first damage-finally

[WA1GFZ]

I was thinking during the drive north last night that it would be nice to have a cold beer. I was just going over the kitchen looking for a snack and XYL mentions. "do you know there is a beer in the back of the fridge" NOOO break that baby out, left over from spring deerfield. AH....

[WA3VJB]

 I found that a big piece of cheese had been sucked in and jammed the impeller.

Frank you will be hearing from a lobby that represents hungry mice.  

Seriously, nice catch twice, keeping the house afloat for power, and avoiding a flood from jammed cheese.
Power remains out here.  On the second tank of gas for the generator. Pam's off from school today because of infrastructure problems throughout the county, so she will be home and monitoring power.

Looks like we get about 14 hours from a tank with an average load. About the same as Tom/KLR on that Coleman. I cycle the water heater on and off, but everything else is normal. Haven't tried to run the dryer like Chris/AJ1G, that might be a  bit much.

Frank/GFZ -- I know what you're sayin' about a cold bee-ah,  refrigerators all running hi hi FB OM, see proof --

[The Slab Bacon]

"  I found that a big piece of cheese had been sucked in and jammed the impeller. "
I would have thought it would be an eggplant.
klc

Kevin, had it been eggplant, I would prolly have been frying it    

[WA1GFZ]

Frank,
You need a spare sump pump new in the box. Imagine the shack if you could not get it going.

[The Slab Bacon]

Frank,
You need a spare sump pump new in the box. Imagine the shack if you could not get it going.

Frank,
         The YL and myself both said the exact thing at the same time, word for word! ! !
It wouldn't be the first time that I have bailed the basement with a bucket......

As soon as Dumpo getz them back in stock, I WILL have one sitting on the shelf! ! ! ! !
(Then ,you watch, the old one will last for 10 years!)


I have done this before!! I replaced the battery in my '99 Ranger just for reliability sake in 2006. The battery whorehouse battery that I bought, lasted exactly 5 years (almost to the day!) The original Ford '99 battery is still going strong!! Go figger that one!

[WA1GFZ]

Yea but in 10 years you will be happy you invested in a spare as you drag your buzzard A$$ downstairs.
The 2003 Mercury GM my Dad gave me also still has the OEM battery. I was thinking the same thing. Only 42K miles though.

[KB2WIG]

The batt in my '94 ford Ranger lasted 12 years.  Nice truck, but didn't run well after I rolled it.


klc

[Ralph W3GL]

Dave,

Not that I can notice latterly but it might have sunk an inch or two
as that concrete pad it sets on just will not float in the mud...

Actually, there's  so much junk in there that it would take a 150mph
or so gust to move it.

I haven't looked to see if the R-7 survived that is attached to the side...
Amazing how much you can squeeze into a 12 x 16 foot box...
 

[W2VW]

R. Sounds like you did OK.
Power still out here.
Honda genset from early 80s still running strong. Gets 11 hours/tank.

Dave,

Not that I can notice latterly but it might have sunk an inch or two
as that concrete pad it sets on just will not float in the mud...

Actually, there's  so much junk in there that it would take a 150mph
or so gust to move it.

I haven't looked to see if the R-7 survived that is attached to the side...
Amazing how much you can squeeze into a 12 x 16 foot box...
 

[WA3VJB]

Tuesday afternoon -- power still out at home too.
School's closed.

Generator's doing well. Burned maybe a half a thimble of oil since 7A Sunday, stopping only to refuel. Running synthetic oil and a good filter too.

One thing I did catch was loose wires on the power cable.

Vibration shook loose the hold down compression screws inside the twist-lock 30A 240VAC plug.  Now tighten them each time while I'm waiting for refill tank to drain into the generator's tank.

[W1RKW]

day 3 with no utility power.  Running on generator. Beer is still cold.  Truck crapped out today to add to the stress level.  Head gasket let go on the way to work.  Got the yard cleaned up about 80%. Got  a couple of limbs to cut but otherwise in good  shape.  Judging from the damage around town and the priorities of the power company I don't expect we'll be online with utility power for another few days.  Gone through 15 gallons of fuel so far. Started turning off the generator  and running it only when needed.  Wife knows how to setup and start it.  Gonna sell it and get a standby system. Want something much quieter.  Screw this crap.  I get clean radio when power is down but background noise ruins it. It's coming up on 830P. Time to power down.  Neighbors must dislike me especially when I can run 80% of the house including water. Made noise baffles to mitigate noise. Oh well, pardon the pun. I start up the generator at 430A to shower and start the day.  Next blog, tomorrow.

[WA3VJB]

AC Mains came back tonight !!!

Generator ran continuously except for 20min refuelings since 7A Sunday, and except for that minor cable issue (that I caught in time), the setup was flawless.

Bob where do you aim the noise?  Maybe relocate to a less exposed side of the house?  I put ours down by the garage at the far end and it blasts into the woods. It's not really that noisy anyway, with an oversize "forest service" type muffler on there. Has a spark arresting screen and an extra outer cage.

