Sunday during the Browns and Steelers game we lost power. This was the tail end of Ike and brought high winds. No big deal so I called it a night and went to bed. Woke up still with no power so got the diesel generator out of the garage and plugged into the back of the house. Did what I had to do with the breakers and on the first pull it fired up. I got in the shower and with the help of an on demand propane hot water tank I had a nice shower. The family followed and we did a quickie breakfast. I drove my one daughter to school and saw what looked like a war zone, been some years since I was in one but looked similar except no ocean close by. About every 100 yards there was a tree on the power lines and most of it had been cut and pulled off the road by some volunteer fire dept. or township road crew. THEY ROCK.
I dropped my daughter off at her two year old newly constructed school. The school had no power but was going to hold classes with the generators. They later found out the generators were not strong enough for an all day class. Today classes were cancelled.
I am not bitching because I know there are a lot of people in a lot worse shape than my family by Ike. My main gripe here is that we have warm weather, 48-50 degrees at night and low 70's in the day. It could be a lot worse if it was colder out. I planned ahead when I built my house and had it wired for a generator. I have a diesel generator cause I also have a semi truck sitting in the driveway that has two 100 gallon tanks.
We have lost power before but nothing like this. We are to get power back by this Saturday. That is 5-6 days without power. Would you be ready for that long without it? I have a water well and with no power there is no water.
We live in a rural area. Our allotment, 75 acres or so has approx. 60 houses but most are weekend cabins. Our township does not have a fire or police department. The township garage has a couple employees and a some equipment for snow plowing. Our Sheriff dept. has a non emergency response time of hours if not shifts.
Please be ready. This winter is to be worse than prior winters. Pellet stoves do need power to run. If you have a battery back up system make sure your batteries are maintained.
Eric
I dropped my daughter off at her two year old newly constructed school. The school had no power but was going to hold classes with the generators. They later found out the generators were not strong enough for an all day class. Today classes were cancelled.
I am not bitching because I know there are a lot of people in a lot worse shape than my family by Ike. My main gripe here is that we have warm weather, 48-50 degrees at night and low 70's in the day. It could be a lot worse if it was colder out. I planned ahead when I built my house and had it wired for a generator. I have a diesel generator cause I also have a semi truck sitting in the driveway that has two 100 gallon tanks.
We have lost power before but nothing like this. We are to get power back by this Saturday. That is 5-6 days without power. Would you be ready for that long without it? I have a water well and with no power there is no water.
We live in a rural area. Our allotment, 75 acres or so has approx. 60 houses but most are weekend cabins. Our township does not have a fire or police department. The township garage has a couple employees and a some equipment for snow plowing. Our Sheriff dept. has a non emergency response time of hours if not shifts.
Please be ready. This winter is to be worse than prior winters. Pellet stoves do need power to run. If you have a battery back up system make sure your batteries are maintained.
Eric
Worse than the lack of water is the lack of toilets! No water means no water pressure for me (also on a well) so without the generator I've got no water, no toilets, no furnace, no lights, etc. I can do the heat/cooking with kerosene and my grill but the water is an issue. At least with snow on the ground I can melt it for the toilets. My generator is wired in via a transfer switch that powers at least 1 circuit in every room, the heat & water pump. The only major system that's not powered is the stove (and I've got the microwave powered in so that's okay). We almost never use it but I still fire it up a couple of times a year to make sure it will start and to clean up the fuel.
