When I build my house, it'll have a propane, 30K watt or larger, whole house genny on an auto switch. Power gos out for :30 seconds, generator automatically fires up and switches over until the power comes back on. They also automatically start and run for 15 mins every 3 months or what ever, to stay lubricated and keep the seals lubricated etc. Only thing you have to do is watch the hour meter and stay on top of the oil and plug changes, watch the battery (which is on an automatic maintainer) and keep the propane tank full.

 

My genny now is just a small portable one, for camping.
It will run the refrigerator or freezer (not both at the same time) so I run the fridge full time, and shut it off and run the freezer back to cold every few hours.
It will run the fridge, one 32" tube tv (thats a power hog appliance), the satellite, laptop and DSL modem.... (the essentials) + a single 40w light bub in every room.

I have to shut TV and fridge off to run microwave, hot plate, electric grill or anything to cook on. So ussually just cook off the bar b q grill or the fireplace.

The only thing it wouldn't run, that I wish it would, is the washing machine (might have done that if I'd shut everything else off) but wouldn't run the clothes dryer or hot water heater.

 

Good info.
I have gas heat so I could take hot showers and my fireplace worked.
My gen is pretty big, I ran out of cord before it got overtaxed.

 

I spent $300 ish on mine during the outage last year, of course I overpaid because they were rare, hard to find, demand was high and no one could keep them in stock. Then another $20 for 4, 5 gal gas jugs for it. They were hard to find too at the time and I over paid for them as well.

After I got home with it all, then I realized it wasn't going to power enough to be worth installing an input plug and cut off switch to prevent back feed, below the meter. So I went to town and spent another $100 on extension cords, 30 amp splitters, etc. then realized I over looked the fact that I had a main cord coming into the house and was powering everything with 110v at 30 amps. All I had was cheap 16ga cords. I didn't have a heavy gauge extension cord to carry it. So had to run back into town, spend another $50 on a 12 ga, 50' extension cord. Wasn't thinking I should have just bought the wire and ends and made one. Probably would have been cheaper.

I had a cord running into each room and a splitter on the end of each of those cords running to everything I wanted to power in that room.

 

Now I have probably a mile and a half, maybe more or less, worth of extension cords that I'll probably never use most of them again before they rot.

 

Me too!
Sometimes when I get the leaf blower going, I'm all the way down to the 7-Eleven before it comes unplugged.

 

Since the nearest 7-11 is 48 miles away. I come a little short.
Story of my life.........

 

thats more along the lines of what i meant. i just googled it and they said sudden temp drops can cause the bark to contract rapidly making it explode off the trees.

 

hmmmm.... let's run the numbers here.

1) Author has no post in the last 30 hours.

B) Openly admits in mixed company he is not in possession of a generator.

3) Last post subject severe ice storms...

X= B/3 (-1)

 

Dramatic flair.
(-1) meaning 'one is missing' or 'one who is missing'.

Besides a positive multiplied by a Negative always equals a negative,
and I'm a negative kind of guy.

 

3 options

Do you think Kobi is cuddled up in front of the fire in the dark waiting for teh power to come back on?
Or
He fell again....
or
Did he try to drive on it to get some starter logs or generator and is currently recuperating from sliding into a light pole in wal-mart parking lot.

 

Well, it's gone from having the excitement of being new and unusual and interesting to being dangerous and no longer fun.

I've been without power ever since Sunday. It came on for about 5 mins about three hours ago but then went off again. I'm typing this on my laptop using my battery power. No phones means no internet. No TV and I don't have a radio. Car is in the garage but I can't get in as it's power doors. THe third garage door is manual but old owners lost the key and I haven't had time to have a locksmith come out. Next time the power comes back on for a minute or so (which has happened twice so far), I'm hitting the garage door opener so I can at least have access to my car and listen to a radio. I have no idea of the extent of this storm but it's a disaster here.

Just spoke to energy company. Said that power won't be back on for 3 to 5 days.

Trees are down everywhere. Big trees. And the amount of ice covering everything is amazing.

It's a gigantic mess. Also heard talk of some fatal accidents on the highway which is not far from here.

My yard and driveway are under about an inch and a half to two inches of ice. It's like an ice skating rink. My driveway slopes down hill and there is no way to drive out of my garage. I'd never be able to stop the car even if I could.. My street is totally covered in ice. They gave up plowing the side streets and are only maintaining the main streets. Even if I could drive down the driveway, I'd never be able to stop and as soon as I hit the street I'd continue across into my across the street neighbor's place.

Later that day.

Friend is driving to Home Depot. Evidently some parts of town have power.

Back from Home Depot. Must have been 100 people crowded around the information desk waiting for generators. I'd like power, but I ain't waiting for hours or longer. Instead I bought starter logs and now have a fire. Inside it is 45 degrees and getting colder each hour. Is this fun or what?

Getting dark, still no power. Loud crash a while ago. went out and a tree by the driveway fell over. Not some branches falling off, the entire tree fell over, snapped at the base and when it fell it pulled the trunk out of the ground. Every so often you can hear a really loud swoosh and then crackeling and then crash. SOmeone's tree collapsed. I was standing under a large tree this afternoon and all of a sudden a bunch of ice started coming down, I ran as best I could and just barely made it before a large chunk of the top of the tree came crashing down.

THis is f'in crazy. I have never seen anything like this. It is solid ice everywhere. Hundreds of trees look like they got bombed. It's a disaster all over the place.

Hoping power comes back on soon. Fire is nice though. Really missing Lost Angeles. :-)

Oh my gosh...power on...I opened the garage door (although down tree is blocking driveway so I still can't leave) . . . no phones but I am picking up someone else's internet so I am checking emails and news and copy and pasting this stuff Ive written.

Will try to post pic of downed tree (you'll have to imagine the rest)

Hopefully power will stay on.

 

internet radio sez second wave ice storm coming.

 

good luck with all that and for future reference your garage door should have a red handle that hangs down from the chain, if you pull that the door should be able to be opened manually

 

Kobi, stay warm and be safe. Matt and I have plenty of chain saws and could be there soon if need be...