Winter Storm

#26
#26
FortSanders said:
In Virginia, we are expecting up to an inch of ice on top of 8 inches of snow. The last time this happened we were without power for 4 days.
Click to expand...
In the great storm of 2016, we were without power for 6 days and spent over $900 at local hotel. Only to find out there were no down lines or anything on my sector and all the EMC finally had to do was pull into the little church parking lot up the road where the switch was and reach up there with the pole and flip it back on. There were several of us neighbors with them until they got our power on. One was a retired TSP and was highly pissed. He campaigned against the EMC board members and caused two from our district not to get re-elected.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CobbWebb71, HeadVol77 and orangebloodgmc
#30
#30
GVF said:
In the great storm of 2016, we were without power for 6 days and spent over $900 at local hotel. Only to find out there were no down lines or anything on my sector and all the EMC finally had to do was pull into the little church parking lot up the road where the switch was and reach up there with the pole and flip it back on. There were several of us neighbors with them until they got our power on. One was a retired TSP and was highly pissed. He campaigned against the EMC board members and caused two from our district not to get re-elected.
Click to expand...
The 1993 storm created a similar problem for me. The power company needed only to flip back on a “breaker” in our substation, but they chose not to prioritize this simple task and left my neighborhood without power for a week.
 
  • Like
Reactions: InVOLuntary, CobbWebb71, HeadVol77 and 2 others
#31
#31
Tin Man said:
The 1993 storm created a similar problem for me. The power company needed only to flip back on a “breaker” in our substation, but they chose not to prioritize this simple task and left my neighborhood without power for a week.
Click to expand...
Spoke at length today with my HVAC guy. He just installed 24kw whole home auto on/off generators at his and his dads house. His dad requires full time oxygen so if power goes out and he's not there it's a hastle. He was previously doing the 12kw portable generaator. He's also a lcensed electrician so he did all the work. Unless you got the bucks to layout $4 grand on a 24kw portable and put gas in the 17 gal tank every 5 hours at high load, most of us buy a 12kw thinking it's whole house cause it has a 50 amp plug. Doesn't work that way. Without some prep work that will only run your heating system as if the power was on. Your furnace in full will want to sit on about 40 amps running 10kw emergency heat strips in severe cold. Heat pump has already cut out at that point. So heres some useful tips and you can survive relatively well on a 11/12kw generator. That will be startup power. Mine sits right at 10kw running power on gasoline.


Useful tips from him worth sharing:
1. Turn thermostat to 'on' and to 'emer' heat. This cuts out the heat pump and it won't try to come on. While power is off, pull cover off indoor air handler/furnace and unplug one row of heat strip. The wires for hte heat strips are typically in a vertical pattern. How ever many columns you got is how many heat strips you got. The connectors will be in ceramic. Unplug the top wire on a strip and tape it up. Mine has 2 cause it's 10kw emergency heat. But, you want to be down to one 5kw heat strip. This won't keep the house in the 70's, but it will suffice to heat to around 66-68 if kept in on cycle. Atleast in my 1400 sf abode. This reduces amp appetite down to 20. Maybe heat strip connections are fairly standard. [Mine has 2 cermaic connections, a transistor of some sort in hte middle then two more ceramic encased connections.]

2. Now you can do your switching over on the panel and get generator fired up.

3. Flip breaker back on for furnace. With this mod you are now only needing 20 amps for heat, and can keep water heater on and run lights and TV. Or you can cycle water heater periodically to keep water warm so generator will be more fuel conscious. I would suggest cycling the water heater 30 min before you need it and save the amps cause the modified heating and water heater together will be close to 40 amps. Don't want to choke your generator down.

4. Only run one eye on range and no oven. Ranges are a different kind of power hungry beast. I've got my coleman camp stove on standby, as well two Mr. Buddy indoor rated heaters on 20lb propane tanks for supplemental heat if needed. My guess is if you must go full mode on the range is to go flip the other 240's off then swap back when done. A Frigidaire Gallery Range for example in full operation with oven too will pull 33-38 amps. If you go all gourmet in a power outage with a 12kw/50amp generator, you can have nothing else on except the kitchen light to cook by. Just one of the large eyes by itself is 13 amps.

5. Make a chart of your major appliances and units of what wattage/amps they require so you can easily dtermine what to run, and what to trade out when you need to run something else for a bit.

