Lost Power In The Storm

rangerfan · #1 01-17-2006, 02:19 PM

We had a horrible storm on Saturday night that knocked out power to about 60,000 homes in Connecticut, 49,000 of them in Fairfield County. Power was out about 55 hours--it came on around 3am last night. We had no heat and water or phones the entire time, and temperatures in the house got down to about 41 degrees. Thankfully, the boiler came to life when the power was restored, and by the time I got to the house about 7am this morning temperatures were back up to about 58 degrees. We were able to stay with family close by--it could have been a LOT worse.

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Chris F. · #2 01-17-2006, 02:30 PM

Holy cow! I guess we didn't get it nearly as bad in Northern CT. I am considering a generator for a purchase this year. Even if it just powers the boiler and the stove, That would be just fine...

IFlyX5 · #3 01-17-2006, 03:29 PM

Glad everything was OK!

motordavid · #4 01-17-2006, 03:31 PM

RF: This is what you need!
We have one wired into our joint on the Mtn.

It's foolproof, seamless and a helluva machine...

It saves our fannies several times per year. 3/4ths of the homes on mtn have one. When Frances & Ivan blew through on the mtn, most of the area was powerless for days, unless one had this gizmo. It's the best $2000 I ever spent as a gadget for the house.

http://www.guardiangenerators.com/pr...an.asp?NavID=1

Glad ya'll fine.
GL,md

Mindfull · #5 01-17-2006, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motordavid

RF: This is what you need!
We have one wired into our joint on the Mtn.

It's foolproof, seamless and a helluva machine...

It saves our fannies several times per year. 3/4ths of the homes on mtn have one. When Frances & Ivan blew through on the mtn, most of the area was powerless for days, unless one had this gizmo. It's the best $2000 I ever spent as a gadget for the house.

http://www.guardiangenerators.com/pr...an.asp?NavID=1

Glad ya'll fine.
GL,md

Sorry to hear about that strong storm, Ranger, but glad to hear it wasn't worse.
A Generator's on my list this year, too.... It's been a charmed 31 years here in the Sunshine State, but at some point California's earthquake history has to catch up to us... An ounce of prevention, I s'ppose.

Hope the winds stay down.
Mindfull

JCL · #6 01-17-2006, 06:29 PM

Used to live in a heavy storm area, on an island just off BC. We had a Honda portable generator, manually switched. It got lots of use. I have been thinking of one for the house here in town, simply as insurance.

Glad the Generac (Guardian) is working for you MD. Never liked Generac much myself, even though we were a distributor at the time and they were cheap to buy. Just remember to exercise them twice a year.

motordavid · #7 01-17-2006, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JCL

Used to live in a heavy storm area, on an island just off BC. We had a Honda portable generator, manually switched. It got lots of use. I have been thinking of one for the house here in town, simply as insurance.

Glad the Generac (Guardian) is working for you MD. Never liked Generac much myself, even though we were a distributor at the time and they were cheap to buy. Just remember to exercise them twice a year.

JCL...

There were not many choices for whole house, consumer oriented gens, in hillbilly heaven area, when we built our joint in late 2K into 2K1.

The Generac, after some initial teething probs., has run flawlessly and done its job every time; which, can be several times per week, sometimes.

It "exercises itself" once per week, automatically...all I do is change the oil and filter twice a year, (prob. double what I need to do), put in 2 new plugs once a year, and a new batt every 2 years. It runs off our 1000 gal propane tank, which is our "fuel" on the mtn.

Runs 85% of the house, (never have had that 85% actually being used),and is seamless.

Outstanding for those in remote or electrically vunerable areas, imo.
My 2Cts on Gens.
BR,md

JCL · #8 01-17-2006, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motordavid

JCL...

There were not many choices for whole house, consumer oriented gens, in hillbilly heaven area, when we built our joint in late 2K into 2K1.

The Generac, after some initial teething probs., has run flawlessly and done its job every time; which, can be several times per week, sometimes.

It "exercises itself" once per week, automatically...all I do is change the oil and filter twice a year, (prob. double what I need to do), put in 2 new plugs once a year, and a new batt every 2 years. It runs off our 1000 gal propane tank, which is our "fuel" on the mtn.

Runs 85% of the house, (never have had that 85% actually being used),and is seamless.

Outstanding for those in remote or electrically vunerable areas, imo.
My 2Cts on Gens.
BR,md

Great to hear it is working so well. I was managing/selling gensets from '88 through '95, and we took on the line to have an offering at that kw range. We moved to MQ Power, using Isuzu engines, after that. We didn't do much propane, mostly diesel. For a residential installation, I think the propane is much easier to keep up, considering fuel storage issues.

Most of our issues related to people buying and forgetting them. If you are getting frequent use out of it, that is by far the best way of keeping it in good shape. Nothing worse than just sitting, which is how they usually fail. The exercise cycles sometimes load them up, and sometimes just idle them (gag), but that's not an issue with your frequent outages.

Cheers

Jeff

statdoc · #9 01-17-2006, 06:52 PM

Yeah, after Ivan, Dennis, and Katrina, I put in a Generac in my Florida abode. Like MD, mine runs for 15 minutes once each week. The company provides service, and it runs on natural gas. Sweet!

JCL · #10 01-18-2006, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by statdoc

Yeah, after Ivan, Dennis, and Katrina, I put in a Generac in my Florida abode. Like MD, mine runs for 15 minutes once each week. The company provides service, and it runs on natural gas. Sweet!

Is that your own supply of natural gas, or from the distribution system?

In Florida, is the continuity of natural gas assured in the event of a power outage? Many areas won't guarantee it, since the distribution system either uses electrical power, or is subject to interuption for the same reasons as electricity.

When installing natural gas gensets for load management, we were required to put in a diesel as well, in this part of the world.

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