18 hours without power (so far)

[VorlonFrog]

Wicked thunderstorms with damaging winds blew up and through town Saturday afternoon. Because the local electric utility won't invest in underground primaries for existing overhead lines, we lose power every time the wind blows and a rotted branch falls across an electric line. My neighborhood circuit has about 40 people without power, so we're ridiculously low on their list of priorities. There are hundreds around us a few blocks away without power, so hopefully we'll see some repair activity in the next four hours. Last night there were 14K in the city without power, this morning it was only down to 12K. Apparently they're short staffed and spread too thin.

 

[Mike]

Ouch, good luck

 

[bigredfish]

That sucks. We went 8 days after Hurricane Irma. Me and 3 neighbors all bought 8000/10,000 Generacs and had disconnects installed. Aint doin that again.

 

[VorlonFrog]

That sucks. We went 8 days after Hurricane Irma. Me and 3 neighbors all bought 8000/10,000 Generacs and had disconnects installed. Aint doin that again.

I've got a 7KW Black Max generator that's keeping us reasonably comfortable via extension cords, but it's never been wired into the panel. Gonna have to arrange for that in the near future. We bought it one July a few years ago and this is the fourth time it's come out of the shed to keep us sane during long outages.

 

[NoloC]

That sucks. We went 8 days after Hurricane Irma. Me and 3 neighbors all bought 8000/10,000 Generacs and had disconnects installed. Aint doin that again.

What did that cost? Assume the disconnect is a transfer switch not a back feed?

Here in SoCal, Edison is going through a huge "fire hardening" project since the Paradise fire liability fiasco. They were out here Friday to replace pole and the cables are now insulated. Power was out for 11 hours while crews worked and there are more outages to follow. They are replacing all the wire with this Korean made insulated cable. So if a branch falls, no short.

I ran the fridge and the coffee maker on a 2000 watt inverter gene branded as "Duromax". All these things seem to look as though they come out of the same factory in China. Engines all seem to be made by Ducar. And I noticed even the big Generacs and Kohler and Cummins are now 3600 rpm. Old ones were 1800. Curious how that effects reliability. But obviously it is a good purchase.

 

[bigredfish]

A simple manual interlock actually, wont allow you to backfeed. There's a plug for the generator connected to the panel and a mechanical switch that only allows the either the mains or the generator to power the panel. I think $150.

We got a steal on the Generac GP8000e's only $599

 

[TL1096r]

That sucks. We went 8 days after Hurricane Irma. Me and 3 neighbors all bought 8000/10,000 Generacs and had disconnects installed. Aint doin that again.

Yes it only takes 1 time. Blackout of 2003 and I had a generator installed and so far used it a lot since. Including Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

@VorlonFrog best of luck and stay safe!

 

[aristobrat]

That sucks. We went 8 days after Hurricane Irma. Me and 3 neighbors all bought 8000/10,000 Generacs and had disconnects installed. Aint doin that again.

How do those do? Sound level and gas consumption both tolerable?

 

[aristobrat]

A simple manual interlock actually, wont allow you to backfeed. There's a plug for the generator connected to the panel and a mechanical switch that only allows the either the mains or the generator to power the panel. I think $150.

Interlock here too, super easy to install.

 

[VorlonFrog]

We got a steal on the Generac GP8000e's only $599

I'd certainly say you did!! What engine is powering that? A Briggs and Stratton? One of the reasons this BlackMax was a bit pricy (even for Sam's Club) is it has an electric start Honda engine. Runs extremely smoothly and very reasonably quiet.

Power came back on in fits and spurts just before 7 pm Eastern. Finally came on for good. Thank goodness. We were extremely fortunate the temp in the house didn't go over 77 degrees today.

 

[NoloC]

Hard to beat a Honda small engine. I have looked pretty closely at a variety of generator brands including Generac, Champion, Duromax, Pulsar and a few others and they all appear to have the same engine made by Ducar.
They may claim it is their brand but I think that it is made for them by this Chinese company. They seem to be pretty reliable though from talking to neighbors. But $599 for that Generac is a great deal.

 

[bigredfish]

Not sure on the engine brand... we picked these up on day 2 of our hurricane outage. Electric start, runs great. It got broken in right with 125 continuous run hours that week. On a 7 gallon tank we got about 12-14 hours if I recall correctly.

Northern Tools put them 1/2 price that week !

 

[J Sigmo]

That was very nice of them. Good customer relations. The opposite of gouging!

 

[bp2008]

Yeah no kidding I would have expected by day two they all would have been sold at double the price.

 

[beepsilver]

You and your neighbors should start pestering the electric company to trim trees off the power lines in your area...that'll save a lot of headache. Every time the wind blew hard we'd lose power for a while...that is until they cut the trees back.

 

[bigredfish]

Yeah our power is underground, but we share a circuit (and a grove of 100ft Oaks), with another street to our south with aerial lines. They keep 'em trimmed, as do we, but when one decides to come down inevitably its on the power lines. They had us back up and running in less than 2 hours, - once we got their attention.

Long story but all of the neighborhoods on 4 sides of us had power restored on Day #2. For some reason they kept avoiding us. After countless calls we decided to put up a sign at the entrance which faces a major 4 lane road. ... After calling 3 TV stations about our plight, Duke showed up 1 hour after I did the noon-time live interview

 

[TonyR]

Yeah our power is underground, but we share a circuit (and a grove of 100ft Oaks), with another street to our south with aerial lines. They keep 'em trimmed, as do we, but when one decides to come down inevitably its on the power lines. They had us back up and running in less than 2 hours, - once we got their attention.

Did you light the sign at night with Tiki torches (far enough away to NOT set it on fire) ?

 

[bigredfish]

Damn no, but that woulda been a Great idea!

 

[looney2ns]

I installed one of these for our portable Briggs & stratton 7500watt. https://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Corporation-31406CRK-6-circuit-Generators/dp/B000BQN4T2/ref=sr_1_3?crid=22SGR4V9Y9V32&keywords=generator+switch+transfer+kit&qid=1561394753&s=gateway&sprefix=generator+sw,aps,154&sr=8-3
Roll genny out of shed, plug into outlet on back of house, flip some switches in the garage, we're back in business in under 5 minutes.
Bought this several years ago, after we had a Tornado go through the neighbor hood in july, missed me, but it was either lose a fridge and freezer full of food, or buy the genny. It's came in handy. Only wish now that I had purchased one that would run on LP. Much easier to store.

Running on extension cords SUCKS in the winter time after an ice storm and it's 20 degrees out with 25 mph winds.

 

[TonyR]

A simple manual interlock actually, wont allow you to backfeed. There's a plug for the generator connected to the panel and a mechanical switch that only allows the either the mains or the generator to power the panel. I think $150.

We got a steal on the Generac GP8000e's only $599

Interlock here too, super easy to install.

Same here, I have a surface mounted, 8 circuit, manual transfer panel with male 3 prong (hot, neutral, ground) twistlock male plug, matching 25 foot extension cord ties into a portable 3KW 120VAC propane generator. Tank is a 25 lb. portable tank like for a BBQ grille.

Run lights in master BR, LR, bath, ceiling fan, satellite receiver & TV, garage 'fridge, kitchen 'fridge plus one kitchen outlet for coffee pot....just the basics.

The little propane generator has been a blessing...sits for 6 months, starts on 2nd or 3rd pull. The oil looks like it was changed recently but it was changed 2 years ago....that's LPG for you.

I think it's a pretty smart, foolproof design (obviously, NOT mine!):... a sliding bar prevents you from turning the generator breaker ON unless the utility co. breaker is OFF.