Woo hoo First power outage!

Sounds great. We were without for 5 days last Dec but didn't have our current stove and were in the middle of a remodel. I'll gladly invite the neighbors over. It's almost noon, have a small fire going and life is great. Hear the east coast has been getting lots of snow(we had snow on Christmas day. Snow doesn't show up too often and rarely on that day)

A short power outage would be fun. A long power outage (a day or more) would not be pretty at my house. Besides the refrigerator, and microwave not working, the computer would not work

I'm not sure I'd know what to do with myself if I had to go a few days without the computer.

-SF

I also love power outages. We'll be warm and powered up with my new little 3000 watt generator as needed or if needed. Refrigerator, microwave, computer, all have been no problem with a small genset. We do break out the oil lamps for light which adds to the romance... I miss my NG powered range and oven.

It is nice to be at the level of independence where a typical short term power outage is welcomed as a chance to actually speak with family and friends in a quiet room around a warm stove consuming proper amounts of mental lubrication, bourbon or a nice dark porter.

Oh and also, if the event which knocked out power creates a need I can be onsite with my fully fueled and sharp chainsaw, tractor and chain, etc. Are you really ready for a power outage? Nothing like a power outage to find out.

Move to my area. 23 last year (longest was eight hours). 26 the year before so a huge improvement in 07.

Honda generator gets lots of use.

d.n.f. said:

Move to my area. 23 last year (longest was eight hours). 26 the year before so a huge improvement in 07.

Honda generator gets lots of use.

Click to expand...

I think we had one last year, and it lasted ~ 10 minutes.
:coolsmile:

We were out for a week several years ago when a hurricane made it up through the DC area. Had a few others from various windstorms in the surrounding years. All of that got PEPCO in so much hot water with the pols and the public that they actually seem to have reduced outages considerably. (Or they have just been lucky.) We don't tend to get outages in the winter, luckily. (No ice storms in a while.) I wouldn't want to run my Ultima for long times without the blower; although it's considered optional, it doesn't put out nearly as much heat without it. Perhaps more importantly, the outer shell gets a whole lot hotter sans blower.

Our power went out yesterday morning at 2:30 AM. It started as a brown out which caused the blower on the stove at the other end of the house to make noise which woke my wife up. She turned on the lights and they were dim. I just installed this stove 3 weeks ago and it is our 1st so she was freaked out that the house might be on fire or something messing with the electricity :bug: !! I looked out the window and noticed some other people's lights looked dim too so I knew it must be a power issue (heartbeat slowed!) :coolsmile: .

I have the phone number for the power company in my office, so I called their automated system and reported the outage and heard a msg from them that confirmed the outage in my area. We felt glad we had a wood stove instead of a corn or pellet stove since those take power to run. Power went fully out about 30 min later and then came back on around 8am.

:exclaim: TIP: Program your power company phone number into your cell phone. I did it last night and now it's in there for good! No fumbling around for it in the dark next time!

After having worked in the control center for Cinergy/Duke Energy I can tell you it isn't any more enjoyable working a power outage from the other side. There were many a days and nights that I would much rather be curled up on the couch next to the insert in a house with no electric rather than deal with the stress of a storm with multiple circuits "locked out". Thats one job I don't miss, but someone has to do it.