You might try re-fitting a bigger muffler on there. Most of the small engines have a standard pipe thread, and most models have an "optional" RV or forest muffler that will fit and is more quiet than the stock one.

[KA2DZT]

Rain started here on Sat afternoon.  I generally never get any water in the basement.  But, in a storm like this I would get some and I have a pump for just such occasions.  All through the night I kept checking the basement, about every half hour.  My pump has a HB on/off switch so I have to watch it to insure it works.  By around 3AM I figure I would take one more look since there had been no water in the pump well, even though it was raining heavy all night.

I go down to the basement and everything seemed OK but I hear the sound off gushing water.  I rush over to where the pump is behind a rack of test equipment.  The water had come up rather suddenly.  The pump had turned on and was working perfectly, except for one slight technical problem.  I forgot to put the water hose from the pump out the basement window.  The pump was doing a great job of pumping the water out of the well onto the basement floor.

Good thing I went down to the basement when I did,  I figured the pump couldn't have been running for more than about 15-20 seconds.  A little water resulted in getting part of a 8x10 rug wet and some of the bare concrete floor.  No big deal, it will just air dry in a few days.

Fred

[KA2DZT]

Storm finally past Sunday afternoon.  The wind didn't calm down until Sunday evening.  I could see a number of trees had fallen in the woods behind the house.  Of course the trees took down both my 40M and 75M loops.

I spent Monday and Tuesday clearing the trees off the antennas.  I got the 40M loop back up on Monday and the 75M loop Tuesday evening.

All set until the next time the wind kicks up.

Fred

[Carl WA1KPD]

Still no power today.

Bought a 30 gallon bottle of water at work for fresh water needs, the pool water is being used to fill toilet tanks. Listening to radio on the portable SW, nicest conditions I have heard in years.

We are a small town in the middle of the largest outage area so i suspect we will be on the tail end of the "nother week" the local utility projects. Road approaching our area is full of downed lines, but most trees have been cleared off the lines. have not seen a utility truck in the area at all.

My parents live nearby in an assisted living facility htey have running water but no power. At least I can take a cold shower each morning.

[Jim KF2SY]

Still no power today.

Bought a 30 gallon bottle of water at work for fresh water needs, the pool water is being used to fill toilet tanks. Listening to radio on the portable SW, nicest conditions I have heard in years.

We are a small town in the middle of the largest outage area so i suspect we will be on the tail end of the "nother week" the local utility projects. Road approaching our area is full of downed lines, but most trees have been cleared off the lines. have not seen a utility truck in the area at all.

My parents live nearby in an assisted living facility htey have running water but no power. At least I can take a cold shower each morning.

Hmmm, wow...I thought everyone in the world lives on Cape Cod.  Too bad for us I guess.
The silver tongued troll king "who speaks the truth" says the whole Irene thing was just a hyped up farce dreamed up by the media.   Maybe we should just narrow our weather scope of the world to be more of a parochial Cape Cod view. 

On a lighter note, a 65 foot Cherry tree trounced one leg of my dipole.  The wire and the feedline survived because I designed the ends for ice loading.  The bungee cord at the trounced end with PVC mast gave out nicely, thereby saving the antenner.

Cheers.

[AJ1G]

Diane just called and said our power was back on at about 1045 this morning.  Had been running the 17.5 KW Generac  continuously since about 1000 Sunday morning except for shutdowns between midnight and 0600.  Since Monday night,  also sent a 20 amp 120V circuit to my next door neighbor and another 20 amp circuit across the street to two other neighbors.  One of the neighbors is a retired electrician and the other is semi retired and works in the electrical section of the local Home Depot.  We set up a generator watch rotation to keep it fueled and running during times when Diane and I have been out of the house.

We had land line phone and DSL throughout the storm but both were gone come Monday mornng.  Stopped by the local AT&T central office serving the area and found out that the loss was caused by local network nodes between the neighborhood and the CO losing commercial power.  They lasted on internal battey backup for about 24 hours and then went down.   The old days where the phone service stayed up as long as the CO and copper were intact are apparently gone forever.  Also sounds like the phone companies do not have a backup plan to maintain thier networks on a local basis during an extended comnmercial power outage.  

[WA3VJB]

also sent a 20 amp 120V circuit to my next door neighbor and another 20 amp circuit across the street to two other neighbors.

Also sounds like the phone companies do not have a backup plan to maintain thier networks on a local basis during an extended comnmercial power outage.  

HEY man that's a great public service you provided there running some lines to the neighbors.  I saw on TV where a street was split across two feeders, and the ones with power ran some lines across the street to those without. Pretty cool.

Very curious about the telephone company's infrastructure.  I pissed and moaned bitterly when they tried to take away my copper pair as they installed a fiber for TV and internet.  Eventually found out yes, I can and did keep the copper pair AND have the other two as a stand alone. 

Backstory is that the phone company is trying to abandon the old copper infrastructure. You cannot get a new copper pair for basic phone service anymore, in areas where they've dropped a fiber.  So powering the phones in your house is up to you after their little gel cell gives it up.

