So it finally hit, the ice storm cluster**** of the decade. Virtually every tree has some kind of breakage or damage. Our huge backyard box elder maple tree lost 1/3 of it's branches last night- and I was really proud of it for how well it's stood up to recent [censored] weather in the past 20 years and now she has finally seen major injury.
Might be out of power for a few days at least- not great when it's Winter.
Trees are all broken up, everything is encrusted in 1.5 inches thick of ice.
So I began preparing a little bit last week, namely de-hard wiring the furnace, and installing a plug for a receptacle in case it needs to be plugged into the little 1200W genny. Turns out won't need to since I wired the genny up to the panel (fully disconnected from the mains!!)
Then I got my two group 34D batteries watered up, they're on an old salvaged APC UPS 1400VA unit. What a fine UPS, with the group 34s is got a great run time, puts out pure sine wave and it's got a sensitivity setting so that I can connect the aforementioned 1200W chinese genny to it which can't hold phase or voltage for the life of it- thank goodness for being able to drop sensitivity or it would never accept the gennys output.
So there are 2 TVs, cordless phone, DSL modem, lamps, computer and fish tank equipment connected to the UPS- so they never see power cut, while the genny is connected to the electrical panel on only one of the legs (one hot and neutral) so the fridge etc can work. The genny right now is running/charging the UPS and running the fridge ATM. Not bad for my little cheeze ball setup with a $150 dollar genny, salvaged UPS and the most expensive parts - the two 34 deep cycle batteries.
Infrastructure-wise, the cable amplifiers ran out of juice, so no cable. Soon the DSL Central Office batteries will die and there will be no net
Is anyone out there still connected and dealing with this mess???? How are ya coping??
Might be out of power for a few days at least- not great when it's Winter.
Trees are all broken up, everything is encrusted in 1.5 inches thick of ice.
So I began preparing a little bit last week, namely de-hard wiring the furnace, and installing a plug for a receptacle in case it needs to be plugged into the little 1200W genny. Turns out won't need to since I wired the genny up to the panel (fully disconnected from the mains!!)
Then I got my two group 34D batteries watered up, they're on an old salvaged APC UPS 1400VA unit. What a fine UPS, with the group 34s is got a great run time, puts out pure sine wave and it's got a sensitivity setting so that I can connect the aforementioned 1200W chinese genny to it which can't hold phase or voltage for the life of it- thank goodness for being able to drop sensitivity or it would never accept the gennys output.
So there are 2 TVs, cordless phone, DSL modem, lamps, computer and fish tank equipment connected to the UPS- so they never see power cut, while the genny is connected to the electrical panel on only one of the legs (one hot and neutral) so the fridge etc can work. The genny right now is running/charging the UPS and running the fridge ATM. Not bad for my little cheeze ball setup with a $150 dollar genny, salvaged UPS and the most expensive parts - the two 34 deep cycle batteries.
Infrastructure-wise, the cable amplifiers ran out of juice, so no cable. Soon the DSL Central Office batteries will die and there will be no net
Is anyone out there still connected and dealing with this mess???? How are ya coping??
