2 Days With No Electricity

[Andre B.]

That is a real nice setup Andre. Are you tied into the grid? I'd be interested in hearing all about your whole system. Is there a thread where you lay it out?

Grid is about 1000' (thru the woods) and much $$$ from the house and shall remain that way , I would not cut down trees so it would have to be underground up the driveway. And that driveway went thru some mud holes that now have some very large rocks in them.

Not a very "showy" system. Started with two Aladdin oil lamps, a worn out Briggs driving a car alternator.
As I got more free money.
Added some batteries, and 12volt lights.
Got some used PV panels.
Added a small inverter.
Generac 3500 watt generator, one of there first using the overhead valve engine (that looks a lot like a Honda), during the short time they were selling them under the continuous rating, same gen today is sold as 4500 watts.
More batteries, yea not suppose to mix old and new, but if you watch them close you can get away with it.
Put up 1000 watt wind generator.
Got larger inverter, Trace 2512SB.
More PV panels.

Currently working on the diesel generator and the battery pack is in real bad shape and needs to be replaced. Thinking about jumping to 48 volts, which would mean a new inverter at the same time and rewiring the PV and wind gen. Also the higher pack voltage is subject to more electrical codes then 12 volts.

Everything is almost always in some state of being modified.

 

[Marty]

...

Everything is almost always in some state of being modified.

Sounds like fun.
It's my dream to end up on a piece of land with 365 days of flowing water and a couple of diesel cars.
When are you going to start growing your own safflower for fuel? ;-)

 

[nshif]

That is a real nice setup Andre. Are you tied into the grid? I'd be interested in hearing all about your whole system. Is there a thread where you lay it out?

Grid is about 1000' (thru the woods) and much $$$ from the house and shall remain that way , I would not cut down trees so it would have to be underground up the driveway. And that driveway went thru some mud holes that now have some very large rocks in them.

Just for a compairison for 450' of underground 200 amp service, 1 pole and a transformer I paid 19000$ To the meter. It will be close to 1000$ more by the time im coneccted to the house. And it took over six months to get in installed.

 

[vgrund]

Well, as luck would have it I was on vacation for start of the New Hampshire power outages. My power was out for about 36 hours before I arrived at 4 AM on Wednesday. When I showed up it was 37 degrees in the warmest part of the house, ouch. The power stayed off for another day or so after I returned. When the power was restored last evening, temperature ranged from 28 - 36 degrees inside. Ouch. I drained my plumbing as soon as I arrived and I waited a good long time to turn the water back on... When I did eventually turn the water back on, everything seemed fine and I went to bed.

My dear wife awakened me this AM with: "GET UP, GET UP! There's a leak downstairs!" 150 gallons worth, what a pain. Somebody please kill me now.

After I called a plumber, I started making calls to generator installers. Enough is enough. If anyone here has experience with a good dealer of automatic LP standby generators southern NH, please speak up.

Thanks,
Victor

 

[Hbbyloggr]

Well, as luck would have it I was on vacation for start of the New Hampshire power outages. My power was out for about 36 hours before I arrived at 4 AM on Wednesday. When I showed up it was 37 degrees in the warmest part of the house, ouch. The power stayed off for another day or so after I returned. When the power was restored last evening, temperature ranged from 28 - 36 degrees inside. Ouch. I drained my plumbing as soon as I arrived and I waited a good long time to turn the water back on... When I did eventually turn the water back on, everything seemed fine and I went to bed.

My dear wife awakened me this AM with: "GET UP, GET UP! There's a leak downstairs!" 150 gallons worth, what a pain. Somebody please kill me now.

After I called a plumber, I started making calls to generator installers. Enough is enough. If anyone here has experience with a good dealer of automatic LP standby generators southern NH, please speak up.

