Ice storm how's everyone running!

[shoeboxlen]

Hello all from schoharie county the ice cube capital of upsate NY I am guessing. We have been without power for about 2 days. I have been running our eco 25 the whole time we have a 5000 watt generator so that is keeping our circulators fridge etc running so we are in pretty good shape which is good considering nymo is saying we will not be getting our power back until tuesday at the sooonest. obviously we are hoping for faster trunaround than that. However today our generator went down on us (bad gas) so I had to fire up the regular fireplace for a few hours while the father in law and I tore down the carb and replaced the fuel filter on the generator. but I got that all up and running by 2 so all is well now. I know many of you live on upsate NY so how are you all making out? BTW the generator along with several UPS's is also keeping my email server and web server up and running takes more than a power outage to keep eliteraven.com off line!

Len

 

[Nofossil]

Glad you're doing OK. Tough combination - ice storm followed by really cold weather. In 1998 we lost power for several days, but it wasn't bitter cold.

One of the issues that I've considered with wood heat is the need for near-continuous electricity, either for the boiler or for the storage circulator. During our ice storm we shared a generator between three houses in 3 to 4 hour blocks. That would be tough to do with the wood heat system that I have now, unless I could charge up enough batteries during that time to keep the system going.

 

[Zzyk]

Len

Greetings from a fellow Schoharie county resident. We got our power back last night, wasn't too bad for us out here, although it is cold tonight.
I'm in the wrong place here since I have wood stoves, not a boiler, but I wanted to say hi.

Keep warm

Chris

 

[shoeboxlen]

yeah I dont have heat storage but my eko is heating the domestic hot water and the hot water heating system. however I have 4 ups's I use to run my domain controller/ web server/ email server and my linux spam filter server ( yes I am a computer geek) it pays the bills the eko warms the butt!! sorry for the wierd posts I have been up for man many hours keeping things running for around the house

 

[shoeboxlen]

Len

Greetings from a fellow Schoharie county resident. We got our power back last night, wasn't too bad for us out here, although it is cold tonight.
I'm in the wrong place here since I have wood stoves, not a boiler, but I wanted to say hi.

Keep warm

Chris

Yeah it is deffinitly a cold one tonight just cam back in from gassing up the generator deffinitly hope it does not go down on me again tonight! lol I also have 2 wood stoves in the house the wood boilr is a new addition and so far it has been a god send the fuel boiler has not run since I got it running deffinitly was worth the $ these fuel prices will not stay this low forever!

 

[heaterman]

Just a friendly warning to everyone running a genset. PLEASE do not run it anywhere inside your home. Not in the basement, not in the garage, not anywhere inside. All of these things produce carbon monoxide in large amounts and will kill you and your loved ones in very short order. Death by CO poisoning is not a nice way to go. Many times a CO victim will realize to late that something is wrong but be incapacitated to the point that they are unable to do anything about it. You know you are going to die but you are unable to function.

If you find yourself getting groggy, nauseous, getting a headache and you have a generator running even nearby get fresh air immediately and if symptoms persist seek medical help NOW. Make sure the generator is downwind of your house and remember it's better to be cold than dead. I'd rather not read about you in the paper. BE SAFE! Seems like everytime there is a storm related power outage there are always CO deaths associated with it.

 

[shoeboxlen]

Just a friendly warning to everyone running a genset. PLEASE do not run it anywhere inside your home. Not in the basement, not in the garage, not anywhere inside. All of these things produce carbon monoxide in large amounts and will kill you and your loved ones in very short order. Death by CO poisoning is not a nice way to go. Many times a CO victim will realize to late that something is wrong but be incapacitated to the point that they are unable to do anything about it. You know you are going to die but you are unable to function.

If you find yourself getting groggy, nauseous, getting a headache and you have a generator running even nearby get fresh air immediately and if symptoms persist seek medical help NOW. Make sure the generator is downwind of your house and remember it's better to be cold than dead. I'd rather not read about you in the paper. BE SAFE! Seems like everytime there is a storm related power outage there are always CO deaths associated with it.

great advice we are very careful with our setup outside hook ups!

 

[shoeboxlen]

well power came back online here last night at 12:30 so we are back in business again here. the eko kicked but in conjunction with the generator. I am extremely happy with our investment in the eko

 

[woodmeister]

Welcome to deregulation, we here in the northeast have companies from across the pond buying up our traditional utilitiy companies. They have scaled down staff in an attempt to increase profits but when the s**t hits the fan, like now, they have ,a) less qualified people to do the work and b) management that has no clue how to recover from this type of storm. Sorry to rant but I've been in the business for 25 yrs and it just makes me mad. Our traditional utilities are just as gulity.My advice, buy a generator because this is your future.

