are snapped and down along the highway (US 287) between Sunset and Alvord. It may be awhile since no repair crews were at those locations. They are probably tied up with bigger "fish to fry" somewhere else. The storm last night really packed a punch.

 

[Western]

Jim,
I saw that storm coming yesterday evening, kind of a surprise too!. All we got was the lightning show and a few sprinkles, but sure could have used the moisture.

Good thing you got the "power plant" running, but I think I would go without right now just to have a little rain, (as long as nothing got broke). No home damage so there's a big plus for ya!

 

[mikim]

Man wish we coulda got that. We need rain sooooo bad .... and I have a whole house genset with auto switch so no sweat.

 

[ronjhall]

Glad you are safe,
I have had a Generator for a few years now. Have only had it run twice. The Generator now has 150 hours on it. 120 of those hours were from doing a weekly cycle. The 30 hours automatic use is better than having to fill the fuel tank every 10 hours for days on end.
We got all new power cables in 2 years ago. Have not had a blink since then. Old poles were installed in 1938.
Do you have power yet?

 

[jinman]

We were without power from midnight until noon yesterday. My house actually stayed cool, but would have eventually warmed with the afternoon heat/humidity. The generator kept the refrigerators, microwave, and computer going just fine and only used about 2 gallons of fuel in 3 hours. I spent most of the day moving downed trees and limbs. I lost about 3 big trees out in my woods and a dozen big limbs. My yard was littered with leaves and small limbs in addition to the larger 8" and 10" limbs that broke off of four trees. I needed to mow the lawn, so I just mulched up the leaves and tiny limbs, but made several trips with the Mule full of small limbs before I could mow.

I took a drive down the road about 10 miles away and found that both Sunset and Alvord were completely without power. I saw lots of powerline damage and trees blown over or limbs broken and down. This was nothing like a horrible storm, but the trees full of leaves seemed to have so much resistance to the wind that they toppled.

The rain is sure a welcome relief and we were lucky to have zero hail, so this wasn't that bad an event for us. Unfortunately, the power company might not agree with that. They seemed to take the worst from the strom as is often the case.

 

[Bartcephus]

I had a wife that told me trees are over-rated. I still rather clean up after them and have the shade. Glad to hear you received heavenly moisture, but sorry you had to deal with the wrath of the wind. What moisture you received is probably dried up by now. We need a good long two day steady rainfall here. Ponds and wells are drying up. Ugh!

 

[jonyyuma]

Summer storms, we get a lot from down Texas way? Our last one came from the north Sunday, we had 2 inches of rain and lots of lightning, in less than 30 min.. The recorder at airport was set to 75 mph. Lots of limbs down, but our power was still on.