4th day with no power

[Jstpssng]

The saga has ended for now. We have power! A lineman from Virginia dropped by and checked out our incoming line about 2 hours ago. He claimed no one have even inspected our circuit yet. He said if his crew didn't find any other major damage we would be up today and 2 hours later we were. I've heard there are about 2000 out of state linemen in Illinois right now. He thought it was closer to 3000.

Good deal!!

 

[Dftodd]

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.

I always try to have some backup heat source. In our last house we had a fireplace. I installed a wood burning insert in the fireplace to keep the heat in, instead of going up the chimney.

Insert didn't give off much eat unless it was plugged in so the blower fans were running.

I kept a little 3500 watt generator at the house. If power went out, I would fire up the generator. Run an extension cord to the fire place insert and fire it up.

We lost power during a really cold snap. Got home and the house was 50° inside. Teo hours later when my wife got home, the house was 80° in the living room and comfortable in the bedrooms as long as the door was left open.

When we build our new place, I'm planning on a pellet stove for supplemental heat. I'll also have the place wired for a generator hookup. It's cheaper for the wiring to be installed up front then added later.

I've been considering going with a gas stove as well.

 

[5030]

In the last decade we have not burned one cubic foot of propane or NG or used large amounts of electricity either. We heat the house and shop with biomass stoves, running off grade field corn that is free for me.

 

[Thomas]

If had to happen this time of year good time, compare 5 days with no power due from ice storm 11 years ago for us.

 

[Joel/ak]

We have a 12 kw portable. It's loud but it works. Plug it into the house, throw the breaker on the main and we are good.

 

[Semper Paratus]

Hurricane Isabelle. 9/2003, left us without power for 12 + days. None of the immediate neighbors had gennies so we suffered. First few days was stuff out of the freezer on the BBQ grill. After that it was wait in store lines where there was power for some form of protein buy enough to feed 4-6 cook and dispose. Had a Coleman two burner gas stove for eggs or pots. One of the neighbors had a pilot fired gas hot water heater so every 3 or 4 days a 3 minute shower. Fortunately we had water and sewage during the time but boy was it hot. Needless to say by the next hurricane season I had a 5500 watt gas portable generator. By the time Hurricane Irene rolled through in August 2011 I had only run the generator on test runs. But now I had the capacity, with 3-4 hours of run time a day for 7 or 8 days to keep a couple of fridges and a freezer cold enough to not loose any food. I was also able to keep the Colonel's freezer and fridge cold while I cut the 24" diameter red oak off of his house. He had a gas hotwater heater and we were welcome for showers.
The new build is on a well so we will have to have a bit more power capacity, so it will have a transfer switch as a minimum....

 

[i7win7]

Survived my 4 day power outage using ECOFLOW equipment. Delta Pro, Delta Pro extra battery, Smart gas generator (recharges 48v batteries with DC power) and 1200w solar array. This equipment ran a window A/C, TV, Ice Maker and microwave. Used the Delta Pro to recharge smaller Delta 2's to run fridge, another TV and internet equipment. Best thing was only needing 2 gal of gas/day for an almost normal life style.

Lighting used rechargeable LED lights. All delta units could recharge usb gadgets.

Somewhat impressed with this rechargeable solar light, works good, hard to turn off.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BZD3C2FD

 

[oosik]

I've been out here since '82. We had one outage - about twenty years ago - 28 hours. Otherwise there is ALWAYS two planned outages every year. Eight hours each time. Allows the utility to complete maintenance tasks.

Consistent maintenance will result in very few unplanned events.

 

[Oaktree]

The saga has ended for now. We have power! A lineman from Virginia dropped by and checked out our incoming line about 2 hours ago. He claimed no one have even inspected our circuit yet. He said if his crew didn't find any other major damage we would be up today and 2 hours later we were. I've heard there are about 2000 out of state linemen in Illinois right now. He thought it was closer to 3000.

Maybe a dumb question, but how do the out of state linemen, who obviously aren't familiar with the area know how the local grid is laid out? It would seem they'd need to do a lot of scouting around to find where the breakers/fuses or line interrupters are located to de-energize/energize a section of line.

 

[Oaktree]

I've been out here since '82. We had one outage - about twenty years ago - 28 hours. Otherwise there is ALWAYS two planned outages every year. Eight hours each time. Allows the utility to complete maintenance tasks.

Consistent maintenance will result if very few unplanned events.

Planned outages are rare around here, and I don't think ever run as long as the ones you get. The electric company here (Eversource) is quite proactive about tree trimming along the lines. That work is subbed out, but it seems the subcontractor (Asplundt) is always in the area somewhere.
Last time they did a major trim on my road I had them dump a load of chippings that I spread on an area of my property that had erosion problems.