 

[Dredknot]

I lost my power for a day.... I was able to run my Biasi with small loads and let the water in the system gravity feed (though it is not recomended). It worked well for me, only had to open a couple of windows to cool things down....
I have been out non stop helping friends and neighbors set up generators to run their oil and outdoor wood boilers though...
Fun fun..

 

[LeonMSPT]

I got to camp and sleep in a tent a few times a year. Deer season vacation I've been camping in the snow, in a ten man squad tent with a red pot bellied stove stuck up through the top of the tent... it's like sleeping in a combination hot dog cooker and freezer... you lay in your sleeping bag on your cot, and roll pretty much like a pig on a spit. One side's hot, one side's cold... on average it's pretty comfortable... Flashlights, lanterns, and candles... no big deal.

Suck it up, really. It's only a few days, and man lived in this planet for many years before electricity and all this other junk. Maybe it will give people a chance to actually talk and spend some time together instead of just gawking at some box with some lights in it in the corner and grunt at each other.

We lost the power this summer while I was in Homer, AK. Neighbors ended up in the backyard sitting around an outdoor fireplace, staring at the fire, contemplating, and drinking wine and eating cheese. I went over, and after a fashion observed that for all history man has sat around a fire. The modernities have replaced fire, with a television set...

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

[MrEd]

Well, we just got power back on after 3 days with none. No water either - and it was COLD last night, about 8 degrees outside, and as low as 40 in the far ends of the house. Couldn't run either boiler with no electric, and while the woodstove kept the temp manageable, it clearly cannot heat this whole house.

I built to fires in the tarm just to heat it up - left the door open and treated it like a wood stove. Got the water temp upto 170 and kept the boiler and near boiler pipes from freezing(it lives in an unheated structure) - good to know you can heat the thing up just to prevent freezeups.

I did manage to get the old generator that was installed in the cellar (and vented outside) running - after 18 hours of no power I figured it was worth messing with, but within in 2 hours of getting it going, the CO was registering 770 PPM in the cellar, and 210PPM upstairs. Apparently anything over 50 PPM is very dangerous.... Seems there is a leak in the exhaust and it was filling the house - so no generator for the past 1.5 days either....I won't use it again until it is moved outside (why the previous owner installed it in the cellar is beyond me).

I urge everyone, if you do not have a CO detector to get one, mine clearly saved my families life.

Lots of things for me to think about before the next storm hits...clearly room for improvement in our emergency preparedness - but glad to be back to normal for now!

 

[LeonMSPT]

"Fortune favors the prepared mind."

Lot's of things to have "around" in case you need them. Living in Maine, and spending lots of time in the woods, I live with and on most of it a few times a year already. It's all lined up and ready to go. It's definitely not as convenient as having power and amenities, but if you've got the basics, you'll be fine.

I'd suggest a hand held pump/filter to make sure you've got plenty of drinking water... get one from Cabella's or Bean's... never be thirsty. I've filtered water from runoff in skidder tire ruts in the woods. I try to never drink "standing water"... and with the filter you get all the giardia and other junk out.

Heat is a definite priority in the northeast or other cold climes. I have the insert upstairs in the living room, and now the wood/coal boiler in the basement... small fire with minimal air supply, gravity feed into the ground floor, I think it would keep things from freezing in all but the most extreme weather. The old wheeled gennie is long gone now, so I'd have to put some plugs on a few essentials and go straight to a portable if I needed it...

 

[Birdman]

Power went out Thursday night at 11:00. I had tarm all loaded up and hot at 10:00. I woke up at 3 am and smoke in the house. I went down to check Tarm and it was hot... about 104 C. and smoke coming out the fan... and of course no elecetricity. I felt the overheat loop... it was cold. I opened up the damper and some basement windows.... it cleared out the smoke. Seems with the damer closed... it was putting out alot of smoke and it was backing up. I was concerned about overheating of the boiler... and couldn't figue out why the gravity loop was not working... anyone have idea's? The gravity loop did begin to work about 10 hours later? I kept checking on boiler hoping it would not get andy higher and then i felt the loop and it was getting warmer... not hot.. but warm. Bubble working its way out? No elecetic for 2 and half days. started the woodstove in basement that i kept for backup. Still people around here without elect. Half my town still has none. Good learning lesson for me. I will have a nice generator this summer and hook it up like my dad does. Hook up to whole house to run everything he needs. Water, heat, fridge a few other thnigs. I am still concerned about smoke issue when elect goes out. I don't need smoke in th ehouse again.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

With the steam my Greenwood produced, I now have yet another reason to be glad the unit is not in the house. I did read about an older couple in ScumNectady that died from Co from a generator.

