4th day with no power

[NoTrespassing]

Last Thursday afternoon we got hit with 80 mph straight line winds here in Central Illinois. Power went out about 1:30 pm. Reports claim over 1200 poles damaged or destroyed. Power is still out for over 50,000 as of today. This is the first time in 23 years of living here that power has been off for more than 12 hours. We've been given false estimates of restoration twice now. Power was supposed to be restored yesterday at 12:15 pm. That came and went. Then an estimate of 12:15 am for this morning didn't happen as well. Apologies were issued after both failures. Luckily we have a small generator for phone charging, freezer, and fridge. We have no water other than bottled, pool, and rain collected. Fun times! Now it's just a waiting game.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I know what you're going through. We had a 7 day outage after hurricane Sandy in 2012. We only had a 750 watt Honda genny which we used for charging cell phones, TV, lights & computer. No water A/C, cooking or refrigeration. We had to siphon gas from our 3 vehicles since no nearby stations were pumping. Showered at a relatives place 45 minutes away. It got old very quickly.

After that incident, I bought a 12KW PTO generator powered by my Kubota. I fuel the tractor from my 1000 gal heating oil tank which would last a month if necessary. Only used it twice for short outages since.

 

[Tinhack]

Yep. I know power outages hurt really bad. I feel your pain. I'm not sure which is worse--The record heat of summer or the record cold of winter. For me, the outage occurred during a record low-temp freeze. I was burning candles to keep warm in an all-electric home. We couldn't even buy propane to run a stove or gas for the car since everybody was out. A week of that was grueling. I bet a lot of babies were made during that outage. Ya gotta stay worm somehow.

 

[NoTrespassing]

We have a nice Weber propane with side burner for our cooking needs. My wife even bakes in it. She was raised without plumbing or hot water so she's handling it easily. We had a brief downpour yesterday and my wife, son and I took a shower under a gutter downspout. No neighbors can see our house, we're very isolated. We're also washing dishes with rain water.

 

[Richard]

son and I took a shower under a gutter downspout.

Heh, that brings back a memory.

Call it 25 years ago when we were building. Shell of the house was done, (no indoor showers yet) and had the well hooked up... it was roasting hot/humid....I was dirty as can be. Needed to take a shower so what did I do?

Being resourceful, I simply hooked the hose to the outdoor bib and created a shower outdoors (we also are VERY isolated and in the woods and, this was behind the house so only the squirrels were laughing at me)

Proceeded to start taking a shower when it hit me.

Well water can be C.O.L.D. It was all I could do to stand in this water without my breath being taken away from how cold it was.

I finally resorted to jumping in/out of the water stream instead of just staying in it.

Meanwhile, camera cuts to the squirrels who were rolling on their backs belly laughing at me.

 

[LouNY]

Long duration power outages can be difficult to handle. We have them too often, but being rural and a bit self sufficent we can handle them much better then the folks in town who are so used to never having interruptions that last more then a couple of minutes. We have been over a week several times in the winter, makes you appreciate fuel and generators.

 

[5030]

Why we have a 27KW diesel powered emergency genset and auto transfer switch. 45 seconds after utility drop out, we are back online with everything electrically powered. Sure it's expensive to run but light years better than no utility power. You never have any idea how bad it can be until you don't have it.

I would never own a pto driven backup gen set.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Yep. I know power outages hurt really bad. I feel your pain. I'm not sure which is worse--The record heat of summer or the record cold of winter. For me, the outage occurred during a record low-temp freeze. I was burning candles to keep warm in an all-electric home. We couldn't even buy propane to run a stove or gas for the car since everybody was out. A week of that was grueling. I bet a lot of babies were made during that outage. Ya gotta stay worm somehow.

May be funny, but there is some truth there.
The year I was born there was an extreme cold front in January with lots of snow on the ground, weather data records confirmed this.
We had annual birthday parties for the 5 of us that were born in September of that year. My first grade class had a total of 5 students, now LOL!

 

[Peter 315]

Why we have a 27KW diesel powered emergency genset and auto transfer switch. 45 seconds after utility drop out, we are back online with everything electrically powered. Sure it's expensive to run but light years better than no utility power. You never have any idea how bad it can be until you don't have it.

I would never own a pto driven backup gen set.

A pto gen set is better then sitting in the dark...

 

[LouNY]

Why we have a 27KW diesel powered emergency genset and auto transfer switch. 45 seconds after utility drop out, we are back online with everything electrically powered. Sure it's expensive to run but light years better than no utility power. You never have any idea how bad it can be until you don't have it.

I would never own a pto driven backup gen set.

I prefer my pto generator and lots of choice of tractors to run it with. Over 25 years of use and still ready to produce power.

