No Power for 4 days

[Hypedonrc]

I've been without powew for 4 days now, and it is really starting to get old. Luckily it has been over X-Mas, so I had lots of places to go, but today I was bored enough to streatch a cord from the generater to the computer. Hope it comes on by morning. I have to work tomarrow, and I'd like hot water in the morning.

 

[Rolex]

Why is it out? What are you doing for heat?
The longest I was ever out was 3 days and 3 hours. The first day was interesting. All the neighbors would go for walks and talk to the others. On days 2 and 3, all the cars were gone because you had to go somewhere else.
Fortunately I could heat the kitchen with the oven since it was gas. The furnace needed electric for the thermostat and the fan.
Even on the third day, I'd hit the light switch every time I walked into a room.
I finally took an old car battery to a gas station to have it charged, then used jumper cables to power a headlight and aim it at the ceiling for light.
Good luck. Hope you get it back soon. It's something we really take for granted till it's not there.

 

[Hypedonrc]

It is out because of an ice storm last Wed. night. Worst one I've ever seen. Lots of down trees. I had to get the chainsaw out to get out of the driveway last Thur. morning. Good thing I woke up early.
I took the wire to the furnace out of the breaker box, and wired a pigtail on it so I could plug it into an extension cord to the generator. Gas heat only take 120V to ignite, and run the fan. Also have an extension cord to the sump pump, fish tank, and refridgerator. Stuff out of the deep freezer is on the front porch.

Oh yeah, right now the fish tank, and refidgerator are off, so I can mess around on here, but I'll have to plug them back in soon. My fish are tropical, and don't like stress. If the water gets too cold, or there isn't enough O2 in the water they will get ick from the stress, and I don't want to mess with that along with everything else.

 

[Rolex]

You're lucky you have gas. Where I'm living now, everything is electric. Heat, hot water and stove. When I lost the power in New York, I still had hot water and stove since both had pilot lights instead of electronic ignition.
When most people still had town water, I had to be very carful since I had an Artesian well with a 220V underground pump. Only the pressure in the tank, and no way to recharge it till the power came back.

 

[Hypedonrc]

YaHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have power!
Come on about 30 minutes ago.

 

[RCDad]

Damn, I think if we were without electricity for 4 days we would end up with another kid

 

[ZANDOR]

YaHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have power!
Come on about 30 minutes ago.

Great! going with out power for that many days you grow to Appreciate the finer things In life..

 

[Hypedonrc]

Damn, I think if we were without electricity for 4 days we would end up with another kid

You watch your mouth mister.

Great! going with out power for that many days you grow to Appreciate the finer things In life..

Very, VERY true.

LOL!!!!

 

[Rolex]

It's amazing what a highlight it is to get it back.
10 minutes later, everything is normal, and you take it for granted again.

 

[CorradoPsi]

glad to hear you got power back. worst i had to go was a week, back in '03 when the hurricanes came through.

 

[Hypedonrc]

It's amazing what a highlight it is to get it back.
10 minutes later, everything is normal, and you take it for granted again.

Yep. Here I am taking it for granted, and glad not to be burning 10 Gal. and of gas in that generator.

glad to hear you got power back.

Thanks. Me too.

 

[GilBeQuick]

Hypedonrc, how many watts is your generator rated at and how many sq ft is your house?

 

[Hypedonrc]

It was only barrowed, and I think it was 4000 watts since it said "PRO4000" on it. My house is +/- 1600 Sq Ft.

I should say my GF's house. I don't own a house. Just a pole barn, and lots of toys. LOL!!!

 

[GilBeQuick]

Haha. Well, 4000 watts is actually plenty to run just about your entire house on. The only things you really couldn't run along with everything else is anything that runs on 220v....like your dryer, or hot water heater if it's electric, or your range if it's electric. But you could run all of your lights and receptacles, your heat and fridge and everything else that isn't 220v.

You could have pretty much had full power for the last 4 days!! If you want, I'll show you how to wire it up in your panel so you don't have to run any cords.

 

[Hypedonrc]

The 120 GFI on the generator is only rated at 15 amps. I had the furnace, sump pump, fish tank (65 Gal.), and refridgerator on it, and tried to add a TV, and it kept blowing the GFI, so I don't think it you get the whole 4000 watts, unless you also use the 20 amp, and 30 amp 220 outlets.

Now I have to go chase a mouse in the basement. I ahve this dumb cat to keep mice away, buut all she does is sit on them. She's probably the one that brought it in to play with. Hope I can find it. It could already be dead. I don't know. All I do know is I found some droppings in the drawer of my RC desk, and I'm not happy.

Dumb a$$ cat. I'm getting a dog. At least it would get rid of my cat problem LOL!!!!!!!!

Untill tomarrow

That probably should have been a whole new thread on it's own. :shrug:

 

[GilBeQuick]

Yeah, you only use the 30A 220v plug and run it straight into your panel. Get a twist-lock plug that will fit the 30A outlet and a piece of 8-3 copper wire. Hook one end up in the twist-lock plug, and the other end will go into your panel. You'll have 4 wires in there: a bare ground wire, a white wire, a black wire and a red wire. The ground and white wire go where the other bare copper and white wires are in the panel, and the red and black wires go where the 2 main lugs are in your panel. (you have to turn off your main 200A breaker first). After that's hooked up, plug the plug into your generator and Viola! Your whole house has power! No more running around in the dark.

 

[Hypedonrc]

I'll keep that in mind for next time. Hopefully it will be a while!

 

[lykan]

Wow Gil.. I figured you'd have to hook up some automatic sensing deal in case the power came back on..I was overthinking the problem.. all you have to do is turn off the main LOL.. it cuts the power coming and going..DUH! (smack myself).

Were in town now but we used to live about 10 miles out. We were up in a valley. they ran power up there in the early days, but since the valley is small and hard to develop (river bottom) they never really ran big enough phone or power oure stuff was way out dated and all overhead lines.
Strong wind-power out
Heavy down pour-power out
Ice snow / .. you name it.
God forbid if somone hit the only feeder line.
Anyhow thanks for the tip.. we used to go without for days. I was lucky I just burned real wood in the pellet stove.

Glad to see your power is back, and that you had a generator to borrow

 

[Hypedonrc]

Glad to see your power is back, and that you had a generator to borrow

Thanks, and I got lucky, as there were about 180,000 people out of electricity around here. At least that was a report at one time. It may have been more later on. Everthing is still a mess. The big tree service around here is Asplund (not sure on the spelling, as I can't pronounce it either) Boy I'd like to own that company for a couple weeks. There must have been 75 trucks in the parking lot next to the gas station this morning. I wish I had a Digi cam. There are huge tree limbs, if not whole trees down everywhere. They've got them all cleaned out of the streets, but it will be weeks before everthing is back to normal.

By the way, if your phone goes out you should always call the phone company, and tell them right away. Unlike the power company that can only bill you for what you use, the phone company still wants full price unless make a record of it being out for days, and demand a rebate.

 

[SkyAce2004]

i know what thats like, i live in port charlotte, florida. if any of you recall, hurricane charley made first landfall here. i was without power for 3 and a half weeks. the hot humid air. i think i would rather have the cold. its easy to layer up and be warm, but coolin off is just hard to do.. sorry to hear though, i know what its like