Is everyone on the north east bracing for the big Nor’Easter Blizard Conditions Sunday Night? - See snow maps

[Burnin Since 1991]

I've got an issue too. I have a garage close to the house, and one of the last owners had put in an emergency 30A panel, and the receptacle is very close to the corner of the garage. Then at the corner of the garage they have a pipe going through. I assume it is for the cord, but then if the generator is in the garage, the venting is questionable. I'd like a generator enclosure, but you need to extend the exhaust. I have two generators too, a 120V one, and 240V.

I have a lean-to off of my shed. The gen is inside. I can run it from there. It is not a "tight" setup as I used picket fence and lattice for the front which is also a gate. I've been using this setup for about 20 years. I watch a guy on you tube that uses a smaller plastic storage shed to house his generator. It is insulated and there is an intake and the exhaust has an extension to exit the enclosure. Even quiets down the generator.

Power is still out at our house on Cape Cod. Eversource says they haven't assigned a crew to fix it yet. The whole area appears to be out. I'm concerned about the pipes freezing. If the power isn't restored soon, I'm going to have to load up my generator and gas and make the 90 mile drive to at least run the boiler to get the house above 50.

I have a good 4wd Toyota Tacoma that will pretty much go anywhere within reason, so I'm not to concerned about getting there or in and out of the property. No snow plow or snow blower there. Only a shovel and 4wd.

We need to prepare that place a little better. Get a generator there and some solar generators to keep the basics running. There isn't anything in the fridge that would be a loss to throw away. I'm dumping the cable company and installing starlink as soon as I can. I already have the antenna. The cable is constantly going out in that area.

Meanwhile, I still have to dig out my driveway and front walk before I can be concerned with anything else. I wasn't too enthusiastic about getting out there last night in the dark.

 

[Whitenuckler]

I have a lean-to off of my shed. The gen is inside. I can run it from there. It is not a "tight" setup as I used picket fence and lattice for the front which is also a gate. I've been using this setup for about 20 years. I watch a guy on you tube that uses a smaller plastic storage shed to house his generator. It is insulated and there is an intake and the exhaust has an extension to exit the enclosure. Even quiets down the generator.

Power is still out at our house on Cape Cod. Eversource says they haven't assigned a crew to fix it yet. The whole area appears to be out. I'm concerned about the pipes freezing. If the power isn't restored soon, I'm going to have to load up my generator and gas and make the 90 mile drive to at least run the boiler to get the house above 50.

I have a good 4wd Toyota Tacoma that will pretty much go anywhere within reason, so I'm not to concerned about getting there or in and out of the property. No snow plow or snow blower there. Only a shovel and 4wd.

We need to prepare that place a little better. Get a generator there and some solar generators to keep the basics running. There isn't anything in the fridge that would be a loss to throw away. I'm dumping the cable company and installing starlink as soon as I can. I already have the antenna. The cable is constantly going out in that area.

Meanwhile, I still have to dig out my driveway and front walk before I can be concerned with anything else. I wasn't too enthusiastic about getting out there last night in the dark.

Oh that' no good. I felt the same way, helpless, when I bought this place but was away and the new internet was no good. I didn't loose power but the basement was flooding from bad sump pump. It would take quite a bit to freeze your pipes...hopefully you get some solar heating.
re Generator shed ect. I have seen those video's also of guys using garden boxes ect for a gen enclosure. I think I will take my exhaust apart and try and make an adapter. I could run it in the garage if I could get the exhaust outside. I suspect someone already tried that as there is some sort of metal pipe going through my wall. It is way too close to the house though, so I would use it only for the power cord.
re the storm I have this one clip of a stuck plow. I know others can't get out of their driveways and say it's too bad for a snowblower. With the high winds we had here there is a lot of drifting.

 

[bigealta]

We got a good amount maybe 16”-20” here on the Jersey shore.

But it”s still a sprinkle compared to 3 years ago in Utah. Here’s a pic from my driveway. And my neighbors driveway out there.
Snow blowers only, have to blow it over the walls. Snow walls are to high for plowing.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I had to go to our family home on the Cape. We haven't had power since 7am on Monday morning. I live 90 miles away NW of Boston. The drive was fine. Almost no traffic. I got off at the exit and it was like driving into a third world country. The main road was barely 2 lanes. In some spots there was 6-12 inches of snow caked onto the road. I saw at least a half dozen electrical crews out working to get the power back on. The outage affecting our families property has about 2500 homes without power. Every where I looked, trees were bent over from the weight of the snow. Many had been cut by the DPW or tree crews to keep them off the roads.

We have a NG Boiler. We have mini splits and we have an NG fireplace. The only thing keeping our pipes from freezing is the NG fireplace. I brought my generator and my solar generator. I was hoping I could hook up the NG Boiler, but it's hard wired into the breaker panel. We don't have a generator connection here, but that needs to happen. I'm making a list of prep upgrades we need to make. My Aferiy P280 2045wh solar generator is running my laptop and the fan for the NG fireplace. I'm using my phone's as a mobile hotspot. We have starlink that we will be setting up soon as the cable is very unreliable, here.