Thanks,
Victor

Victor,

Try Ciardelli Fuel in Milford. They are hooking up a big propane tank for me today to run our 30kw genset.
Sorry to hear about your loss from the freeze up. A good generator is well worth the investment. We sailed right through the power outage with out any inconvenience...except having to replace the fuel. I might be able to help you with some of the ins and outs of propane units, call W.J.Weigle, I'm, in your phone book and also advertise in the Milford Cabinet in the Fuel-Firewood section of that same paper.
Good luck, Bill

 

[Gooserider]

My wife said she wants one of those for the next power outage. They are handy. Or maybe 'heady'?

They sure are, I've been using them for years, ever since I used to work on the Mississippi as a deckhand - they let you work at night and keep your hands free. Of course the lights I was using then took one of the square 6V batteries, which was good for 20 hours or so. I just got this little Petzl unit that runs on 3 AAA's and is good for something like 80 hours on high, and 200 on low. Low is plenty for walking around and doing general work - it's what I use to get wood off the pile after dark. I can read comfortably on medium, I guess high is for searchlight power I guess.

The unit is so light that I hardly even feel it when I'm wearing it. The only trouble I've found with them is that when camping out, other campers have trouble with you blinding them. I try to stick with low power and angle the beam as low as I can to minimize it.

Gooserider

 

[Mo Heat]

Glad you folks are alright Mo. We know the feeling after doing seven days last year. And understand completely laying in bed listening to the world crack, pop and fall.

Now the big question: Did ya do overnight burns?

BB, I almost forgot to answer your question. No, I didn't do a complete overnight burn, but I was able to start up the next morning from the coals, so that's about as close as I've come. Restarting took longer than if I'd started from scratch, so I didn't gain much. Mother Mo Heat was camped out in front of the stove, so I didn't want to disturb her half way through the night.

If I'd had to do 7 days, that would have been really tuff. I may look into a generator, but hooking it up to the house wiring is quite the mystery to me. I'll have to read the link on the RV site re: generators. That thread is a monster!

Here's a photo of the trees closest to the house in the front and back yards.

 

[ourhouse]

Mo becarefull walking around outside with all thoes broken limbs. You dont want one of thoes comming down on you'r head.

 

[velvetfoot]

I have a headlamp with multiple leds.
How do the models with one high power led work? Better?

 

[DavidV]

Tell us more about that inverter.

 

[vgrund]

Try Ciardelli Fuel in Milford. They are hooking up a big propane tank for me today to run our 30kw genset.
Sorry to hear about your loss from the freeze up. A good generator is well worth the investment. We sailed right through the power outage with out any inconvenience...except having to replace the fuel. I might be able to help you with some of the ins and outs of propane units, call W.J.Weigle, I'm, in your phone book and also advertise in the Milford Cabinet in the Fuel-Firewood section of that same paper.
Good luck, Bill

Thanks, Bill. It's a good tip to try fuel suppliers. Our propane company (Energy North) also installs generators. I have a few companies coming out on Monday for a quote. An automatic one is the only way to fly IMO, anything less wouldn't have helped while we were on vacation.

All in all, we did OK. I estimate $700 in professional repairs plus additional future sweat equity on my part. NEVER AGAIN... !

And heck, you sell firewood so you can bet I'm adding you to my Rolodex.

Victor

 

[Mo Heat]

EH, Thanks for the tip.

DavidV, I got it at Sam's club for around $30. Has 2 ~110 Volt, A/C outlets. Max 500 Watts. Very noisy fan. Comes with battery clips (pictured) and a cigarette lighter plug-in for the car. Just hook it up to a car battery or other 12 Volt supply and you can run household appliances up to 500 Watts. I'm not sure how reliable it is, but again, better than nothing in a pinch.

I bought it to run the convection fans on the WWL because it doesn't put out a lot of heat without them, but I realized I could run a single compact florescent bulb lamb for a while and it felt like home sweet home again. Running them both together was a real battery drainer, though.

