Potential ice storm and generators

[tig1]

For you folks living in the path of this upcoming ice storm, are your generators ready to go? Noticed on the Weather Channel that they expect large areas of power failures. Hope all is well for you. Keep us informed as to how you gens perform.

 

[horse123]

Hahahaha, I laugh at people that can't survive without electricity. Fireplace provides food, water, and heat, and unless you always run your kitchen on fumes, you should have enough food for at least a few weeks. Good luck to anyone that needs electricity to stay alive!

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: horse123
Hahahaha, I laugh at people that can't survive without electricity. Fireplace provides food, water, and heat, and unless you always run your kitchen on fumes, you should have enough food for at least a few weeks. Good luck to anyone that needs electricity to stay alive!


I played that no gen game myself and got by, but with a gen, life is much more pleasant.

 

[crazyoildude]

where is this ice storm supposed to hit im in nj and i did not hear anything except here. My generator runs good and kickes on when its needed

 

[AandPDan]

Parts of Cape Cod were out earlier today. I haven't caught an update as I'm sick of the news.

For the most part central MA had a light fluffy snow, not really a big issue for power outages.

My portable generator runs on propane and starts right up with one pull.

 

[mattwithcats]

Just changed the oil on the natural gas powered Generac two weeks ago.

50/50 mix of Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30 and Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy 0W-30...
And a Purolator PL20195 (yellow can)...

Irene, Isabelle, Floyd, Sandy, Juno, etc...

Vibration meter is around 725 total hours...

 

[4wheeldog]

Originally Posted By: horse123
Hahahaha, I laugh at people that can't survive without electricity. Fireplace provides food, water, and heat, and unless you always run your kitchen on fumes, you should have enough food for at least a few weeks. Good luck to anyone that needs electricity to stay alive!


I have gas fired radiant heat. It requires a small pump running to move the water......Which would not be an issue, except if it is cold enough, and the water doesn't pump....The water will freeze in the tubing and bust it. So......Since I do not want to bust tubing cast in concrete, I have a generator.

As long as I have a generator, I might as well not let the food spoil in the 'fridge and the freezer. In for a penny, in for a pound......

Plus, I usually wait quite a while for the power to come on, before I fire up the gennie. What usually happens is, I finally fire the gennie, get everything going like I like.....And the power comes back on. I used to wait overnight. Since I realized that my gennie running causes the power to come on......I haven't been waiting as long. My neighbors without gennies should thank me.

 

[The_Jeff]

I filled up my generator around thanksgiving at the low low price of $3.29 a gallon. I mean, seriously, that was a good deal, right?

 

[horse123]

Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: horse123
Hahahaha, I laugh at people that can't survive without electricity. Fireplace provides food, water, and heat, and unless you always run your kitchen on fumes, you should have enough food for at least a few weeks. Good luck to anyone that needs electricity to stay alive!


I played that no gen game myself and got by, but with a gen, life is much more pleasant.


I see it as more of a challenge than a reason to wuss out and pretend I can't be happy without electricity. But I guess that's just me

 

[georgemiller]

Originally Posted By: horse123
Hahahaha, I laugh at people that can't survive without electricity. Fireplace provides food, water, and heat, and unless you always run your kitchen on fumes, you should have enough food for at least a few weeks. Good luck to anyone that needs electricity to stay alive!


After being without power for 2 weeks after Sandy I vowed it would never happen to me again. I now have 2 generators both tri fuel. Wife and kids would never argue and think it was a waste of money. Lost power for several hours couple weeks ago, it's nice not giving a sh!t if the power goes out and being at their mercy.

 

[kschachn]

Many residential natural fireplaces are negative-energy, especially if there is no electricity to operate the cavity fans. Sure you might be able to live in the immediate radiant area in front of the fireplace but it's not going to be very convenient. Houses of old that were heated by fireplaces had more than one.

Seeing how you live in Minnesota, are you going to tell me that your fireplace will keep pipes from freezing in -20 weather? It sure won't here in Milwaukee.

Originally Posted By: horse123
Hahahaha, I laugh at people that can't survive without electricity. Fireplace provides food, water, and heat, and unless you always run your kitchen on fumes, you should have enough food for at least a few weeks. Good luck to anyone that needs electricity to stay alive!

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
I filled up my generator around thanksgiving at the low low price of $3.29 a gallon. I mean, seriously, that was a good deal, right?

lol...

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: horse123
Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: horse123
Hahahaha, I laugh at people that can't survive without electricity. Fireplace provides food, water, and heat, and unless you always run your kitchen on fumes, you should have enough food for at least a few weeks. Good luck to anyone that needs electricity to stay alive!


I played that no gen game myself and got by, but with a gen, life is much more pleasant.


I see it as more of a challenge than a reason to wuss out and pretend I can't be happy without electricity. But I guess that's just me


I kinda like it when the power goes out. A reset on everything if you will. Seems like everything comes to a stop. But it can be nice without all the noise, lights and drama. But in my case I have no place for a wood stove, and one would probably cost more than just buying a generator. House is already wired for one, and since the temps tonight are going to be cold--it is already minus 2F--going without heat is not a very wise thing. Not with recirculating hot water.

 

[Rand]

So the only thing gas in my house is the furnace, and no fireplace.

Luckily the power goes out very infrequently.

 

[webfors]

Nothing on the forecast for my region. But we're ready... always am. 120 liters of fuel, lots of wood, 60 liters of kerosene, and a years worth of food

 

[Chris142]

I'm in earthquake country.mine are ready to run my well pump and moms oxygen machine.

 

[Lapham3]

Lots of fireplaces built in the last 50 years are pretty efficient-they use outside air for combustion and with internal intake-outtake for circulation plus fans do ok. If they are installed in interior walls, as 10 tons of brick heat up=lots of stored BTUs. Even the modern gas fireplace inserts do well-some as well as your furnace.

 

[SubLGT]

Originally Posted By: horse123
Fireplace provides food, water…………...


That is one amazing fireplace.

 

[Michael_P]

I have been through two power outages lasing longer than two weeks. The first time it was in the summer when a tornado ripped through a power distribution station three miles north of me. I had to throw away $400 worth of food the spoiled in the fridge and the freezer. The next time was in the winter. I had to drain the water out of my water pipes and put the food in the freezer in totes on the deck. While I was sleeping, the coyotes ravaged the totes (never seen a coyote there before) and lost most of my freezer food. The money two power outages cost me could have paid for a generator and a manual transfer switch. My parents had a generator in the blizzard of 1978 and were the only neighbors without a flooded basement.
These days I have a generator and have had one for 10 years. So far. I havent had to use it for a real power outage.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: Michael_P
These days I have a generator and have had one for 10 years. So far. I havent had to use it for a real power outage.


That's how it works, don't you know? When we built our current house 15 years ago, we were repeatedly told by the neighbors about the frequent power outages in this area. They pretty much said that every time it rained hard the electricity would go out for at least a few hours. Since the area is all very sump pump dependent, I took that seriously. During construction we did indeed have several outages, so I bought and installed an automatic standby generator that runs on natural gas.

Just after we got the house built the local utility came through and put in all new wires up our street. Since then I would estimate that in the past 14 years we've had a grand total of 15 minutes of power interruption. Several years ago we had an F1 tornado nearby our house. We were across town at the time, and as we drove into our area everything was dark even the traffic signals. I thought yeah, finally, our generator is of use. But alas as we turned down our street all the lights were on! I literally couldn't believe it. These days about the only time it runs is for the weekly exercise routine.