Power Outage

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TireSmoker
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Power Outage

Post by TireSmoker »

With the high winds yesterday, we lost power here at Tiresmoke Central. While the webserver is on a battery backup, it's only meant to keep things up in the event of a short outage. I'm guessing it went down somewhere mid-afternoon. No biggie, right?

First Energy has a website that shows the current outages by County and then down to the township level. On Wednesday afternoon, it said power would be restored by 8am tomorrow morning. This would be a nuisance since it wasn't too cold out (no pipe freezing) , and it wasn't raining so I wasn't worried about my sump pump. (although the crock in the basement was pretty full) So I spent the night without power, and the house was still 59* when I woke up at 6:30 this morning, still without power. I checked First Energy's site again and now it says power won't be restored until 11pm FRIDAY.

I can go a night without power, and could've even tolerated it being off all today. But the forecast is calling for lows in the 20s/30s, maybe even some snow accumulation. I was gonna have to do something. When Tiresmoke Central was built, I had to have the main panel in the house expanded, and I made sure to add a generator input and transfer switch when the work was done. So, I called off work on a mission to find a generator. I went to Home Depot in Mayfield, and I heard an employee telling someone else they don't stock them there for a variety of reasons, but that Chardon or Mentor did stock them. Costco sells generators, so I went over there next. It was 8:30am, but they dont open till 10am.

Maybe I could rent one? I txted GMJohnny to see if they rented generators. He called back within a couple minutes and said they had one left, in Middlefield, and he already put my name down for it! Sweet!! At first I thought he said it was a 7500 watt unit, but it was only 3500 watt, which is a little light for a well pump, a furnace, and sump pump, etc. It would take some manual mangement. But for $35/day, figuring on 2 days, no problem. Just to keep things interesting, they don't supply the power cord to connect to the house input because there can be all different kinds of setups. So, the guy at the Middlefield store suggested Mars Electric in Chardon. Another $75 later, I had 3 connectors, and 10 feet of appropriate size cable. Some assembly required.

It's not quite 10am yet, and I'm back home with everything I need. Maybe I can get this up and running and get to work for a 1/2 day. I assemble my cord, wheel the generator to the side of the house, get it started and plug in my cable. *CLICK* -- the circuit breaker on the generator trips immediately. Crap -- what's wrong? I check the box in the basement.. (side note: I have a long-ish ranch house. Electrical panel on the north end, basement exit at the south end, house exits are at south end. It's about the longest possible path to go from the panel in the basement to the generator outside at north end) Trransfer switch is set correctly, I've turned off all the breakers in my panel, and it's still tripping the breaker/GFCI on the generator.

My next door neighbor sees me messing with the stuff and offers to help. After checking the connections in my cord and eliminating each hot leg (one at a time) and still tripping, we disconnect the ground leg.. IT WORKS! Turn on the well pump so I can flush the toilets. Once they re-fill, I turn on the furnace to start getting the house warmed up. Then the sump pump kicks on, and too much draw on the generator and the breaker flips. Another walk outside, reset the breaker one more time. It's been more than an hour assembling and troubleshooting everything. But I finally had power!!

At this point, I had the internet back up and was checking out the Tiresmoke webserver. It checked out good and I even made a quick backup while I was at it. Everything was going good at this point. And about 20 minutes later, the neighbor comes back over to tell me the power was back on. 35 hours ahead of schedule.

So between the electical cord/connectors and a 1/2 day generator rental (little over $100 total), I managed to get 20 good minutes of backup power!!

-Dave
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GMJohnny
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Re: Power Outage

Post by GMJohnny »

I'm glad that you got your power back on so quickly! I would recommend that you purchase a generator,
since you have the correct wiring for a generator at your house now. Typically, you can get a 5.5kw used
for around $350-$400. If you buy one in a power outage, it will cost you! If you troll for one on Craigslist
you can do pretty well and then you'd be ready when the next outage comes. The usual deal with generators
is that they get very little usage. I wouldn't hesitate to buy an older unit because of this. Many homeowners
will buy generators and decide they are moving, or just don't need one, then sell them cheap. I'd be happy
to be a consultant on the purchase if/when you have go to purchase one. I was upset this morning when
I couldn't read about Maverick's progress and expect the next outage to not knock Tiresmoke down!! HA!

GM
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Re: Power Outage

Post by TireSmoker »

I've been eyeing this unit for quite a while.

https://www.amazon.com/Champion-7000W-R ... +dual+fuel

Costco has it for $800 new. 7000 watts. I like the idea that it can run on propane, and that I could have a couple bottles of it laying around for a long time without going bad. It seems like a lot of machine for the money. The one review on Amazon says it is noisy (pretty subjective by reviewer's own admission), but that's a concern too, as my bedroom is on the same north wall.

Since the back garage is included in the generator feed, I wonder if I could hook it up back there and feed the house? Seems like it should work. That would eliminate any potential noise issues, could store it back there, wouldn't have to drag it across the yard, etc.

I hear what you're saying John about the value of buying a used unit. If you see something you think is a solid machine/good deal (6500+ watts) let me know. I should actually add up the usage(watt) info for my well pump, sump pump, septic system, furnace, refrigerator to see what I *really* need.

