Ever wish you had more snow?

[milkman636]

The last three days have been a steady diet of rain, freezing rain, freezing fog, and ice. Temps have been rock solid in the 31º-32ºF range until they finally started to drop after sundown today.



Our town has three gas stations, one grocery store, two pharmacies, and not one of them had power. All but one of the restaurants are without power and several of the neighbors are on generators too. Branches were still falling as I was cleaning up this afternoon. Thank God that none hit me and we had power throughout this whole event.

This stuff takes about 4 times longer to remove than snow. I miss the snow and 0º temps we had earlier in the week.

 

[Thomas]

I agree,snow better than frozen mess clean up any day...bent trees to cut,tops snap off,more fallen limbs/branches from wind,if lucky enough no damage to home and autos.

 

[Buppies]

Ice is about the worst you can have in winter. Please be careful

 

[milkman636]

Ice is about the worst you can have in winter. Please be careful

Thanks I will, my only injury so far has been pride after I fell on my butt Friday heading out the door for the first time. The good news is that we are back to snow with three inches in the forecast.

I agree,snow better than frozen mess clean up any day...bent trees to cut,tops snap off,more fallen limbs/branches from wind,if lucky enough no damage to home and autos.

Had a couple more branches drop over last night. The tip of one was just touching the front passenger side of the car. Fortunately no damge.

The McDonalds is back open with a rented generator that is costing them $5000 for 3 days. One gas station has power and it was lined up out into the road this morning. My neighbor is still without power so he came over for coffee and breakfast and gave me an update.

 

[milkman636]

Well the three inches predicted turned out to be only one, and power finally came back on for almost all the businesses today. I can see more houses lit up around the neighborhood tonight as well. Things are looking up.

I was at my neighbors hooking my generator up to give his furnace a run when his power came back on. I was in the panel with a tic tester verifying the back feed from his outdoor plug and just happen to check the mains and got a tic. I had just broke the main and shut of all the loads 5 minutes earlier before going back out to the truck to start the generator. He suggested that I start going door-to-door to see if the generator would continue to produce such miraculous results.

After I got back home my wife called some other friends that live about 20 minutes away to see if they were still without power and needed a visit from the generator after we had dinner. They called back 20 minutes later and said their power came back on shortly after we called. We're starting to think we have a real good generator. Seems like just threatening to use it was curing power failures today.

My neighbor was at our house having dinner again tonight and said I seriously should consider charging for this service.:laughing:

 

[tcreeley]

Some years ago I got a generator for days the power was out- generator wouldn't start and I gave up on it. But before I reached that point I re-arranged my panel so that when I plug the generator in out in the shed that has a 100 amp feed, I can run 1/2 my panel in the house.
We heat with wood, so I set it to run the water pump, refrigerator and some lights. Even get internet!
I bought a new generator this summer and have been using it the past two days. I can check to see if the power is back by flipping the 100 amp feed off and switching on the main breaker. If there is power I walk out and turn off the generator, if not, I just flip two breakers, and run off the generator.
Walking with a cane I appreciate every step I save, especially through snow.

 

[jgayman]

I can check to see if the power is back by flipping the 100 amp feed off and switching on the main breaker. If there is power I walk out and turn off the generator, if not, I just flip two breakers, and run off the generator.

You need one of these handy devices. I use one with my generator and it works great.

Reliance Controls PowerBack Utility Power Return Alert-THP108 at The Home Depot

 

[milkman636]

You need one of these handy devices. I use one with my generator and it works great.

Reliance Controls PowerBack Utility Power Return Alert-THP108 at The Home Depot

That seems like a good idea. I don't have a transfer switch though, just a normal service panel. I shut the mains off and back feed from the 100A sub-panel in my barn through a dedicated two-pole 30A breaker with a twist-lock plug attached. The generator sits inside the back door of the barn and out of the weather that way. For my neighbors connection I had to be creative because he isn't prepped at all for generator.

 

[jgayman]

I don't have a transfer switch either, just an approved mechanical interlock. You simply wrap the sense wire around the main feed in your service panel and it will chirp like a smoke detector whenever power is sensed on the feed wires. It is especially great for power outages during daylight hours. I've used it for 3-4 power outages and it works 100% of the time to get our attention that power has been restored.

