Power's out. Now what?

[Vegaman_Dan]

So.... windstorm rolled in and took out a lot of trees in the region. Power has been out for coming up on 24 hours. Temps outside are in the low 40's. Temps inside the house got to 45F overnight. Ended up putting perishables outside on the deck overnight.

Kept thinking the power would be restored quickly, but now we're at a full day and still down. It *should* be on at any minute, but that's like watching a pot for boiling.

I eventually gave up, pulled the main breaker to the utility and wired up a pigtail for my furnace's control and blower. Hooked that up to my noisy genset and got the gas furnace up and running. Figure I'll take the house temp up to 75F and get the core heated up before I disconnect and let it coast overnight. Fridge is also hooked up, and I have enough capacity on this 4K unit to run my home network, home and work computers, so I'm operational.

Still won't run the garage. I need a bigger generator!

I may have to seriously look at the transfer switch ideas I've seen here on the forum. I've got a great RV genset I need to put on a wagon cart with fuel cell, battery, and muffler so I can power it up properly.

In the mean time, I'm entertaining myself with Garage Journal.

 

[bobbycos]

At least you have a generator to keep you powered on through the night

Hopefully your power comes back on soon

 

[pentavolvo]

After a few hours I would have had generator running

 

[G_P]

Lock up the generator when you shut it down for the night. Lots of them were stolen up here after sandy hit. People would watch which houses had lights on and then late at night would come back and steal the generators while they were shut down overnight.

 

[frank_c]

My power was out for about 20 hours during one of the coldest weekends last winter. House was about 70 when it went out, 44 when it came back on.

If I do anything it will be a transfer switch just for the boiler's circulation pump. I'm okay with limited lighting and entertainment.

 

[alfredeneuman]

So...
I eventually gave up, pulled the main breaker to the utility and wired up a pigtail for my furnace's control and blower.

I hope you didn't actually physically pull the main breaker out.
When the power is restored you could be in for a nasty surprise.

 

[larry_g]

Your title brought this song to mind

We have heated and cooked with the wood stove for days at a time, just expect it some years. Have a generator to use on the freezers, well pump, and coffee pot. The rest of the modern electrical stuff can wait.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[pentavolvo]

My generator is just big enough to run furnace, fridge, and a few lights, also can have tv on but that's it. Wanna make coffee wait till furnace cycles off etc. i didn't want to deal with loudness of a 5kw or how thirsty they can be

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

I hope you didn't actually physically pull the main breaker out.
When the power is restored you could be in for a nasty surprise.

Nope. I threw the main breaker. The furnace itself has a physical plug I can move from house power to generator so there's zero chance of feeding back into the system. It's not the prettiest, but it's safe. I would like to go the full transfer setup sometime, but power outages are pretty darn rare.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Of course once I get the house all toasty, everything running right and we're set for the night, the lights across the street come on. I look down the block- drat! Power is back! Now I have to undo all the work. Oh well.

 

[theoldwizard1]

If I do anything it will be a transfer switch just for the boiler's circulation pump. I'm okay with limited lighting and entertainment.

The Reliance TF151W is THE solution !

.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Just go ahead and install an interlock on the main/gen feed breaker in your panel and a inlet connector box outside and then you are set. Only thing is you need to have your breakers well marked so you know what to turn on and what to leave off. An interlock requires a little intelligence to operate it but ones you figure out the process, simply type it out on the word processor and tape it inside the breaker panel door.

This all assumes you have a panel for which you can get an interlock and that you have a main breaker in the panel. If its a main lug panel with the main outside, go ahead and install the main breaker kit in it.

1) Start generator and allow to warm up while getting set up for connection.
2) Trip off main breaker
3) Trip off ALL branch circuit breakers
4) Slide interlock to gen position.
5) Go back outside and connect genny to inlet connector.
6) Go inside and move genny inlet breaker to ON.
7) Close breakers for circuits you need to use, monitoring your loads on each circuit.

Charles

 

[frank_c]

The Reliance TF151W is THE solution !

.

That's been in my Amazon list since the second consecutive weekend without power last winter. Didn't get to it over the summer, hoping I don't regret that.

 

[Highbeam]

Just go ahead and install an interlock on the main/gen feed breaker in your panel and a inlet connector box outside and then you are set. Only thing is you need to have your breakers well marked so you know what to turn on and what to leave off. An interlock requires a little intelligence to operate it but ones you figure out the process, simply type it out on the word processor and tape it inside the breaker panel door.

1) Start generator and allow to warm up while getting set up for connection.
2) Trip off main breaker
3) Trip off ALL branch circuit breakers
4) Slide interlock to gen position.
5) Go back outside and connect genny to inlet connector.
6) Go inside and move genny inlet breaker to ON.
7) Close breakers for circuits you need to use, monitoring your loads on each circuit.

Charles

I have an inerlock on my panel and used it all day on Tuesday until the power came back. I'm up near Buckley and a gap in the cascade foothills so we get regular outages.

I don't quite recommend Charles' steps, here's what I do.