-Dave
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Re: Power Outage

Post by GMJohnny »

I guess there is a price to be paid for what you "need." The more wattage you get, the more
it costs. In an outage, I've never been where I've needed to watch TV or have the internet going,
I mostly worry about heat, water and maybe cooking. I think you could get by with a 5500 watt
without too much issue, as it will drive your well pump and a fridge at the same time. Going a
bit smaller is a money savings. I've never dealt with a propane unit, so the technology is a bit
foreign to me, I've always thought that a gas unit is fine, AS LONG AS YOU RUN IT EVERY COUPLE
OF MONTHS to keep the gas fresh. I had at least three calls in yesterday's outage from people
who had generators and couldn't get them started. Bad gas and lack of run time will goof up the
carb. I'll see if I can find some craigslist specials and post them. This one is a steal if it is still for
sale.

https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/grd/6026883017.html

GM
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Re: Power Outage

Post by TireSmoker »

I guess if I'm going through the effort to get a generator, I'm going to get one that will allow me to comfortably hang around the house for an extended outage. Compared to the necessities of well pump/sump pump/furnace/refrigerator/freezer, the luxuries of a couple computers with internet access and TV are pretty low power. I'd be really surprised if my cable modem + wifi-router consumed 50 watts. Newer TVs also don't consume watts the way old CRTs did. Also a consideration for *my* situation is that IT work is my living and remote access isn't really optional. I could do 95% of my job from home (if they'd let me).

I like the idea of being relatively self-sufficent at home in the event of a larger scale disaster/disruption.

-Dave
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Basement Paul
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Re: Power Outage

Post by Basement Paul »

Keep in mind, the bigger the generator, the more fuel it consumes. Many generators will tell you how much fuel they consume under load. It's a definite consideration as you'll need to keep surplus fuel on hand that will run for more than a few hours.

-BP
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Re: Power Outage

Post by Maverick »

We were out for 8 days with Hurricane Fran and for about a week with a big ice storm. Only things the 5500 wouldn't handle ares the AC (of course) and the clothes washer starting the spin cycle. We have natural gas and would love to have a whole house generator running on natural gas.
Maverick
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Fred32v
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Re: Power Outage

Post by Fred32v »

We bought our generator in the fall of 2002 because failures were frequent.
There were over a dozen outage between 2003 and 2006. Then not so many.
Before this last outage, the last time I ran it due to a lose of service was Sept. 2010.
We do get little blips of lost power but sustained outages have become less common.
Switch Panel
Switch Panel
Doc tells me what is on which switch and loads.
Doc tells me what is on which switch and loads.
I've watched the meters and have never been close to an overload situation.
I've serviced my generator and do run it every few months.
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Re: Power Outage

Post by TireSmoker »

So after the outage this spring, BP alerted to me an available generator for a Real Good Deal. It's the big dog unit that Harbor Freight sells, the Predator 8750. When I went to purchase it, it looked like it had never been used under a load. It looked brand new! Unforunately, it had a tank of nasty gas and a gummed up carb. So I drained the gas and removed the carb, figuring it'd be pretty quick and easy. Well, after cleaning, it still wouldn't fire so I went online looking for carbs.

I found this, https://www.vpowerequipment.com/three-f ... -8750-watt (dang, I paid $80!) The generator will run off gasoline, propane, or natural gas. It bolted right on, and I tested it with gasoline and propane. Power to the people!! :-)

Well, tonight it's getting it's first trial run. Except for needing to make an under-duress-and-flashlight plug change on the generator-to-house cord, it's humming along nicely outside. Thanks to a couple donated tanks by VDub, I have 2 full tanks, plus my 2 grill tanks.

Tiresmoke has now achieved the ultimate in Chupposity -- running on propane!!

-Dave
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Re: Power Outage

Post by GMJohnny »

Your Chupposity level is very high, although Chuppa would have made his own carb!

GM
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Re: Power Outage

Post by Basement Paul »

Having all those fuel options is very nice. Cool that you can just plug in and function. That generator turned out to be a good deal after all. I'll have to let Matt know it's doing real work now.

Propane is cool.

-BP
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Re: Power Outage

Post by TireSmoker »

The next phase will be to see if I can wire it in from the back garage, and tie into the nat'l gas pipe back there. No dragging it through the yard, no noise, unlimited fuel.

To be honest about the noise though, despite it running right on the other side of the wall from the bedroom, it was not bad at all. We both slept fine.

I'm super happy with how this thing worked out.

-Dave
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Re: Power Outage

Post by TireSmoker »

Basement Paul wrote:Having all those fuel options is very nice. Cool that you can just plug in and function. That generator turned out to be a good deal after all. I'll have to let Matt know it's doing real work now.

Propane is cool.

-BP
Yeah, let him know it worked out real well.

A little prologue here -- so I had gotten everything back up and running, posted the message here, and went to bed. Gwen woke me up at 5am and said "i dont hear the generator". Went outside, switched it over to a 2nd propane tank and started it back up. So I came back inside to power up the computers/internet again, but found my internet was out. I had backup power, but not backup internet. So that's why we were offline a couple days. (if anyone even noticed..)

Also, It didn't quite last 7 hours on a tank of propane. It ran much longer on the tank of gas that I put in at 6-630am. It was still running at 5pm.

-Dave
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Re: Power Outage

Post by TireSmoker »

Basement Paul wrote:Having all those fuel options is very nice. Cool that you can just plug in and function. That generator turned out to be a good deal after all. I'll have to let Matt know it's doing real work now.

Propane is cool.

-BP
Yeah, let him know it worked out real well.

A little prologue here -- so I had gotten everything back up and running, posted the message here, and went to bed. Gwen woke me up at 5am and said "i dont hear the generator". Went outside, switched it over to a 2nd propane tank and started it back up. So I came back inside to power up the computers/internet again, but found my internet was out. I had backup power, but not backup internet. So that's why we were offline a couple days. (if anyone even noticed..)

Also, It didn't quite last 7 hours on a tank of propane. It ran much longer on the tank of gas that I put in at 6-630am. It was still running at 5pm.

-Dave
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