6. Try to have clothes and dishes, etc caught up so you don't have to worry about supplying power for those things.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: InVOLuntary, CobbWebb71, Tin Man and 1 other person
#32
#32
My home is served by a natural gas line, so I looked into a an auto on/off natural gas generator for either whole house or heat, hot water (both gas, but electricity required), lights, Internet, and TVs. The prices were woah, so, if our power goes out, we have a wood burning fireplace, battery lights, a portable power cell for the phones, and candles. I can light the stovetop burners with a wand lighter. 🤞

Edit: I can brave the cold and cook on the grill as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jackcrevol, malinoisvol, HeadVol77 and 1 other person
#33
#33
Tin Man said:
My home is served by a natural gas line, so I looked into a an auto on/off natural gas generator for either whole house or heat, hot water (both gas, but electricity required), lights, Internet, and TVs. The prices were woah, so, if our power goes out, we have a wood burning fireplace, battery lights, a portable power cell for the phones, and candles. I can light the stovetop burners with a wand lighter. 🤞

Edit: I can brave the cold and cook on the grill as well.
Click to expand...
why do you need a generator for hot water? ours are gas heaters, one is a traditional 60 gallon tank unit and the other is a tankless... it needs power but only a couple of watts so I have it on a UPS battery
 
  • Like
Reactions: CPA, HeadVol77 and Tin Man
#34
#34
StarRaider said:
why do you need a generator for hot water? ours are gas heaters, one is a traditional 60 gallon tank unit and the other is a tankless... it needs power but only a couple of watts so I have it on a UPS battery
Click to expand...
My hot water heater is gas, but it uses electricity to cycle, etc.

Edit: I’m married, and the missus doesn’t take cold showers. 😉
 
  • Like
Reactions: HeadVol77 and StarRaider
#35
#35
Tin Man said:
My home is served by a natural gas line, so I looked into a an auto on/off natural gas generator for either whole house or heat, hot water (both gas, but electricity required), lights, Internet, and TVs. The prices were woah, so, if our power goes out, we have a wood burning fireplace, battery lights, a portable power cell for the phones, and candles. I can light the stovetop burners with a wand lighter. 🤞

Edit: I can brave the cold and cook on the grill as well.
Click to expand...
Yep. That 24kw auto on/off generator costs $7-8K plus installation. Alternatively, you can spend $4K on a portable 24kw, and keep doing it maually with what's already in place. The important thing is to have the top right slot for the generator so you have that safety slide between that and the main breaker. My 50 amp cable run is temporary right now but safe. The wall mount plug has not arrived.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HeadVol77 and orangebloodgmc
#37
#37
StarRaider said:
why do you need a generator for hot water? ours are gas heaters, one is a traditional 60 gallon tank unit and the other is a tankless... it needs power but only a couple of watts so I have it on a UPS battery
Click to expand...
My dad had the propane tank outside for the heat and water heater. The proapne bill was averaged over 12 months for Monthly payment but with the EMC bill for the rest of the 5000 SF his utilities and gas combined were crazy. And he has 6" well insulated exteior walls and half the house is a 3 side underground basement. Wasn't even using gas for the stove or anything else. Since it was only water heater and furnaces, my brother migrated him back to all electric and improved that whole situation.

But...pretty slick move to put battery back up on the gas water heater. A decent sized UPS could run that for days I suppose.
 
#38
#38
MAD said:
Knoxville back in the 70’s they shut down everything, closed all the schools the night before a huge expected snowfall. The storm ended up going north, we got zero snow, not even a single snowflake.
Click to expand...
Cookeville is bad about that. Got burned a few times last year with onthing happening. Problem or Putnam County making those calls is that Monterey elevation on east end of county is way higher than hte rest of county. THey can be getting blasted while Cookeville gets nothing. So they have to call the whole county schools off just for Monterey.
 
  • Like
Reactions: orangebloodgmc
#40
#40
GVF said:
I think what he's saying is get a UPS back up for the water heater.
Click to expand...
Actually a regular tank water heater only needs water pressure and natural gas. It has a pilot light that keeps it ready to fire up and they are mechanical thermally actuated (no power required).

The tankless needs power to fire up the burner (it does not have a pilot)... but also if it is really cold it does have a piping heat system (electrical) for freeze protection and that may wipe out the UPS pretty quick... We have never had a winter power outage since the tankless was installed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GVF
#42
#42
ETV said:
Shelves are empty in several grocery stores around the city.
Click to expand...
All of last year’s generators are sold. 2026 models have already hit the shelves. I almost spent $800 before I wised up and asked the wife if I should. “Where are you going to put it after the storms?”.. I always forget to answer that one.
 
#48
#48
GVF said:
Cookeville is bad about that. Got burned a few times last year with onthing happening. Problem or Putnam County making those calls is that Monterey elevation on east end of county is way higher than hte rest of county. THey can be getting blasted while Cookeville gets nothing. So they have to call the whole county schools off just for Monterey.
Click to expand...
Hey GVF, I assume you are in Putnam Co. or nearby!?
I'm just outside of Baxter!
 
  • Like
Reactions: feathersax and orangebloodgmc
#49
#49
YankeeVol said:
It's 2026. You'll be ok.

I also need video evidence of this occurring.
Click to expand...
Merrily mischievous whippersnapper, no one my age thinks to video themselves doing chores. Given that you married well, are father to two fine young daughters, are a personable lunch companion, and a great fan with whom to watch games, I offer these images after the fact.

IMG_2795.jpeg
IMG_2796.jpeg
Firewood presently occupies my garage shelving. The remains of my wood pile. It’s too green to burn properly, but I’ll split it if I have to do so. Note the fat log top left. I used it as a base. It has a few marks from the axe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: orangebloodgmc, feathersax and InVOLuntary
New Posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

Advertisement



Back
Top