1) Start the genset, plug it in to the outlet on the house.
2) Go to main panel and flip off the two automatic big loads which for me are the water heater and the hot tub. Leave all others on.
3) Flop the main off and generator breaker on.
4) Check the meter on occasion to see if the power is back on. With a smart meter the digital readout indicates power is up.

That's it. I only use the smallest champion 3500 watt 240 generator that I could find and it does great with over 12 hours on a refill. The fridges and freezers cycle as normal, the range works so I can cook on the stovetop, the TV and computers work, and all the light switches work as normal. Just no hot tub or hot water.

Turning on the shop lights was too much for the genset. So I too was looking at larger generators.

 

[sourdough]

Just go ahead and install an interlock on the main/gen feed breaker in your panel and a inlet connector box outside and then you are set. Only thing is you need to have your breakers well marked so you know what to turn on and what to leave off. An interlock requires a little intelligence to operate it but ones you figure out the process, simply type it out on the word processor and tape it inside the breaker panel door.

This all assumes you have a panel for which you can get an interlock and that you have a main breaker in the panel. If its a main lug panel with the main outside, go ahead and install the main breaker kit in it.

1) Start generator and allow to warm up while getting set up for connection.
2) Trip off main breaker
3) Trip off ALL branch circuit breakers
4) Slide interlock to gen position.
5) Go back outside and connect genny to inlet connector.
6) Go inside and move genny inlet breaker to ON.
7) Close breakers for circuits you need to use, monitoring your loads on each circuit.

Charles

^^^^^^ What Charles said!

I have had that type of setup for more than 7 years and it works very well. Just remember load sharing. My unit is 5600W gasoline and the furnace, oven/range, and water heater are propane.

Sorry to hear you had power problems. We are SW of you, had winds only to 25 mph.

Glad your power is back on! It can be a pain to do as Charles recommends but it beats the pants off of being cold and having lots of spoiled food.

Jim

 

[sourdough]

4) Check the meter on occasion to see if the power is back on. With a smart meter the digital readout indicates power is up.

The easiest way to check if the power is on is to look at your nearest neighbor's house if it's dark outside. Another way is a simple cell phone call to a trusted neighbor. We live in a very rural area and have a field of view of more than 1 mile. More than enough to see if the power is back on.

Glad to see you have a smart meter. Very green. How much more per month are you paying vs. a standard meter?

Lewis County PUD told me that a remotely readable "smart" meter would cost me many more dollars per month than the analog meter I have.

Guess what I'm going with?

Jim

 

[Diesel Benz]

A friend of mine in Pacific was in the same boat. At least my part of T-town had no interruption. I built a homebrew version of that Reliance panel for my gas furnace and gas tankless water heater. Mine moves the inlet to a box outside. A little 1kW Yamaha is enough to start the furnace blower and run the water heater. Figures the power has never gone out for long enough to use it since I put it in

 

[pete379]

The Reliance TF151W is THE solution !

.

This is what I did -- honda 2000 inverter generator runs boiler / circulator pump. can run a few lights at same time. Mostly want warm !! I'm near Enumclaw, so Highbeam and I are on the same page !!
pete

 

[Highbeam]

The easiest way to check if the power is on is to look at your nearest neighbor's house if it's dark outside. Another way is a simple cell phone call to a trusted neighbor. We live in a very rural area and have a field of view of more than 1 mile. More than enough to see if the power is back on.

Glad to see you have a smart meter. Very green. How much more per month are you paying vs. a standard meter?

Lewis County PUD told me that a remotely readable "smart" meter would cost me many more dollars per month than the analog meter I have.

Guess what I'm going with?

Jim

Couple things. This power outage was during the day, a very sunny day so neighbor's lights are no help as an indication of grid power. While I can see neighbors in the distance, they are on a different circuit and/or on gensets too. I enjoy one of those dead end runs. The power meter is very easy to check and indicates when power is up.

Smart meters are not an option from PSE (Puget Sound Energy). The power company swapped it without my knowledge and my bill (consumption) actually went down. Seems that analog meter was overcharging me. Believe me, I have no intention of doing anything green unless it saves me green money. There is no cost or incentive to switch to the digital meter. It is now a standard meter.

Pete's from Enumscratch? Howdy neighbor. Lots of folks are still without power up there.

 

[BFBOB]

Your title brought this song to mind

no neat sig line

ARRRGGGHHH!! Now I can't find the even more apropos song, and I can't get it out of my head! Someone help me .. it's a kind of very loose parody of "Rocky Mountain High", and I thought it was titled "Springtime in the Colorado Rockies", but half an hour of youtube searching didn't find anything. The verse I remember goes something like "the dog died 'bout when we ran out of wood / considering we ate him raw he tasted pretty good".

I can't be the only warped personality on this forum. I'm sort of thinking it was on Saturday Night Live, but decades ago, and not at all for sure.

Not much to go on, but it's frozen in my head, probably due to the first round of sub-freezing nights and days this year.

HELP!!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Most POCOs are wholesale converting to smart meters. It is a huge cost savings in not having to read meters. Also more accurate, as old meters tend to slow down, thus not recording all of the power consumed.

Charles