 

[5030]

A pto gen set is better then sitting in the dark...

I agree with that but not a ton better. A pto powered genset still has to be hooked up to the tractor and the safest way is powered through a vacuum breaker transfer switch, hard wired into the house mains, something I would bet most owners of them never consider. Of course you have to keep fueling the tractor and keeping an eye on fluid levels too. My unit draws directly from my diesel bulk tank and has auto shutdown in case of low fluid levels, something I've never had to deal with. The JD turbo diesel engine uses no oil and the liquid cooling system is tight with no leaks. Sure it has to be maintained but so does a tractor.

 

[5030]

I prefer my pto generator and lots of choice of tractors to run it with. Over 25 years of use and still ready to produce power.

Do you do the 'extension cord' thing or do you have a dedicated transfer switch? I have choices in tractors as well (as you know), but I prefer the standby especially for my wife if I'm not home which was the case prior to retirement.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I know what you're going through. We had a 7 day outage after hurricane Sandy in 2012. We only had a 750 watt Honda genny which we used for charging cell phones, TV, lights & computer. No water A/C, cooking or refrigeration. We had to siphon gas from our 3 vehicles since no nearby stations were pumping. Showered at a relatives place 45 minutes away. It got old very quickly.

After that incident, I bought a 12KW PTO generator powered by my Kubota. I fuel the tractor from my 1000 gal heating oil tank which would last a month if necessary. Only used it twice for short outages since.

Here's another trick I used during that 7 day outage to supplement our tiny Honda genny:

The local Home depot was open and running on generator power but there wasn't a battery, propane lantern or flashlight to be had. I went to the outdoor lighting section and bought a dozen solar powered walkway lights. I set them outside to charge during the day and brought them in for room lighting at night.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Here's another trick I used during that 7 day outage to supplement our tiny Honda genny:

The local Home depot was open and running on generator power but there wasn't a battery, propane lantern or flashlight to be had. I went to the outdoor lighting section and bought a dozen solar powered walkway lights. I set them outside to charge during the day and brought them in for room lighting at night.

Just curious, do the solar walkway lights have an off/on switch?

 

[5030]

Should have. I know all that my wife buys (she's into solar lights) have a slide switch on them.

 

[Jstpssng]

I agree with that but not a ton better. A pto powered genset still has to be hooked up to the tractor and the safest way is powered through a vacuum breaker transfer switch, hard wired into the house mains, something I would bet most owners of them never consider. Of course you have to keep fueling the tractor and keeping an eye on fluid levels too. My unit draws directly from my diesel bulk tank and has auto shutdown in case of low fluid levels, something I've never had to deal with. The JD turbo diesel engine uses no oil and the liquid cooling system is tight with no leaks. Sure it has to be maintained but so does a tractor.

In the 20 years I've been here my power has been out for more than 20 hours exactly once, and that was about 6 months ago. I don't need instant power if it does go out, nor do I need it to run 24/7. A PTO generator makes more sense for my needs, and I plan to pick one up before winter. To me it's just swapping out another implement, something I do on a regular basis.

I do also have a manual transfer switch; again, that's all that I really need.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

We too had the most lengthy outage we have ever encountered. I bought a 3500w inverter.

It will power the fridge, freezers, fans, chargers, etc. It was liveable. The air fryer will run, and I have a gravity fed charcoal smoker to boot. It was like camping, but much more comfortable.

We have an 86 gallon pressure tank for the well, so we had toilets working at all times.

Eventually I'd like to have a whole home unit, probably at the next property we build. For now, keeping food fresh and cooking it will suffice. It's actually sort of nice not to have every other distraction.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Just curious, do the solar walkway lights have an off/on switch?

No, you just twist the cap off and remove the battery.

 

[LouNY]

Do you do the 'extension cord' thing or do you have a dedicated transfer switch? I have choices in tractors as well (as you know), but I prefer the standby especially for my wife if I'm not home which was the case prior to retirement.

Cord from the generator transfer breaker to the generator.
It's not hard to hook up, the hardest part is backing up the generator trailer.
My wife can do the transfer if needed. When a winter storm is forecast I will often back it up and connect it, then plug in the tractor and let her set ready to go.
It does not have an auto start, which would be nice but when I got the generator I paid less then $2000 for the 25KW unit.
I can get dressed and go outside for the difference in that and an auto standby unit. I have considered a standby unit but $$$$$
makes me decide to keep the pto unit.
Plus, there have been a couple of times that I loaned out the generator when I didn't need it. And it is a portable 25KW unit.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

No, you just twist the cap off and remove the battery.

Easy enough, I like your solar "flashlight" idea. Or for that matter anything where someone thinks outside the box to accomplish something!