I have lots of led rechargeable lights so, I'm good. I will be baby sitting the house as long as I need to. Me and the dog!

 

[gthomas785]

If you have a junk extension cord around you can cut the plug off and wire that to the boiler circuit to power it from the generator. Remove the wire from the breaker and twist it to the ext cord's hot wire and do the same with neutral. Plug the cord into generator.
This is what I did at my parents house when they lost power for 4 days. Of course if you're not comfortable doing electrical then find someone who is. Just saying it's possible.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

If you have a junk extension cord around you can cut the plug off and wire that to the boiler circuit to power it from the generator. Remove the wire from the breaker and twist it to the ext cord's hot wire and do the same with neutral. Plug the cord into generator.
This is what I did at my parents house when they lost power for 4 days. Of course if you're not comfortable doing electrical then find someone who is. Just saying it's possible.

I'm good with electrical. I will look at that tomorrow. The boiler running is a much better option! I brought 15 gallons in cans and I have at least 15 gallons in my truck, so I could run that boiler a long time on that. I have wire nuts and electrical tape and and at least one junk cord. Thanks for that idea. I will check that out in the morning.

 

[gthomas785]

Cool best of luck.
Goes without saying but I have to say it- make sure whatever you hook to the generator is disconnected from the panel first so you don't zap a lineman. Also it's not always the case but you may have controls or circulators on another circuit that need to be powered as well

 

[bigealta]

You can also just make that connection at the boiler shut off switch at the boiler. No need to go into the panel.
Just untie the switch's feed from the panel, cap that off, and wire in your extension cord from your genny.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

No power this morning. I will shut off the main before I do anything. There are crews working in the area. Yesterday afternoon I saw a half dozen crews nearby. Going into the switch feed would be easier. I will let you guys know how that works out.

 

[Whitenuckler]

I had to go to our family home on the Cape. We haven't had power since 7am on Monday morning. I live 90 miles away NW of Boston. The drive was fine. Almost no traffic. I got off at the exit and it was like driving into a third world country. The main road was barely 2 lanes. In some spots there was 6-12 inches of snow caked onto the road. I saw at least a half dozen electrical crews out working to get the power back on. The outage affecting our families property has about 2500 homes without power. Every where I looked, trees were bent over from the weight of the snow. Many had been cut by the DPW or tree crews to keep them off the roads.

We have a NG Boiler. We have mini splits and we have an NG fireplace. The only thing keeping our pipes from freezing is the NG fireplace. I brought my generator and my solar generator. I was hoping I could hook up the NG Boiler, but it's hard wired into the breaker panel. We don't have a generator connection here, but that needs to happen. I'm making a list of prep upgrades we need to make. My Aferiy P280 2045wh solar generator is running my laptop and the fan for the NG fireplace. I'm using my phone's as a mobile hotspot. We have starlink that we will be setting up soon as the cable is very unreliable, here.

I have lots of led rechargeable lights so, I'm good. I will be baby sitting the house as long as I need to. Me and the dog!

Wow what a trip. I hope you and the dog are keeping warm. re the electrical for the boiler. If it is on it's own breaker in the panel, you can shut that breaker off, and there will be no power on that cable. Then find the junction box where the cable comes into the boiler controls. You could then disconnect the black and white wires (leave the ground on) and get an extension cord to wire back in. I'm sure it would not draw too much, but the nameplate should say. I'm guessing less than 5 amps, so it would be OK for along #14 or #16 gauge cord.

 

[Whitenuckler]

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[Burnin Since 1991]

yikes!

The hack for the boiler worked well. Got it in place around 8am. I couldn't locate the breaker for the boiler. We had the panel replaced last year and the electrician or his helper didn't label all of the breakers. I'm pretty sure they were are properly marked. I should have taken a pic. So I just shutdown the main and wired it in. Unfortunately, I had to backup to the box before the switch to pick up the thermostats but it was easy enough to resolve. Power came back on at 2pm. Thank you, Eversource! My Aferiy P280 2048wh batter backup/ UPS/ solar general carried the load from yesterday from 3:30pm until the power came back at 2. I was charging it with the generator and running the boiler when the power came back on.

I still have to rewire the boiler, but it's been a long 3 days. Tomorrow is another day! I still have to shovel out the driveway and a path to the deck and slider off the driveway. The plows came by a while ago and pushed a pile of frozen nasties into the end of the driveway that's every bit of three feet high.

Plus, (and no offense to the power crews) I'm continuing to monitor the power here. If one line crew boogers up a transformer or shorts a line, it will be Deja-vu all over again!

 

[Dieselhead]

JW how cold the house got with no heat for that long?