Your experience with the CO is troubling.  I'm about 15 miles from the CO, an old Bell System facility that has a diesel generator and a big tank from "the good old days" I suppose, when Ma Bell herself yanked the starter rope.

I have to think that's why our phone service stayed up, but maybe in areas where more recent COs have been built, they cheaped out with only a bank of batteries.

[Steve - K4HX]

Most SLICs in neighborhoods are on bats. Sometimes the phone company would send out a gen truck to charge the bats. No so much any more.

[AJ1G]

I still get my landline in from the same copper drop that I have had for 35 years, but apparently in only goes as copper as far as the local network node (I dont know the real name for them).  What does SLIC stand for ?  My guess would be Subscriber Local Interface Controller....

I would think a network node would be a good candidate system to have a solar panel to augment the battery backup and/or a 12VDC input just for someone (even a  good samaritan local subscriber) to throw a car battery onto during an extended outage.  Probably too simple, and the corporate lawyers would find a liability reason to nix it.  I offered my 5KW backup genny to the AT&T CO  operator for just that purpose but was politely declined.

[W1RKW]

Day 4 no power still. Have gone through about 17 gallons of fuel. Purchased another 5 ga. today.  Hopefully this will be the last.  We now have another traffic light working. Thank you.  CT drivers suck and don't know how to handle a 4way stop sign. Other than that nothing new to add.  

The power companies outage map has shown some improvement for our town however, there's still severe damage to the main feeders running along Rt 16.  I've been collecting them and will animate them to show how the eastern half of CT got the shaft while the western half of CT got preferential service.

Paul,
I'm aiming the noise into the woods.  It's just when I walk the property I get concerned about a neighbor although I dislike the guy I have to respect him.  But the baffle is working yet still the noise is getting on my nerves and I don't like rubbing it in my neighbors face despite that I can run 85% of the house but don't.  Maybe tonight I will turn on every light.

I do cherish the quiet low HF bands.  I haven't heard them like this in quite some time.  I'm sure beside my neighbors electronics my household generates it's share of crap.  Need to look into that.  Then after that, being an astronomy nut, with all the outages and clear air the skies are absolutely dark.  The stars are incredible.  

[AJ1G]

Couple of emergency genny lessons learned/observations:

Kept blowing fuses (3AGC 10A) in the Generac's start/stop control circuit.  First blow apparently was it doing what it supposed to do to protect the circuit when Diane did not release the start switch after the engine caught and the starter started to grind.
Replaced the fuse with one from AutoZone, and everything was OK, but had several subsequent failure to crank on start instances where fuse was again blown for no apparent reason.  I suspect that the AutoZone fuses may have failed from vibration, they looked kind of flimsy.  Currently running with a 3AGC 10 time delay fuse and no problems so far.  Where can I get ruggedized mil spec 3AGC fuses?

Douched myself  and the genset this morning with gas on a tank refill from an old  5 gallon GI jerry can when I accidentally let the nozzle try to carry the weight of the can, and it of course popped out of the can...luckily the genny was shut down cold.  

Generac Corporate Tech Support gets a big fat D rating.  Found out my set was puttting out over 140 VAC per phase.  No instructions in owners manual on how to adjust output voltage.  Phone center talking head said they were not authorized to provide that information to consumers.  Gave me numbers of "authorized Generac technicians" who were in fact dealers.  Enrique in an Orange CA lawn mower shop filled me in and faxed me the tech manual stuff I needed.

[AJ1G]

Bob - you should put up your Christmas lights and light them up too!

[AJ1G]

Just got home (last couple of posts were from the office).  Felt good to see all the lights on in our area, although US1 from our area down to Stonington Borough is still out.

Land line and DSL apparently came back with the power in the area.

Our Fridgidaire front loader washing machine is working normally again.  The PWM  motor speed control system apparently did not like the 140 VAC being put out by the Generac. Washer timer would advance, tub would fill and drain on the Generac, but motor would not run.  Probably has an overvoltage protection circuit in the PWM controller, in retrospect a good thing.

Still pretty pissed off at Generac tech support. The limited info their  "tech support" - Enrique the lawn mower repair guy in Orange CA sent me was incorrect.  Implied that the VR adjust pot was on a heatsink accessible on the back side of the generator electrical control panel.  Not there.  Must be inside the panel.  Never was sent an actual adjustment instruction.  Anyone on here know how to tweak it?  It's a 2008 17.5 KW portable, Model 005308-0

[The Slab Bacon]

Check ur engine RPM! ! ! Depending on whether it is a 2-pole or a 4-pole alternator, it needs to be 3600 RPM for a 2-pole or 1800 RPM for a 4-pole. If the engine is running a little fast the voltage will be a little high and the frequency will not be 60Hz. The frequency being off could be what is driving ur PWM controllers nutso.

Also Generac stuff is kinda lower end, and most of their smaller stuff is throw-away with Chineese knock-off engines that dont quite make enough horsepower for the rated full output. General "rule of thumb" for generating electricity is to have 2 shaft HP (bhp) per KW of electric generated, and that hp output has to be at the generating speed.