Ice storm. High winds and power outage

[tazman]

We had an ice storm today followed by high winds. Now a power outage.
The winds are supposed to continue for another day.
I wonder how long it will take the power company to get the power back on.
Supposed to be fairly cold tonight.

[Hickory]

Winter finally showed up.

[Moleman-]

We had that last week, Generator broke the second night about 2am. Was able to rent one that day and of course the power came back on that night since we were covered. The breaker was good, AVR (fancy voltage regulator) was good, brushes were good, L&R fields were good, but the rotor had no continuity. Took it apart and found a broken wire on one of the slip ring solder tabs. Soldered it back on and it'll run the house again. We're getting the same storm system hitting us that you're getting with freezing rain and snow. If we lose power at least the generator is back up. Longest so far has been 5 days from an ice storm. Awfully nice to have water since we're on a well.

[tazman]

The power went off here about 3PM. It just now came back on so not such a bad deal.
Pictures and stories from all over the area about white outs, power poles down, and cars in the ditches everywhere.
Winter has arrived with a vengeance.

[dverna]

I have two generators, plus I hold 150-200 gallons of fuel on site. I can go a month without power by cycling and not running the generator continuously. If my primary generator starts, I will, and have, loaned my spare to neighbors.

Everyone should be prepared. Even a small generator can make a power outage bearable.

[Brassduck]

Tazman , you must be north of me a ways, I live north of Grafton, we just got rain and wind. stay safe

[BrassMagnet]

I have two generators, plus I hold 150-200 gallons of fuel on site. I can go a month without power by cycling and not running the generator continuously. If my primary generator starts, I will, and have, loaned my spare to neighbors.

Everyone should be prepared. Even a small generator can make a power outage bearable.

My brother got through an ice storm in OKC with one 1200W inverter, a 12V battery, and a VW with a clutch to recharge the battery for more than a week. It was enough to run the heater element in his electric oven and a light or two. He was prepped compared to his neighbors!

[lightman]

Glad your power came back on. I worked a many of those storms. Its cold miserable work! I've worked a few storms where the customers were off between 10 days and 2 weeks. Thats a long time and I felt for them. When I retired I used my vacation check to buy a generator being how I didn't have a bucket truck parked in the driveway anymore!

[Three44s]

I for one really admire and appreciate power company linemen. Lightman, thank you for the unsung work you did during your career and thank you to all other retired and current line folks!

It sure ain’t a job for sissies. I have never climbed a pole but I have on occasion climbed our well drill mast and can tell those that have never done so can be thankful they missed the opportunity. I had the regular safety harness and climbing belt but the “killer” for me was how much your legs and feet ache during and after a long climb.

And then there are the inherent dangers of electrocution.

Three44s

[sigep1764]

Just wind and rain here in St. Louis. And its supposed to be 48 tmro. Feels like a heat wave.

[Lloyd Smale]

I was a lineman for over 30 years. I know how outages go and especially wide spread outages. You can get a generator that will run your whole house in an emergency for the cost of one gun or a decent scope. Like lightman I no longer have access to a truck or the ability to prioritize my home in an outage. We don't have outages as long as hes seen but I have seen 3 day outages and just the contents of my 3 freezers is worth more then the one time cost of a generator. Told my wife a few years ago when we had a couple day outage that just being able to have a cup of coffee that morning paid for the generator in my eyes. that said when your home a thing its miserable being without your coffee pot or tv remember theres lineman out there in the rain, lightning and snow that are a lot more miserable then you and want that outage over much more they you do so they can go home. Jobs dangerous enough day to day but believe me after 30-40 hours of non stop work in the worse conditions possible NO lineman is having fun or trying to stretch it out to get a bit more overtime pay. heres a fact to chew on if your procrastinating purchasing a generator and im sure lightman will agree. ITS GOING TO GET WORSE. Most utilitys have cut back drastically on personal because companys had to keep profitable. Its tough to get a rate increase today. Add to that that there not only making personal cuts but have had to trim there maintenance budgets and our power grid is in very poor shape and is going to get worse not better. I wouldn't be afraid to bet that 10 years from now your average customer is going to see his yearly outage times doubled. We went from 10 lineman at our shop to 5 in the last ten years. Maintenance? 35 years ago When I started we probably spent half or hours doing maitanance and rebuilds. In the last 10 year I worked there we were told if the powers flowing and the problem isn't causing a safety risk to drive on by. Fix it when it breaks. I retired 10 years ago. today those 5 lineman are down to 3 and its barely enough to keep the street lights working and new customers services hooked up. Bottom line is you can either have cheap power or unreliable power. Most choose cheap

[bullet maker 57]

Installed a generator in 2010. Best thing I ever did. Water , lights, fridge, and of course the coffee maker. Hot water runs on propane. No electric needed. Longest power outage here was 5 days. The generator has been used about 9 times since I installed it. Happy wife happy life.

