Thread: Barb and East coasters-Irene

Tweet

Hey Barb and all the East coasters-you ready for Irene??. Got a generator and gas??. Well I would guess if you haven't bought a generator by now,you can't find one. It isn't so much a storm surge,but the high winds inland that I would think might be a problem.

1gary
About a year and a half ago I purchased a generator. My wife thought I had fallen in a hole or something. She thinks I'm too much becoming a survivalist. I laughed and reminded her of 13 years ago when we had such bad storms and flooding that we were without power for a week. It didn't effect us much at the time, because the water heater, stove and oven were all gas powered. So we pretty much just needed a few kerosine lamps. Today with central heating, on demand(electric controlled water heater) and electric ovens, and a freezer full of meat we are in a much different situation. Funny thing was two weeks after I got it, some nimnut took out a main power pole on highway 101 knocking out power to our whole town for about 12 hours. When my wife got home from work 1 1/2 hours late because of the accident itself, she was hungry and tired and quite please to find a gourmet dinner waiting for her with powered up dvd player and tv. All in all I think she is quite pleased we have a generator now!

I do not purpose that anyone "backfeeds" emergency power sources. If you look at your homeowner's policy-it says you can use emergency power,BUT it must be in CODE.If you have a fire-you lose.Transfer panels or separate extension cords is the only legal way.Really if you can swing the costs,a automatic stand alone that runs of natural gas(natural gas is the most reliable source of fuel)is the way to fly.Capital improvement of your property that grows over time,so in the end you don't lose your investment and actually could make some money off it.Most self tests once a week and is a automatic on with a power lost.So if your away from home,it takes care of the power lost and protects you home.Low dollar ones are installed ballpark about $4,000.I had heard,but I am not completely sure,that installing one of those reduces you Home Owners rate.

Gary we have a few very long heavy gauge extension cord we run off it. For the very reasons you mentioned above. I used to work an aquaculture farm on Bodega bay. We were hit with nasty storms constantly to the point of needing a kill switch between us and normal utility lines, so that when we fired up the huge diesel generator, we wouldn't fry anyone working on fixing the downed lines! A friend up North is using a natural gas setup to which you refer to. He has major outages regularly. Here it's the once in ten year storms, so a small portable does the trick, not to mention is affordable to use.

I've got a 12kw unit similar to what Gary described, nat. gas fired (if your power is out, likely the neighboring fuel stations are down too.......depending on the nature of the outage, how far do you have to go to get fuel. Also doesn't go stale, gum up the carb, dilute the oil, just stuff to think about), auto transfer switch, yada yada. My last two insurance companies weren't impressed enough to lower premiums, probably because their exposure is fairly minimal in most power failures. None the less, it's very reassuring to have. Before I put it in we'd have winter storm outages that lasted an average 6 days about every other winter. Since installing it we've only had two less than hour long outages of any kind............good ol' Murphy. I've tried to take up a collection from my neighbors to help pay for it since it's obvious that my installing the generator is what's protected all of them from failures...................................cheap bastards aren't buyin' my story!

do not have a generator. but i have set aside about 50 pounds of ice, 10 gallons of water, whole cabinet of can goods, 15 flashlights, 20 gallons of non potable water and 4 portable stoves with extra gas bottles. i am thinking that our power should be out only for a few days. we have a local paper mill that will use its power plant to supply the town until the main source can come back on. plus my hubby has purchased extra ammo for just in case. as for the monte my house insurance will cover it for more than i paid for it and i only paid 4 grand for my garage and it is covered for 9 grand. i am getting extra batteries for everything and i have a emergency radio. so i guess we will be okay. thank you all guys for the concern. it means alot to my family.

