Warm when the power was out?

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Did they manage to keep power after the derecho last spring?
 
I'll never forget the first time I lived in a house without wood heat. Hated it....
 
Did they manage to keep power after the derecho last spring?

We were down for a couple of days but the guy with the big setup never lost power. We have had so many in the last three years I can't keep track of them.

Built a new generator shack two weeks ago.
 
That's what I was thinking. Sounds like getting a big genset is backdoor electrical continuity insurance.
 
back in the early 90's, a little jotul 602 spared us from being cold and going hungry during a big ice storm that hit maryland and virginia. we had goten it for free.....(not being a former woodburner my wife wondered why i wanted it) and we put it in the living room where the previous tenants had a wood burner as evidenced by the connector in the ceiling. that winter an ice storm hit and power went out for a couple of days and the ice was so thick, you couldn't stand on the sidewalk. well that little stove heated the house and i cooked on it. the wife was surprised and we've had a wood stove hooked up ever since. its saved our bacon more than once to include the blizzard a couple of years ago.....its not as dramatic anymore as we run it all winter and is the primary source of heat. like BB said, a stove and a generator is a must. i wouldn't be without them....not with pepco and BGE around.

cass
 
Just grabbed junk laying around and cobbled up an extension to the wood shed. The wood shed framing is three sections of steel pallet racking picked up at a bankruptcy auction for 5 bucks a section and bolted together. I can't do carpenter stuff. Every piece of wood I try to do anything with ends up in a wood stove.
 
Cool - not trying to hijack - Our generator is in the attached garage and rolled out when needed. Problem is its pretty noisy. I have often thought about building an enclosure for the gen, Insulating and automotive muffler. Just haven't done it yet.
 
My neighbor did that after the 2009 failure. Twenty grand for the generator and 500 gallon propane tank and propane. Hasn't had another blip since it was installed. Twenty grand would make for a lot of nights in a first class hotel.

True - but what would it be worth to pay to never have to deal with a power failure again? Not saying it is worth 20K to me, but I recall the first winter after I bought my snowblower I never did get it out to use - never enough snow. Wife commented "what a waste to buy it" until I pointed out that I bought it so I wouldn't have to shovel - and I didn't shovel so who am I to complain?
 
Cool - not trying to hijack - Our generator is in the attached garage and rolled out when needed. Problem is its pretty noisy. I have often thought about building an enclosure for the gen, Insulating and automotive muffler. Just haven't done it yet.

Yeah. Getting close to time to send the thread to the gear room but snow has never been a problem but a power failure in the rain says "No rolling it outside.". And we have had some of those.
 
20 grand, what did he buy, a nuclear reactor? gen and service rated transfer switch can be bout for 4 grand and some tax. I got natural gas, and I know a pretty good electrician,
 
I have yet to have my stove really save the day during an extended power failure - we had a few short ones here and there. I think the longest one was maybe 4-5 hours. Nothing that I would consider really scary or anything although I imagine it would have cooled down a bit and perhaps been uncomfortable. I too have given serious consideration to a generator as the second side of the disaster preparation.

On the generator thoughts go - I have often wondered if I were to have a diesel generator, would it be safe/legal to run a line from my heating oil tank to feed an emergency generator? Thus I wouldn't have to be concerned about gas going bad and have purpose for this tank of oil in my basement... (clearly the oil line would have to go out of the house, but that could be done I'm sure).
 
We have also thought about the no power problem here in the Carolinas. We get mostly the big ice storms and two years ago the power was out for two weeks. Our generator is a 4000 watt unit I bought at Northern Tool last year for around $480. My biggest problem with all that was that I didn't want cans of gas sitting around. Gas well go bad if stored for over a month and if stablizer is added than it's good for six months or so. But I didn't want the gas because of the fire danger. The answer was to add a propane kit to the generator. Just hook it to the big tank in your yard and it'll run for ever. A 20 lb grill tank well last continuous tor over 24 hours. You can also still use car gas or natural gas if you want. Try www.propane-generators.com. You have to take your generator apart and send them the carberator which they modify by installing a gas vapor orface. They well return it to you with the rest of the kit. Worked like a champ. So now I can run the refrigerators, the blower on the wood stove and the satallite TV. What more do I need??? David
 
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Christmas of 2009 we found ourselves opening presents in a war zone. Our area got hit by a terrible ice storm which was followed by a wind storm....not a good combination. Thankfully we decided to do a ham that Christmas so we just popped everything on the Jotul F400 and kicked back. Unfortunately we were not able to relax because it sounded like a war outside with all of the trees snapping under the weight of the ice. It took the neighbors and I 2 days to clear a path to the main road. We were without power for 5 days with high temps in the low 30s all week. All of my neighbors bailed in search of warm hotels but we decided to hunker down and enjoy the quiet neighborhood. Every single tree in a five mile radius were snapped at the top like tooth picks. To this day I can still see the tree damage from that year....what a mess!
christmas 2009.jpgchristmas 2009 1.jpg
 
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20 grand, what did he buy, a nuclear reactor? gen and service rated transfer switch can be bout for 4 grand and some tax. I got natural gas, and I know a pretty good electrician,

25 KW with delivery, installation and full 500 gallon propane tank. Way overkill.

As to the stale gas comment above, I buy four five gallon cans in October every year and then what isn't used in the generators goes in the tractor and the cars in Spring and Summer. Never had a problem even with the corn liquor they put in it now. This summer in July for some reason I decided to go get a couple of cans of gas just because we kept getting thunderstorms. Bang. Three days later a storm knocked us down for three days. Boy those air conditioners felt good in the 90+ weather.
 
Wood heat hasn't yet been a case of life or death survival, but we've lost power for a week on several occasions, and if it's Summer, we move out, but in Winter, we've never needed to. I don't plan on getting a generator, the cost of one to meet my needs would be prohibitive (needs to run well pump, water heater, furnace, fridge, and the wife needs to be able to start it with no instructions), anything in between seems pointless.
My emergency preparedness consists of 50 gallon drum of water in basement for toilet flushing, a couple of gallons of drinking water, plenty of batteries for LED flashlights and lanterns, fire up the insert and reverse the SUV into the garage: if it cant get out to the road without me shovelling, the roads won't be driveable anyway.

Wouldn't live where I do without some way to stay warm for at least a few days, everything else is just luxury.

TE
 
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Moved into my current house 9/2/11 and we had the snow storm last October that knocked out power for 3 days. Didn't know much about the stove but it kept the house and us warm with me feeding it wood every hour! What a difference a year makes.
 
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I can't do carpenter stuff. Every piece of wood I try to do anything with ends up in a wood stove.

We must be related,;lol if we go back far enough. I keep telling my wife "I can't even hammer a nail".
 
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