[Ateam]

Anyone use a PTO generator on a tractor? Been thinking about getting one for the 30hp kubota.

[owejia]

Had a dairy farmer neighbor that used one when power was down, had a disconnect and plug at utility pole to run house, shop and to milk with, ran the milk cooler also.

[lightman]

I for one really admire and appreciate power company linemen. Lightman, thank you for the unsung work you did during your career and thank you to all other retired and current line folks!

It sure ain’t a job for sissies. I have never climbed a pole but I have on occasion climbed our well drill mast and can tell those that have never done so can be thankful they missed the opportunity. I had the regular safety harness and climbing belt but the “killer” for me was how much your legs and feet ache during and after a long climb.

And then there are the inherent dangers of electrocution.

Three44s

Thanks for the kind words, Brother!

[lightman]

I was a lineman for over 30 years. I know how outages go and especially wide spread outages. You can get a generator that will run your whole house in an emergency for the cost of one gun or a decent scope. Like lightman I no longer have access to a truck or the ability to prioritize my home in an outage. We don't have outages as long as hes seen but I have seen 3 day outages and just the contents of my 3 freezers is worth more then the one time cost of a generator. Told my wife a few years ago when we had a couple day outage that just being able to have a cup of coffee that morning paid for the generator in my eyes. that said when your home a thing its miserable being without your coffee pot or tv remember theres lineman out there in the rain, lightning and snow that are a lot more miserable then you and want that outage over much more they you do so they can go home. Jobs dangerous enough day to day but believe me after 30-40 hours of non stop work in the worse conditions possible NO lineman is having fun or trying to stretch it out to get a bit more overtime pay. heres a fact to chew on if your procrastinating purchasing a generator and im sure lightman will agree. ITS GOING TO GET WORSE. Most utilitys have cut back drastically on personal because companys had to keep profitable. Its tough to get a rate increase today. Add to that that there not only making personal cuts but have had to trim there maintenance budgets and our power grid is in very poor shape and is going to get worse not better. I wouldn't be afraid to bet that 10 years from now your average customer is going to see his yearly outage times doubled. We went from 10 lineman at our shop to 5 in the last ten years. Maintenance? 35 years ago When I started we probably spent half or hours doing maitanance and rebuilds. In the last 10 year I worked there we were told if the powers flowing and the problem isn't causing a safety risk to drive on by. Fix it when it breaks. I retired 10 years ago. today those 5 lineman are down to 3 and its barely enough to keep the street lights working and new customers services hooked up. Bottom line is you can either have cheap power or unreliable power. Most choose cheap

Lloyd is correct on everything he mentioned. I guess all companies are cutting back, trying to reduce operating cost. Most electric utility companies are ruled by their states public service commission. They are not guaranteed a profit but rather their profit is limited. I think its 10% in Arkansas. Its a struggle to even get close to that. Tree trimming budgets are the first to get cut followed by maintenance.

Maintenance! I hate to even get started. The last years I worked the policy was to fix it after it failed, not before. Or if it was dangerous to the public. The unofficial stance was that its never dangerous to the public! As a Serviceman I would do maintanance on slow days. Sometimes teaming up with another Serviceman. We finally got so short that we never had a slow day. And safety rules and OSHA regs changed to the point that one man alone was so restricted on what he was allowed to do that most maintenance was impossible to do. If I told you about the paper work required to do even the simplest task you would walk away shaking your head. Like Lloyd, our shop went from 9 Linemen, a storekeeper, a clerk and a foreman to 2 men currently. The storekeeper and clerk routinely work multiple crew centers.



Sadly, outages will get to more common and last longer.

[farmerjim]

Anyone use a PTO generator on a tractor? Been thinking about getting one for the 30hp kubota.

I have one for my Kubota 3410. I got it from Northern tools 6 weeks before a hurricane had us down for 8 days. It would run the whole house as long as I was careful about too many high current appliances at the same time. I have a small generator for those 3 to 5 hour outages. I burned $450 of diesel in those 8 days at $4.25 a gallon, but the AC never stopped.

[lightman]

Anyone use a PTO generator on a tractor? Been thinking about getting one for the 30hp kubota.