 

[Justburnit]

We lost power in this part of VT for a few hours. I have an inverter wired in to supply the boiler and solar water system. This was the first outage with the inverter, granted just a flick of the lights as outages go but it was sure nice to have the Solo just keep on burning.

 

[ManiacPD]

We got power back within the day on Friday so I can't complain, but as a '98 Ice Storm survivor I feel for all of you...7 days without power...

I recall everyone saying "we lived for centuries without power so what's the problem?" The problem is our lives are built around it today. With generators it's much better for sure.

And for that hard-to-buy-for person in your life a transfer switch installation makes a great Christmas gift!

Stay warm!

Paul

 

[mass hills]

Got power back today. Eight days still some with out power.

 

[MyOutdoors]

I lost power for 6 days and some people in town are still without power. Worst ice storm I've ever seen. I lost over fifty trees...AKA firewood now. I prewired a generator panel to run my furnace, well pump, water treatment, and living room circuit. Out here you need to have a chainsaw, woodstove and a generator. Thank god I had a full tank of gas in the generator, because I wasn't prepared. I had no xtra gas. I siphoned gas from my lawnmower,snowmobile, ATV, you name it, just to get through the next day. I had 2 nissan vehicles full of fuel but couldn't get gas out of them due to a anti siphone/check valve...lesson learned. I had to drive over 30 miles east once I cut my way out of the town to get fuel. It looks like a bomb went off in mine and surrounding towns. My sequoya kept us warm though.

 

[rowerwet]

I almost bought antifreeze for my maxim, at the last min. I reconsidered and returned it all and got a 3500 watt generator in october ! lost power fri 2 am, got it back tue eve. Had to figure out how to heat the house with out the thermostat on the oil burner. after two days of running the maxim and heating the house with a kerosene heater I pulled the circulator wires out of the aquastat and plugged it in to the generator. When ever the house got over 68 we unplugged the circulator. I found a inline thermostat intended for salamander heaters at HD for $40 now I have a back up thermostat and my circualator is permanently wired with a plug box in the middle of the run from the aquastat.
Be careful where you locate your generator! beside CO, fire is another concern, A neighbor got a new house two new years eves ago when we had a random power outage and the automatic generator, Located outside the house, exploded on start up and the house was burning badly within 15 min. Three fire departments managed to keep the garage from joining the house.
10 people in Farmington, NH were taken to the hospital for CO when they all went to a neighbors house because he had a generator, ... in his open garage door, ... located under the house.

 

[JSJAC]

The Ice storm knocked out power on our street for 7 days. I am glad that we spent the money for a large enough generator to run the well pump. We had a transfer switch installed to run both the wood boiler and oil if needed.The worst part was we were not thinking of cooking and did not get a backup stove due to we have an electric stove .
84 gallons of gas later. We had to drive 24 miles each way to get to a gas station for the first 3 day due to no power in the area. When the power came on the gas station ran out of gas .

 

[2.beans]

im a lineman for PSNH and theres no one home to tend to my stuff. my seton got mad and unsweated the pipes off from the boiler. that sucked! { my inverter battery back up is good for 8 to 9 hours not days.} all is back together and running now. it killed me to burn oil for the past two weeks. i hope this never happens again.

 

[NHFarmer]

2.beans,Thanks for all the work you guys did.I have PSNH and was only out for 24 hours.Just got my cable back on Fri.I had crews from all over in my area for weeks,Quebec,New Brunswick,Tennessee,Conn.,New York,Pennsylvania and Maryland.That is just the crews I saw.And they were working at night and even during the Two snow storms.Hats off to all of you.Thanks again

 

[steviep]

2.beans as a psnh user and as a master electrician and a friend of a couple of your co workers out of Rochester , Thank you for your hard work and long hours you put in. We got power back late Monday afternoon. My only cassulty was my generator threw a rod out the side of the generator.

 

[rowerwet]

just heard on the radio on 12/30 that the last customer to lose power from the ice storm just got it back.
you can still get fuel from your car even if it can't be siphoned. there is a schrader (tire filler looking) valve on the fuel injector rail of most cars so the mechanic can check your fuel pressure. A fuel pressure tester kit, or fittings you find on your own, will allow you to pump fuel out of your car into a gas can. be aware that the fuel will be at 60 psi or higher depending on your engine, wear safety glasses and keep the hose under control, shutting off the car may not stop the pump on some cars imediatly as some have a timer after shut off. REMEMBER gas is Explosive when spilled on a hot engine!