Bought a generator some 18 years ago used it for my construction bussines. It now sits waiting to provide electric for the house shop and garage should we have a power failure. I have it in the shop on wheels to roll outside to run. I have a LARGE 3 conductor #6 cord that runs from the generator to my welding outlet. Power is then back fed to the house. When Mat, Chris' oldest boy got married here at the house we had a tornado the day before. No power anywhere for 7 days.. The wedding went on without a problem . Hair dresser ran all her dryers and what ever women need ed. The main thing to remember is TURN OFF THE MAIN TO THE POLE...You could kill some lineman. If you don't know what your doing a generator is not always a good thing.
Like Barb my wife hides water all over the house. Lights candles, and gets the flashlites out. But I just go outside and start the generator.

I back feed!! Yep, and I figure I'm smart enough to trip the main incoming breaker. I'm also not about to light up my neighborhood (that is, attempt to) with a potentially energized breaker. Also, any danger to linemen - not gonna happen. My former BIL worked as a lineman and he said that they 'fix' the gen owners by grounding the system they are working on at the time until it has been fully repaired. My gen, purchased mainly for my RV, is an 80 pound inverter generator, 3600 watts, replacing the 200+ pound thrashed out 6.5KW. That 3600 watts will run the furnace, boob tube, the nuker and a bunch of lights tho not necessarily all at the same time. It wont run the stove though.

Irene is expected to produce heavy rains and some stiff winds though not be totally devastating here. Of course, that could change, especially with a bunch of hundred foot, 4-5 foot diameter oaks in my back yard.

I didn't really worry about a power loss until I started needing insulin. So I got a small generator that mounts to the tractor so I can keep the fridge/freezer going. I sometimes have a couple hundred dollars worth of insulin & meds on hand so then generator purchase was cheap insurance to protect it. Plus we can have lights / tv /etc. etc.

Guys-the backfeed advise is something not to take lightly.Fire marshalls do a inspection in a electrical fire and reports go to your home owners insurance.Way the cheap costs of a $200.00 transfer panel vs the costs of a $250,000 house.I can only suggest what is the right way to go about this and still be covered.Think about how your normal system is wired and why backfeeding is illegal.Posting this again because,well I care about ya.Ya,ya,I know..............I know,everyone does it,but..................

1gary.....Who told you backfeeding is illegal....Maybe where you are but here it is done all the time... I had the state electrical inspector look at mine and he told me more people should do it that way instead of runing small cords to power more than they can handle. I worked as an electrician in several factories for more years than I can count. Never burnt down a factory. I'm not saying your wrong, just if you know what your doing and do it right whats the problem.

Came out in a bulletin from Homeowners Insurance.I sold and serviced home generators for 10yrs.Typical utilities have all the same code format.With electrical the transformer on the pole has a breaker to you main breaker,to a distribution panel's breakers,to the plug or outlets.So each segment has a breaker involved.Backfeeding has no main breaker and there in lays the code infraction.

The other part of that code infraction is the fact normally you have what is considered a "cold" plug to handle.That is why you see male/female formats.Backfeeds led to to male to male formats and the potential of electrocutions.

I nor anyone else should NEVER pull the breaker on a pole. I pull my main in the house in my main panel before I start the gen. I turn off the breaker to the welder recept. then plug in the gen. to the welding recpt. start the gen. then turn on the welder breaker. That back feeds throught the undwerground cables to the house, where breakers are turned off that are not ness. for what we want. THERE ARE NO CODE INFRACTIONS HERE.

Originally Posted by cffisher

I nor anyone else should NEVER pull the breaker on a pole. I pull my main in the house in my main panel before I start the gen. I turn off the breaker to the welder recept. then plug in the gen. to the welding recpt. start the gen. then turn on the welder breaker. That back feeds throught the undwerground cables to the house, where breakers are turned off that are not ness. for what we want. THERE ARE NO CODE INFRACTIONS HERE.

'Bout what I do except through the dryer receptacle (when I had the 6.5KW gen I felt I needed heavier wiring to the breaker box). And my main breaker - 50 feet away and on the inner wall side of the meter. And yes, I WILL continue doing it that way at my home as well as my RV.