The first night I only ran the fans during the peak catalytic cycle so the stove wouldn't overheat and to maximize battery life since I had no idea how long the battery would last, especially since I knew it wasn't close to fully charged after driving only about 3 times in the last year. Toward the end of the first night I started running it more, knowing I would be able to charge it at the s-n-l's house the next day.

The second day, I ran it full time after the stove heated up real good. Near the end of the evening, before bed, I hooked up the compact florescent also. The fans slowed down and I could tell it was a real load on the now freshly charged battery. The battery went dead sometime during the sleep hours. Probably around 2am, but it had been used since about 5pm for fans, and about 2 or 3 hours with the CF. I was happy enough, but it was a real ration situation, and if I couldn't charge it up somewhere else, it would have been a one day affair per battery. I had two more, but needed to keep one in a car to get us around, I guess.

 

[Mo Heat]

Here's a couple more photos of two of my neighbors' trees. I don't think any of these limbs was large enough to damage the homes. These trees are around 15 years old. The oaks out back are around 100 yrs old. You don't want one of those big boys coming down on the roof!

 

[Gooserider]

I have a headlamp with multiple leds.
How do the models with one high power led work? Better?

Haven't really tried them, but the technology keeps getting better... However I tend to like the multi LED units better as at least in theory they have a better failure mode (no single point of failure) and most have different power levels available just by turning on differing numbers of LED's. Most of the time I find low power is all you need, and it's a bit less anti-social when dealing with other people. The single LED units either don't have the power level choice, or have to do more complex switching to get the low power mode.

Gooserider

 

[Mo Heat]

I don't doubt that LED lights are easier on batteries, but at least one person (Rhonemus) has said they are not as easy on batteries "per lumen" as a florescent is. Is that what you understand, too? Or do LED's now produce as many lumens as florescents for the same electric consumed?

I know the LED's do ok when all their light is focused in one little spot, but to light a room or for a flood type application, aren't florescents still better?

 

[elkimmeg]

wood stove sales in your area for back up heat are looking mighty good. I bet you are glad about having yours now.

Any word on when to expect power? Take care of yourself and familly Going to be pretty cold here this weekend. Winter finally arived
had some icing last night but minor

 

[Mo Heat]

Any word on when to expect power?

Our power is back. We were only out for two days. I think a few 10's of thousands are still out, though. 4 inches of snow predicted for tonight, but no ice. Should be no outages, but I charged up the battery and left the inverter out just in case.

 

[Gooserider]

I don't doubt that LED lights are easier on batteries, but at least one person (Rhonemus) has said they are not as easy on batteries "per lumen" as a florescent is. Is that what you understand, too? Or do LED's now produce as many lumens as florescents for the same electric consumed?

I know the LED's do ok when all their light is focused in one little spot, but to light a room or for a flood type application, aren't florescents still better?

Well I've never really compared, but I notice that the flourescent camp lamps I've seen all take bunches of "D" cells, or other big batteries, while the LED lights either use tiny batteries or tons of LED's (or both) I figure for area lighting where size / weight isn't an issue, I'd just as soon use a Coleman white gas lantern and get LOTS of light that lasts a long time rather than a flourescent that puts out a little bit of light for a short time on an overpriced battery.

For focused portable light, you can't beat the LED's, and with a head lamp, you don't need area lighting - I've got light where I'm looking, and if I'm not looking at something why should I care if it's dark?

Gooserider

 

[Mo Heat]

For focused portable light, you can't beat the LED's, and with a head lamp, you don't need area lighting - I've got light where I'm looking, and if I'm not looking at something why should I care if it's dark?

Gooserider

Good points Goose...
Unless you live with your mother-in-law like I do. Those headlamp bands can really muss up a hair-do.
I'll have to look for one of those head lamps. Where did you get yours?

 

[velvetfoot]

It's sort've relevant, but I've replaced all my mag lites' bulbs with led's by mag lite that I bought in HD. I like the led's.

