Longest power outage?

[3930dave]

About a day and a half here, that August roughly 8 years ago, with the good sized NE blackout (generator station fire I think was what initiated it....).

Ran my smaller gen (2500w) occasionally in that blackout, to keep the fridge and freezer maintained. Winter is easier for food storage, but can make heat this far north dangerous (overheated decorative fireplaces that aren't maintained, CO poisoning, etc).

That small gen was bought in '98, for that big ice storm. We were OK here, but I bought it here and delivered it to relatives in Ottawa. They were out for over a week - no fun at -40. That gen kept an old school Nat Gas furnace running, probably 10-12 hours per day - ran a few other light loads too up there, but that was it's Job One.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

When we first bought our house, that winter we had 7 days out (last on the line to get fixed). It was a freak ice storm and the area was hard hit. That summer we bought a generator. And then the county buried our power lines. Thus, the generator (A 5k put put) has really never seen use. I am afraid to sell it but it really is just sitting there in the way.

Sell it, and you'll see massive power outages.

Keep it (happily maintained) and power will stay up 24 x 7 x AsLongAsYouLiveThere.

Ol' Murph guarantees it (... The Law one, not the TBN poster ).

Rgds, D.

 

[tcartwri]

14 days during the ice storm. Quickly realised how useless most people are in the face of some hardship.

I vividly remember the instant the power came back on because the neighbour had left all of his Xmas lights plugged in... It was like the scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when Clark finally gets his lights sorted out.. Lol

 

[dragoneggs]

14 days during the ice storm. Quickly realised how useless most people are in the face of some hardship.

Ain't that the truth!

 

[tcartwri]

Ain't that the truth!

It was disgusting actually.

 

[dragoneggs]

Extended power outages do a great job of exposing those who are truly good people, the helpless (some not of their fault obviously), and those that are a cancer to society.

 

[MossRoad]

It was disgusting actually.

They ran out of beer, didn't they...

 

[tcartwri]

Insurance fraud, theft, able bodied young men standing around in the shelters, and on and on.

 

[3930dave]

Insurance fraud, theft, able bodied young men standing around in the shelters, and on and on.

Darwin would have understood.

I remember well one report from '98 - FD had to drag everybody out of a house one night. The home owner had hauled his big propane bbq inside, flipped up the lid, ran both burners on Max - and went to bed !

People like that have to be in shelters at times like this, as they are lethal if left unsupervised.

Rgds, D.

 

[s219]

I remember after Hurricane Irene hit a few years ago, spending the day cutting trees for miles to get upriver to a bridge, cross it, cut trees to get downriver on the other side, and then get over to my mother in laws to help her get a tree off her house (where my antique chainsaw finally quit, BTW -- which is one reason I got all new saws and carry 2-3 with me when the going gets tough). There were a lot of helpless slugs standing around doing nothing while me and national guard crews worked our butts off to get the roads open. There were a few rednecks out helping too, which was a combination of entertainment and fright. That's the first time I've seen a redneck in nothing but cutoff shorts and flip flops run a big saw, on a tree that had to be 40" across. He had to undercut it because of the loading on the tree, and held that big saw for minutes while making the upward cut. It was a sight to see.

 

[caver]

4 days during the ice storm of 2009 and I live just over a mile from our city power plant.....yep it was that bad.

 

[tallyho8]

Luckily when we had our power outage after Hurricane Betsy in September 1965 it didn't affect us much. We didn't have any air conditioning at that time so we didn't miss it.

We had 3 old Servel natural gas refrigerators that kept working and kept our stuff cold plus that of many of our neighbors who knew we had gas refrigerators.

We had a bunch of old kerosene lanterns to give us light at night and we didn't miss the TV because it was so warm that most people were outside to cool off and we spent our time getting to know our neighbors and at people's BBQs because many were cooking everything they had before it went bad.

Things were completely different after Katrina because by then we became so electricity dependent that we couldn't do without it and we spent most of our time hooking up our generators and searching for gasoline supplies to fuel them.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Couple years ago I lost power for just over three days. We has a pretty big snow storm and a lot of trees lost branches, taking out power lines. I didn't have a wood stove then, but I do now!!!! Small Honda generator will give me enough power to have a few lights on and either the TV or the computer and charge my phone. We don't really need much more to get through the evening.

Eddie

Yep, 19th century tech will get you by just fine in a power outage. Just have backup infrastructure that was designed before power lines. Wood heat, oil lamps (Aladdin lamps are as bright as incandescent bulbs) and gravity feed water. The comfort level of your home will not change during an outage, as long as you don't live where AC is mandatory. :thumbsup:

 

[Baby Grand]

Since we bought the generator about 18 years ago.... 4 hours! :laughing:

Hey, for you folks with larger generators... any of you figure out how much those multi-day outages cost you in fuel? Just curious. Thanks. :thumbsup:

I think we ran through 30 gallons in 6 days, so approximately $120.
It kept our chest freezer working, which had a half a hog and all of the vegetables that my dear wife had grown and vacuum packed, so it was a bargain.

 

[MAN IN BLACK]

During the 1998 Ice Storm...24 straight days.
Had 4 tractors & 4 generators running to keep the poultry farm in operation.
Hope to never relive this again.
I now have 1 big standby generator 125KW with engine and auto transfer switch in a 12x14 electrical shed

 

[300UGUY]

During the 1998 Ice Storm...24 straight days.
Had 4 tractors & 4 generators running to keep the poultry farm in operation.
Hope to never relive this again.
I now have 1 big standby generator 125KW with engine and auto transfer switch in a 12x14 electrical shed

You win 1st prize in the biggest genset category!

Just curious, how many birds?

 

[300UGUY]

I think we ran through 30 gallons in 6 days, so approximately $120.
It kept our chest freezer working, which had a half a hog and all of the vegetables that my dear wife had grown and vacuum packed, so it was a bargain.

I used up about 400 gallons of propane over 7 days. Really a pain, it was very cold at the same time, so the furnace was working ot also.

 

[TomSeller]

Haven't had a power outage since I bought a generator 4 years ago. I start it up regularly "just in case"

 

[dragoneggs]

I used up about 400 gallons of propane over 7 days. Really a pain, it was very cold at the same time, so the furnace was working ot also.

Wow that is a lot of propane. Do propane generators burn a lot more fuel than gas?

 

[MAN IN BLACK]

You win 1st prize in the biggest genset category!

Just curious, how many birds?

35 000 layers in 3 different barns
20 000 replacement birds in the fourth & the house