Gator Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 And looks like Wed may be the earliest it will come back on. Guess I should have bought into the hype and gotten a generator, or at least fixed the one I have, but in the 10yrs I have lived here, I had YET to have had this problem. My biggest concern now is when everything thaws, that I don't have some burst pipes,or that I don't have a tree in the house. I'm gonna try and get out there today and take a look see, and probably disconnect my well so the pump doesn't come on and burn itself up. Anyone know if the pump/pipes would be covered under ins? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okiedog Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 Just got off the phone with Jason. He said the power pole at his house is down. That usually means that you are one of the last ones to get power restored since it is a single residence. Not good news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCH Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 Nope, not good news at all. Tell him he's welcome down here for a few days if he needs it. We didn't get anything. No snow, no ice, just cold weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator Posted January 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 Went to Lowes and found a 5Kw generator, gonna go out tomorrow and get it all hooked up. Trying to decide how I am gonna wire it in. Looking around today, I'm gonna be cuttin wood for AWHILE. Bonfire at my house this spring!!!!! Thanks Kevin. Been stayin with my new boss, he hasn't lost power, but we got ALOT of snow here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LETMGROW Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 No Power We have been through a couple ice storms in recent years. The last major one in 1998 [previously 1991 ] Generators up here are almost a way of life. The '98 storm left some people without power for nearly 6 weeks. We have had some 2-3 day outages since. My main problem is the need for power for my cellar's sump pump system when the power goes out. I have only a short time to get the generator up and running before I have a real mess. A few words of wisdom from experience though. My generator runs through a plug similar to a welder plug which backfeeds the entire electrical panel. The MAIN BREAKER in the panel MUST be OFF to isolate the generator power from the normal incoming lines. Picture this: you are running a generator with the main breaker on. You have just powered up the whole line outside your home. Chances are your generator would fail but maybe not! If you had a line down and broken a short distance away [iE: in front of your home ] you might run the gen. with no problem. NOW along comes the lineman to fix the broken line. He knows the line is dead because the whole trunk is shut down. BUT you have backfed 220 volts into that line without his knowledge. You could very well injure or kill that worker. Heed this message! The last thing I would ever want to see is someone hurt or killed. That is why I am typing this message. If you are using or going to be using a generator to power your home make sure you know what you are doing. If you question anything, contact a qualified electrician. I was a volunteer fireman during the '98 ice storm and experienced some bad situations. One situation was when a generator run home got there power restored and their main breaker was on. Their generator got FRIED! Luckily no one got injured. Just luck. Please be safe and good luck. Lynn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramie Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 That stinks Jason! We dodged the bullet. We had ice but not enough to bring down the power. We did end up with about 6.5" of snow. Sadly I think youll have to replace that pole if it has your meter on it. Ours broke last year and fell on our truck. AEP/PSO said it was our pole and we had to replace it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TigerLily Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 We have enough ice and snow here. We're lucky we still have power, knock on wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator Posted January 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 Plan is to disconnect main feeder lines from the breaker panel before even hooking the generator in. Lucky me, and I don't mean this as sarcasm, but I have built power distribution panels in the past, so I know better. And being as I am the one that has to hook up the feeder lines when the new pole gets set, I don't have to worry about the lines sitting in the breaker panel and getting power applied. My concern about hooking it up is the way the gen is wired, 1 30A and 1 20A circuit. I wanna combine both legs and feed the house with that. I'll have too look at the gen and breaker box to see if I can do this. And I think I just thought of a way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator Posted January 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 That stinks Jason! We dodged the bullet. We had ice but not enough to bring down the power. We did end up with about 6.5" of snow. Sadly I think youll have to replace that pole if it has your meter on it. Ours broke last year and fell on our truck. AEP/PSO said it was our pole and we had to replace it... Glad to see you made it through ok, been wonderin about how ya'll faired OUCH!!!!! Man I hope not!!! I talked to the power company earlier, and they didn't say anything about me having to replace it. I hope that's not case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCH Posted January 31, 2010 Report Share Posted January 31, 2010 Like Jeramie said, if it's the pole your meter is on, then it's yours. But if its the pole with the transformer, they'll have to replace it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun_300 Posted January 31, 2010 Report Share Posted January 31, 2010 That really sucks Jason, hope you get power back soon! At least you have a generator now though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBow Posted January 31, 2010 Report Share Posted January 31, 2010 Gator, Careful when hooking up the 20A and 30A outputs to L1 and L2 in your panel. Each output may well give you 120 VAC, but the two together may not give you 240 VAC. It depends on how the generator is wired. If you hook the 20A output to L1 and then the 30A output to L2, but leave all of your 240A breakers in the ON position in your panel, you could be in a position that might fry your genny if any 240 volt appliances mistakenly get turned on like a stove, dryer or hot water tank. If the genny has a 240 volt output, it's best to use it and only it. And I learned this in the ice storm of '98. If you feed your panel with a generator, tell your family that you don't have unlimited power. When they leave a room, turn off the lights behind them. Don't use high wattage appliances like hair dryers or heating devices. A 5KW generator will run your furnace if it's oil or natural gas, but not electric heat. It'll also run water pumps (120 VAC), some lighting and a few toys like a TV or games to keep the kids entertained, but it will not run all of your electric goodies in the house alltogether. Too much of a load will stall the generator. And here's another tip we learned in the '98 Ice Storm. Portable generators are not continuous duty cycle units. Do not run them for long periods without servicing. They require oil changes frequently when run a lot. Some have oil level switches and will shut themselves off when the oil pressure or level get low. When the oil level is low, some gennys cannot be started. If you're running them alot in a 24 hour period, I'd even suggest an oil change every 24 hours of running. Some have even mentioned the DO NOT BACK FEED out onto the commercial grid. It sounds like you've got that covered. In the '98 Ice Storm we did have some issues here with non-electrical type persons hooking up generators at homes. The utility linesmen were instructed to consider ALL lines as LIVE when servicing even locales that were known to have no commercial power yet. Some of the stories we were hearing here then were just downright scarry. It's a wonder fewer homes weren't burnt down or people electricuted. Good luck TBow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Good news maybe. Went out to house today, and electric coop was in area. Talked to them, and was advised to hook up to meter on my shop and they could energize that line so plan for tomorrow is to tie into it. Hopefully this works Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okiedog Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Tried to call you today to see what was happening.. but I guess you are screening your calls:shifty: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Must have been when I was at the house. Ill be going to Locke supply in the norning for some wire to run from my pole to the shop meter. This should get me by till a new pole is set Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kat Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Tried to call you today to see what was happening.. but I guess you are screening your calls:shifty: Ya I called him three times last week and got no answer. I guess I'm hated for liking the one buck limit idea.....:D:D:D:pop::poke: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Ya I called him three times last week and got no answer. I guess I'm hated for liking the one buck limit idea.....:D:D:D:pop::poke: Its called working, you know, new job got to earn my keep now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kat Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 I haven't worked in so long I forgot that people still do that.....my mistake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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