 

[Jags]

Mo said - I was happy enough, but it was a real ration situation, and if I couldn’t charge it up somewhere else, it would have been a one day affair per battery. I had two more, but needed to keep one in a car to get us around, I guess.

MO, in a real pinch, keep in mind that you could charge your battery with a set of jumper cables and running your car slightly over an idle. Might burn a gallon or 2, but might also save your butt in a real pinch. Just a thought. Also, consider "rotating" batteries. Before you totally drain a battery, stop, pull a good battery out of your car, put your weak battery in the car and go for a drive (obviously the battery must have enough left in it to crank the car over, but most of todays cars start pretty easy.) Just trying to think out of the box and maybe help a brother out.

 

[Gooserider]

For focused portable light, you can't beat the LED's, and with a head lamp, you don't need area lighting - I've got light where I'm looking, and if I'm not looking at something why should I care if it's dark?

Gooserider

Good points Goose...
Unless you live with your mother-in-law like I do. Those headlamp bands can really muss up a hair-do.
I'll have to look for one of those head lamps. Where did you get yours?

They are pretty widely available these days - pretty much any sporting goods / camping store should have them. They are also popular with the pedal bike crowd. If you have an EMS or REI store in your neighborhood, they have an excellent selection (but tend towards yuppie price tags)

I got a combo incandescent / LED unit from Sportsman's Guide a couple years ago, found the Incandescents are almost useless as the LED's are better! Trouble is it's only got a choice between bright LED's and a bright incandescent, so it's a bit antisocial.

I just got a Petzl unit as a gift at Xmas, its barely bigger than the three AAA's it takes, and has four LED's in it - it switches between 3 different intensity levels and flashing, which I find more useful, as it lets you turn down the candlepower when you don't need it. Low power is all you need for walking around, getting wood, and the like, it's marginal for reading. Medium is fine for reading, and high is the small searchlight mode.

I would look for one with multiple light levels, a head that lets you adjust the aim angle, and light weight. Most seem to run on three AAA's which gives nice battery life. An LED needs a certain voltage to drive it, so you pretty much need three cells at a minimum, the ones that use fewer have to make up the difference with some electronic voltage multiplier hardware which works but reduces the efficiency and battery life.

One significant weakness with LED's is that they are "all or nothing" in terms of light. An incandescent that is running low on juice does the slow fadeout, An LED either gives close to full power output or it doesn't work at all, so you need to keep batteries handy, and be able to change them in low light conditions (on my combo units, the bulb burned for about 10 seconds before fading after the LED's went out, so that doesn't help much). OTOH, LED's are much more rugged than bulbs, so they are far less likely to die if dropped or bumped....

Gooserider

 

[begreen]

It's sort've relevant, but I've replaced all my mag lites' bulbs with led's by mag lite that I bought in HD. I like the led's.

How does the light output compare? Which size maglite? We have them all the way from pocket to 4 D cell.

 

[velvetfoot]

They have them for 2-4 cells. I have 2,3,and 4 cells.
I think they're phasing out the incandescent models.
http://maglite.com/LED_Mod.asp
I think they're brighter, but I don't know.

 

[Gooserider]

They have them for 2-4 cells. I have 2,3,and 4 cells.
I think they're phasing out the incandescent models.
http://maglite.com/LED_Mod.asp
I think they're brighter, but I don't know.

It's been a while since I looked, but last time I checked, they only had them for the larger flashlghts :-/ (either from MAG or aftermarket) I have a two AAA Maglite that I carry on my belt all the time, along with a Leatherman tool. I'd rather it was an LED unit, but they don't make the LED's for that small a flashlight head AFAIK. I'd love to get the same form factor in an LED light, but so far I haven't found one. (Any other size / shape wouldn't fit the belt pouch that also carries the Leatherman) The other thing that is a minor problem with at least some of the LED conversion setups is that you loose the adjustable beam focus. This may or may not be a big deal depending on your needs.

Gooserider