 

[dave1949]

Our cable modem lights are pretty good at indicating when power is restored. The cable system is always down when power is out, it needs power too.

 

[Pete6114]

Several deaths been reported on the news in ontario about people using BBQ's and generators in garages during the currant huge ice-related power outage.

 

[milkman636]

I don't have a transfer switch either, just an approved mechanical interlock. You simply wrap the sense wire around the main feed in your service panel and it will chirp like a smoke detector whenever power is sensed on the feed wires. It is especially great for power outages during daylight hours. I've used it for 3-4 power outages and it works 100% of the time to get our attention that power has been restored.

Cool, thanks for explaining it more. With all the activity of this week I haven't had much time to research things. I'll probably be picking one of those up be toward the end of the week.

With 7 young kids and a wife that's 7 months pregnant, this weeks events have me thinking about dealing more efficiently with any surprises winter can dish out. Overall I think I did good but there is always room for improvement. There were lots of people scrambling around trying to find what they needed after the fact.

 

[wmonroe]

I'm disappointed we haven't had more snow so far, hopefully some big storms are coming. If you can't tell, I love winter.

 

[milkman636]

I'm disappointed we haven't had more snow so far, hopefully some big storms are coming. If you can't tell, I love winter.

We've had plenty of it this year so far. We had about two more inches of snow on the ground yesterday morning, another light coating when I woke up this morning, and all the ice still on the trees and power lines. The sun showed up this afternoon and temps broke above freezing for the first time this week. Driving home from work tonight the ice was falling off tree branches and randomly pelting the roof and hood of the car.

As an extra bonus, Consumers Power showed up at my house with 4 boom truck yesterday evening and drove back to my woods along their right of way. Three phase lines come up out of my woods and feed the road that I live on. The middle line was down just inside my woods and still energized. The fuse was iced over so heavily that it couldn't break open to shut the line off. That was just inside my woods about 10 yards beyond where I stop mowing at the back of the yard. So I've had a live 14.400 volt powerline laying there since around 2 AM on Sunday morning. We were very fortunate that our transformer does not use that leg, and the two-hour outage we had yesterday while they pulled the line back up was the first one we experienced during all this. They were still working to restore power at a couple of house about 1/4 mile down the road when I came home tonight.

We've been keeping the kids cooped up inside for a week now because of hazards like these down lines, falling tree branches, and falling ice. So we really need to get back above freezing for a day or two to get the ice melted off the high stuff.

 

[wmonroe]

I'm not envious of the ice you have, it ends up just being destructive and very dangerous. Here's hoping you can thaw out a little to get back to normal.

 

[4shorts]

I'm disappointed we haven't had more snow so far, hopefully some big storms are coming. If you can't tell, I love winter.

Like most things in life to much of anything is not good. We are having records amounts of snow for December. So much in fact yesterday I had to start shovelling off the roofs of our buildings. We get snow then rain and that makes for some miserable weather. This year I prepared for any power outages with a new generator and custom built generator shelter but this amount of snow is something else. I pity the folks that don't have the equipment to help move it.

 

[Thomas]

I don't long for those days,shoveling the roof off before shoveling walks..but its a part of winter chores.

Always amaze me how some will let the snow build up on roofs than all of sudden they push panic button.

 

[4shorts]

I don't long for those days,shoveling the roof off before shoveling walks..but its a part of winter chores.

Always amaze me how some will let the snow build up on roofs than all of sudden they push panic button.

What you see in those photos are the result of 9 days of snow. I bet I'm the only one who have bothered to shovel off their roofs. We are known for drastic climate changes so I didn't want the rains to come with all that snow on the roofs :shocked:

 

[milkman636]

Like most things in life to much of anything is not good. We are having records amounts of snow for December. So much in fact yesterday I had to start shovelling off the roofs of our buildings. We get snow then rain and that makes for some miserable weather. This year I prepared for any power outages with a new generator and custom built generator shelter but this amount of snow is something else. I pity the folks that don't have the equipment to help move it.

So how does that enclosure work? It looks like it has an air intake on the side. Is there an exhaust outlet also? How did you tie it back to your panel?

 

[milkman636]

I'd still trade you Paul. but I know what you are saying about getting the snow handled asap. Michigan gets it share of freeze/thaw weather also. When the snow gets wet it gets real heavy, and if it refreezes afterward...........well, I don't even care to think about that right now.