A PTO driven generator will work fine. The issue is the time and work required to connect and disconnect it. I've seen many of them attached to a small dedicated trailer so that they automatically line up with the PTO at the correct distance and are easy to move. Hook the trailer up to the drawbar, connect the driveshaft, connect the power cord and its ready to use. Another minor issue, sometimes not so minor, is fuel. The fuel issue can be a problem for any portable generator.

[beemer]

We don't have a lot of problems with long power outages in this part of the country but they do happen. The longest was when Hugo came through in 1989, about 8 days here and some had it worse. When the linemen came through they tried to apologize for the inconvenience, not necessary and thank you, I got a funny look. They looked beat I felt I was having it better than they were.

I the 80's if it snowed very much we lost power almost every time, usually for 2 maybe 3 days at the most. Now the lines are kept trimmed better so not so many problems. I couldn't afford a generator but would prepare the best I could. I had a 55 gal barrel with water for sanitary use and another small one for drinking water, kept a Coleman stove, heated with wood ,kept some lanterns and if necessary packed snow in the frig drawers or store food outside. If I knew it was coming I would get as ready as possible. I had two small children to care for and needed to be ready.

I now have a small generator for the frig and freezer but still but still have everything in place. You don't need a large budget to prepare, there are a lot of things you can do.

Dave

[dverna]

Anyone use a PTO generator on a tractor? Been thinking about getting one for the 30hp kubota.

I decided against one a few days ago as I am looking at my options. Following reasons:
First, you need to run them at 540 RPM and that is near full throttle. They cannot be "dialed down". Which leads to...
Second, if your throttle slips while running unattended, you will not get the voltage you need....can burn out motors.
Third, during an outage, I want to have my tractor available for emergency work that may be needed.
Fourth, can your wife/girlfriend/kids hook it up if you are gone?
Fifth, if away from home, you still have no power for critical things like a sump pump (mine runs every 3 minutes in the spring), fridge, furnace etc

My current thoughts are to add a 9-11KW LP automatic unit, and buy a small 2000 watt inverter for the cell phone booster, a few LED lights, sump pump, furnace, TV, and computer. The inverters (https://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu2200i) will run 8 hours on a gallon of fuel. Most of the time, that should more than enough power. When I am home, I would cycle the large LP unit for an hour every 5-6 hours during the day to power up the well pump, stove, freezers and fridge. Running the LP unit full time would use about 25 gal/day and is going to cost about $40/day. With the addition of the small inverter, I will have power for $15/day. The inverter will also be handy for camping and running small tools where an extension cord does not make sense.

The longest outage in my area has been 10 days. But like others have posted, the gird is getting worse not better. I have a 500 gal LP tank. If I only use the LP generator, a long outage in the winter will require a refill, and that may be problematic. Adding a second tank will cost as much as the inverter.

[d4xycrq]

My experience follows:

I have two generators. Two is one, one is none. One propane, one gasoline.

Longest we've been without power is 60 hours. That won't impress folks in the hurricane zone, but around here, SE PA, that's worse than many.

One generator is a GENERAC on propane, 500 gallon buried tank. Wisht I had gone 1,000 gallon, but haven't needed even the 500. Just wished I had gone bigger.

Edited to add: consider buying your own propane tank. YOU control who you can buy propane from. Otherwise, propane is locked in to the one company that supplied your tank.

Reduce electrical loads, if you can. I mean long term; have a electric water heater? Go natural gas or propane. Other big electrical loads? Have a backup that is non-electric, if possible. Lord help you if your house is all-electric.

If you go GENERAC whole house, get the automatic switch set up that does your whole breaker panel, not just select breakers.

Cheers!

Ray

[WheelgunConvert]

If you are going to be without heat or power for more than a day, don’t forget about the water in the plumbing and water heater (if electric). It can make a bad day get worse really fast in freezing conditions.

[Thumbcocker]

In 1979 my family was without power for 11 days due to an ice storm. We had a wood stove, a coleman lantern and kerosene lamps. We had home canned food and put some dry ice in the freezer. We would make a list of what we were going to get out of the freezer and opened it every other day. We put hot coals out of the stove in a bucket in our pump house and kept food in the bath tub under blankets with ice I cut out of the road ditch with an ax. We had a battery radio and lots of books. I went to community college every day. Not that big a deal to get by with no generator.

