New Generator

[granz]

Well, I now have a generator. We have wanted one for many years, but now were forced to get one. Yesterday, we got a horrible thunderstorm - lots of very heavy rain, vicious wind and many hours of continuous lightning. It was some of the worst storming I have seen - including living through several hurricane outskirts going past.

Many trees came down, taking out power to about a quarter million SW PA customers. Our power went out about 6 something, last night (Thursday,) and was not supposed to come back until 6:00 tomorrow evening. Our son, Ken, had a new-in-the-box generator that he wanted to sell, so we went over to pick it up. As we were leaving, I got a call from our power company - power is now supposed to return by 11:00PM *SUNDAY*!

We got home about 9:00 tonight, and got the genny running the freezer, and one 'fridge. Anything more puts the genny in "overload" so we can't even run a fan! Another long, sleepless night - fun!

[Chris Savage]

We had 5 tornados (at least 5) touch down in our area. Many trees not just down, but shredded! I have tons of photos from work. The wife and I went shopping today and saw crews out everywhere trying to clear all the debris. Some branches were down on homes and cars. Four cars in the parking lot at work got smashed by a series of trees that hit all four vehicles at once. What a mess. As for power, ours glitched a few times, but didn't go out. Several coworkers said theirs had. I have battery backups for the computers, modem / router, NAS, etc.

[Jeff_T]

A portable power station is something I have been considering for quite a while now. One "budget" unit that caught my eye was the Oupes Guardian 6000 @ $1699

https://oupes.com/products/oupes-guardian-6000-v2-portable-power-station

They run silent and fume free at night and for extended outage use a true sine wave generator to recharge during daylight hours. If you get a pass through power bank you can still get power out while charging.

Knowing what you need is a case of sitting down and calculating which appliances/devices you need to keep powered and for what length of time.

In my case it would be very rare to be down longer than 24 hrs but running the power bank overnight and charging during the day I could go a long time during a winter storm. A summer outage would be a little more difficult but the chances it would come back quicker are greater.

The difference between seasons is the cooling or heating which a power bank would have difficulty providing over a longer period of time. I am lucky to have a gas furnace for heat so to keep that running during a cold spell with a power bank would be much easier than an air conditioner in the summer. If I did not have the gas furnace I would consider a propane heater for heat.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/mr-heater-vent-free-30-000-btu-liquid-propane-blue-flame-heater-f299730-1363114

A 100 gal tank should get you through 3 days or more.

Other items I would consider powering would be fridge/freezer , a couple of lights , TV , router and internet and perhaps a coffee maker or microwave

[MicroNut]

We also had a series of severe storms and a possible tornado nearby Wednesday and Thursday night. Erie has been declared a state of emergency and most of Erie Lake's and Ontario Lake's shoreline were hard hit. Luckily we didn't lose power. About 2 years ago REA redid our power lines. Before that the slightest wind seem to knock our power off briefly.

A close family friend just upgraded their generator and generously offered the old one to us free of charge. It isn't big enough for the whole house but will handle the critical systems. We need to get an electrician in to wire it up.

[Jeff_T]

@MicroNut thats a great idea too, and just taking care of the critical circuits is all you want for a short power outage.

What your electrician will most likely do is install a transfer switch that will provide alternate power to a few circuits.

https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-10-Circuit-Double-Throw-Mechanical-Generators/dp/B0F1FLQK24/ref=sr_1_5

[granz]

Yeah, our new generator is a simple 2KW (2400 surge) unit. It won't run the whole house, or even most of it, but it runs the 'fridge and freezer. I tried the coffee maker for my wife this morning, and it worked great. It is currently running the 'fridge, freezer a fan and our couch's USB power ports, which are charging some tablets and lanterns.

When we get our new house (maybe sometime within the next year, or so,) we will get a bigger genny. My second oldest says that he has a >36 hour outage about every year. We will need to get alternative electricity, heating and water (if we have a well.)

In addition to the generator, I just went out and got a 45 cup (about a gallon) coffee urn - that will heat up enough water that when put in a five-gallon bucket with cold water will let me take a bucket shower. Not good, but better than a cold shower. Right after I got home from getting that urn, the power company called - the new estimated time to repair is 5:00 tonight. Hopefully that will be correct. If the power comes on tonight, I will take a regular shower tomorrow, but I still want to test the bucket shower, so probably Monday just to make sure that it works.

[Jeff_T]

@granz 

I tried the coffee maker for my wife this morning

Probably the highest priority circuit lol.

[granz]

@granz 

I tried the coffee maker for my wife this morning

Probably the highest priority circuit lol.

For her, certainly.  I cannot stand the stuff, but I make a pot for her every day just before I go in and wake her up. That way she has coffee to help her wake up.

And, we now have power back as of about 3:00 this afternoon - and it has been stable since then. It will be nice to take a shower tomorrow. I was amazed that the hot water tank held the temp warm for so long - it was still pretty warm this morning.

It does feel good, though, being prepared with a generator, and the water heater (coffee urn) for hot bucket "showers." Yet more preparedness things, yay.

[JKnightandKARR]

Good you got one. I'd love to have one sometime. Could have used one last power outage.

[granz]

Yes, like I mentioned, I have wanted one for many years. We were forced to get one at this time, but it would have been much better if we could have gotten it before we actually needed it. In addition to that, we got it home about 9:00 PM - after dark. And, remember, there was no lighting on our porch - we had to set it up in the dark. We finally got power about 11:00, but there were some minor issues, and I kept waking up throughout the night to make sure that it was still running. It is MUCH better to do the initial setup in the light of day, and without the pressure of "this has to work, now."