Home Generators

[JohnDar]

A bit off topic, but early this morning we had a fast storm blow through here with rain and very high winds. Knocked down trees and power lines across a goodly part of our county and to the west of us. I was working the end of a 24 hour shift at the FD and was out on a residential fire alarm call (bad battery, older lady) when it hit. I could "hear" it coming by listening to the county dispatch radio.

Bad news: there are about 40,000 in my county without power, including my neighborhood and the power company is estimating return of service sometime Sunday morning. A lot of businesses around here are dark, right now. Our subdivision has underground electric, but that doesn't mean they're fed by the same.

Good news: I had a natural gas, whole house automatic transfer generator installed a couple of years ago, and it's purring away as we "speak."

I've been called foolish and wasteful (with money), but right now the temperatures are in the 90's with high humidity and forecasted to stay there. The wife was home alone and asleep when the power went out around 0500 here and woke to the sound of the generator running. I didn't get home until about 1000, after staying over at a structure fire caused by downed lines (we got it quick and minimal damage).

Soooo nice to have operating A/C, refers and freezers running, lights, and everything else available.

 

[rick_debbie_gallant]

chillin party at John and Darlene's house tonight. Ya gots to BYOB and BYOB! Thank yu John!!

 

[Hastey]

They are nice, I don't have an automatic but I do have the 10K that I keep on standby every winter. It rains ice here in the winter and every year we loose power. I have my own gas well so I just disconnect from ECE and go about my business like nothing is wrong. The only way I can tell that the electric is back on is the security light at the road comes on at dark.

 

[JohnDar]

I had to get the automatic system, mainly for DW. She's gifted and talented, but mechanical aptitude is not necessarily one of her forte's. My primary concern was something just like this; power goes out in the middle of the night and she's alone while I'm out doing my FD thing.

 

[Hastey]

I had to get the automatic system, mainly for DW. She's gifted and talented, but mechanical aptitude is not necessarily one of her forte's. My primary concern was something just like this; power goes out in the middle of the night and she's alone while I'm out doing my FD thing.

I understand that, but I have a 10K welder/generator combo that I done a NG/LPG conversion on. Even when it's out welding it runs off a propane bottle. Just couldn't let go of the funds to buy a separate gen unit at this time. When we move into the new house I will probably install one.

 

[JohnDar]

I understand that, but I have a 10K welder/generator combo that I done a NG/LPG conversion on. Even when it's out welding it runs off a propane bottle. Just couldn't let go of the funds to buy a separate gen unit at this time. When we move into the new house I will probably install one.

If I had your skills and the equipment, I probably wouldn't have gotten the unit I did, either. But, we do what we can. For me, it's woodworking for personal use (mostly) and minor home (and RV!) repairs.

At least the outage didn't last until Sunday for us. Power was restored late last night after only 18 hours.

 

[jmgratz]

We have a 7.5 kw Generac portable generator. We used it to run the RV and house during the two week power outages after Hurricane Rita and Ike. Although it will not run the House AC it does run the 2 refrigerators, lights while running the ACs in the RV. The only drawback to it is it runs on gasoline and when the power is out due to storms it can be hard to find gasoline can the gas stations are without power too. We do 'stockpile' 9 five gallon cans of gasoline during hurricane season. Everyone should have a generator. We have it rigged to plug in the generator to a plug on the meter pole after the meter pole main breaker is turned off to prevent backfeed.

 

[JohnDar]

We have a 7.5 kw Generac portable generator. We used it to run the RV and house during the two week power outages after Hurricane Rita and Ike. Although it will not run the House AC it does run the 2 refrigerators, lights while running the ACs in the RV. The only drawback to it is it runs on gasoline and when the power is out due to storms it can be hard to find gasoline can the gas stations are without power too. We do 'stockpile' 9 five gallon cans of gasoline during hurricane season. Everyone should have a generator. We have it rigged to plug in the generator to a plug on the meter pole after the meter pole main breaker is turned off to prevent backfeed.

A few years ago, when there was a major grid failure that hit Ohio, SE Michigan and others, we still had power in our area. But they were driving up from Detroit and surrounding areas to get gasoline. That's what told me it was time to get off the dime and have a backup plan. We've never experienced a failure of the natural gas delivery, so it was an easy choice to make. The generator can be converted to propane, if need be, but I'd have to get the installer out to do it.

Michigan may have its economic short-comings, but at least it does not experience natural disasters on the scale seen elsewhere.