[firefly1957]

I have been lucky this winter only a few minutes has the power been down the big wind storms in August had my power off 58 hours I had a OLDER Coleman 6259 watt generator .It only gave power to half the house since it was older i went and got a new generator I got a 4275 watt /3500 watt continuous harbor freight . My Coleman was so load it drove the dog nuts and used much more fuel i rand it about an hour every six hours . The smaller Harbor freight is well muffled you can talk next to it and it used 9.5 gallons of gas in 21 hours use . Overnight i run my boiler on a inverter and battery during cold weather next biggest use is 1440 watt 220V well and a freezer & 2 fridges . I should be good to go for a while again I did find the problem with the Coleman it was the cord had a bad wire frankly i was tired of it and should have looked at that first!
Not sure how many of you heard what happened in South East Michigan with the Natural gas pumping station these green idea are causing problems ! There was a fire at a pumping facility that limited natural gas availability in itself no big deal but with record cold same time and then the wind stopped so the natural gas fired electric plants needed to be fired up , they came close to both grids going down!
A friend down their just put in a Generac backup generator it would not have done him a bit of good if things lasted longer!

[Mal Paso]

Here on the outskirts of Carmel we are 300% of normal rainfall in the middle of the 3rd and strongest gale of the season. Power went out around midnight. We are running on generator with internet by satellite, we'll see if get this out. At 1900' I'm getting some wind right now. Windows are new dual glaze but I'm not sitting in front of them. 24 more hours of wind predicted.

I bought LED lanterns yesterday at Costco and got gas and Diesel last week. I calked and repainted the south wall, the first storm stripped paint in places.

Just had some big gusts, whole lotta shakin goin on. LOL

[MaryB]

I average a dozen outages a year, most last under 24 hours but some have been 2-3 days. I went to solar, batteries, and 3 inverters. I can cycle power to the freezers/fridge, the pellet stove is 12 volt and will run direct off the battery bank. Even on a cloudy/snowy day I get enough charge to top the batteries off to last the night for heat(pellet stove draws about an amp so a 48 amp hour battery would run it for 24 hours without charging). I have a smaller generator but no longer have the shoulder strength to start it when it is below zero...

[Wis Tom]

I went with a PTO generator, that I keep in the shop, on a little Bobcat tractor. I also have a 10k electric start diesel generator. I keep a 300 gallon tank of diesel, for the tractors pretty full, all the time. I have installed the Generac home units, and if you are in cold weather, make sure whoever is installing in, puts on the cold weather kit( battery and oil filter heaters), make sure to change the oil and filter, the first year, as that is break in oil, thats in there, and remember, they use alot of LP, watch your tank gauge closely. Best to have them tuned up every year, change the spark plug every 3 years min., and watch the battery, as some have went bad. If so, have your battery charger check, as it's running down your battery, on the weekly cycling.

[Moleman-]

Mary, if you remove the recoil start cover, can you spin the flywheel with a cordless drill on the flywheel nut?

[Maineboy]

Fourteen years ago we moved from a home just outside of town to our current place on a dead end road in the woods. Power outages in the former house lasted no more than a few hours but now we are in a zone where we are the first to loose power and the last to get it back. The second year we were here we went three days without power after a bad windstorm so we purchased a 9,000 watt gasoline powered generator and got rid of the electric range and clothes dryer and went to propane. Now, though inconvenient, power outages are bearable.

[labradigger1]

I bought a onan electric plant a few years ago off of Craigslist, the man purchased it from a school auction and bought new plugs, wires, distributed cap, rotor button and new filters but never installed them or tried to start it.
I bought it for $300 (his price), took it home and had it running in about an hour with the new parts. It’s a 15kw, 67.5 amp genset. 4 cylinder liquid cooled and operates at 1800 rpm instead of the normal and loud screaming 3600rpm sets. It has over 9000 hours on it now and no signs of slowing down. Runs on gasoline or lpg. It’s amazing how clean oil stays and no carbon on engines ran on lpg has.
For me power outages are not much of an issue. Wife, not so much. Now she’s happy.

[MaryB]

Mary, if you remove the recoil start cover, can you spin the flywheel with a cordless drill on the flywheel nut?

Yes, in fact I am building an electric starter to mount there using parts from a cordless drill that the battery packs went bad on. But just flipping the inverter switches on is a heck of a lot easier. I use one of these to monitor freezer/fridge temps https://www.amazon.com/Ambient-Weather-WS-09-Refrigerator-Thermometer/dp/B00EYIEDOI and turn the inverter on as needed. I have enough battery capacity to run for 24 hours no power...

[Hossfly]

I agree with purchasing your own tank, we rented a tank from different LP companies, and your locked in to there price and delivery system, price never goes down. Found old used tank 150 gallon, and a 250 gallon now can shop around and cut price down to $1.45. Price changes in summer about August its way down. If you got a place to put it. Now have a 1000 gallon tank empty and waiting for summer prices. That will feed a LPG gen for a while. Since co-op has been aggressively cut right of ways very few outage. Always be prepared.