45 MPH Winds And Headed To 10 Degrees When The Power Quit

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BrotherBart

Modesterator
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Winds gusting to 45 MPH, 32 degrees presently rapidly headed down to 10 tonight and the lights went out 30 minutes ago. I guess I get to find out how the 30-NC does shoved back in that fireplace with no blower running. Worst case I have eight hours or so of reserve power for it on the deep cycle batteries with an inverter and the generator after that.

The power company says 671 of us are down. I wonder what the non-wood burning set is doing tonight.
 
They're headed to your place right now. I already called around and let them know you still had heat.

-SF
 
I hope you have an LCD monitor, or a laptop. Otherwise, shut off the silly computer and stay warm.
 
ControlFreak said:
I hope you have an LCD monitor, or a laptop. Otherwise, shut off the silly computer and stay warm.

The comm rack is on a Prestige 3,000 VA UPS and the computers on a Prestige 6,000 VA. The other batteries will handle the blower.
 
Best of luck! You are getting what we had last week, winds of 65 mph and temps in the 20's and this is Arizona :eek:hh:

This week is awesome, made it to 65 :coolsmile: I was out splitting more wood.
 
There is a certain smugness in having a wood stove in the winter when the power goes out, but all in all, it doesn't take long before it becomes really obvious that having no pwer is a PITA! Hope you get it back soon. Sounds like you're well prepared though.
 
I think it will do just fine without a blower...throttle that SOB up to 700. :coolgrin:
 
You still have wind 'Bart? Our power was off all day and the wind just ravaged the treetops. Finally broke out the generator to cool down the fridge and damn if the power didn't come back on 5 minutes after lugging all that crap out.
 
wahoowad said:
Finally broke out the generator to cool down the fridge and damn if the power didn't come back on 5 minutes after lugging all that crap out.

:lol: :lol: :lol: Sorry, I am laughin so hard BUT, I had my mothers house wired so she could reset a few breakers and go in the barn (@200ft away) and start a generator to run the basics, pellet stove, fridge and a couple of lights. I caught alot a B/S for having my buddy do it, that was until she had a 9 days without grid power 2 years ago.
 
Up to 60 mph in SW VA, with at least 3 forest fires out of control (one in Roanoke County has shut down I-81 due to smoke) and over 40,000 without power. I'm still on the grid fortunately for now. We're supposed to get down to 17 tonight with 15-20 mph sustained. Got the dragon devouring oak and ash tonight - with a 30 ft chimney with 6" liner, lack of draft is never an issue round here - wind is insult to injury, even with damper fully closed! Picking up the newbie (Jotul F600) tomorrow; still need to track down a couple young limberbacks for the trip to the basement.
 
Fortunately it didn't last long. About the time the stove rolled up to 600 the lights came back on. Strength in numbers. If it had been just us that was out it would have been a day to get back on the juice.
 
BrotherBart said:
Fortunately it didn't last long. About the time the stove rolled up to 600 the lights came back on. Strength in numbers. If it had been just us that was out it would have been a day to get back on the juice.
Well that's kind of a thread bustin event! Glad your back up again!
 
Glad they got you restored. If not, this would be the time to have one of those heat driven fans. I can't think of a better excuse to buy one so there... Fortunately I have a 5500 Honda genset and plenty of fuel for a 2 day outage before I have to break out the jeep, its locked on both ends with 33's so I'll get to a fuel stop with power eventually..

Jason
 
I have a portable 3500 watt generator just for those occassions. Runs my blower and a few bulbs if I want.
 
thats why I have a 3500watt generator. runs the blower
 
A blower doesn't require much power. I think mine is listed 80 watts. So, we keep an inverter (400w; $28) available for this. Park the truck in the front of the house and run a cable in the door. If you don't use anything else, you don't have to run the engine constantly. (And, think about it...if the engine were running so much, one could just turn on the heat and sit in the truck.) Of course, the freezer still thaws out, but that's a different ballgame.
 
granpajohn said:
Of course, the freezer still thaws out, but that's a different ballgame.

When we lost power for a week two years ago I emptied the freezer into coolers and buried them in a snow bank. Didn't lose a thing.
 
Our needs are pretty basic when it comes to power. Now we are looking into getting a new electrical box for the house and I thought maybe it would be a good time to throw in a manual transfer switch. Can you hook up a regular old cheapo generator this way?

These things do not look too complicated. It looks actually like it could sit After the box and hook up to specific branch circuits (say furnace and fridge)

http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/catalog/images/EasyTranTF_400.jpg
 
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