Day 4 with NO POWER!

[RVThere]

My part of western NJ got hit hard by the snowstorm with 12-15 inches of wet snow. Lost a bunch of trees in my woods and many, many branches fell. Fortunately, only had some damage to the pool fence.

No power since Saturday with no hope of getting power until late Thursday or Friday. So we're living in the MH with the genset (and the in-laws...). Have the house refrig and freezer hooked up to the genset and a fire going in the fireplace.

Had to drive the MH to get propane and fuel yesterday so had to get around all the road closures and low branches/wires.

The small MH kitchen does not deter my wife's cooking. She make tilapia, beef stroganoff and pasta fazul today!

[oldcouple]

Time to Barbeque? Enjoy the snow. I know I don't after working in it for 30 years.

[CharlieTwo]

Way to adapt to a situation! Sorry about the snow. This is just too early to have all that happen.

[NLOVNIT]

Way to make lemonade out of lemons.

I heard on our news OH sent many teams of power workers to areas in the east hit hard by the snow storm. I hope you get power back soon.

Lori-

[traveler of california]

You're eating better than I am and I'm in sunny CA. I'll be over for dinner! Surprised you haven't been invaded by the neighbors.

Nick

[KIX]

Good job making chicken salad out of chicken sh#t

[TAZ]

We feel for you. Came back from camping to 9 inches and no power. Lucky the MH was not winterized and got pro pain n the way home. We have a backup gen set for the house bas we live in the mountains of VA but not power for hot water. Lucky to have the RV? Speeded before work last two days. Got power back for part of mnday and lost it again. Got it back tonight. Lucky us campers all have backup plans.

[RVThere]

Still NO POWER. Day 6...

Power company rep said that we would have power by midnight LAST NIGHT! But it didn't happen.

But as I explained to DW yesterday, we have it a lot better than our neighbors as we have heat, limited water, TV, toilet, etc. in a 40-foot RV!

[wa8yxm]

I don't do a lot of pasta but I do the rest.

This won't help you today but For the NEXT storm. Assuming you use Gas for cooking and water heating inside the house.

I have ... Hidden .. Actually beneith my... Er.. Behind.. Just now (it's in the basement comparment below me) a nice 30 amp twist lock outlet, 4-wire There are also a pair of TT-30 Pigtails (L-1 and L-2) in parallel with it.. In the main breaker box there is a matching pair of 30 amp breakers to feed them.

When Wendy and Hubby had generator failure they found they were parked next to the only two usable TT-30 outlets in the dessert.. Which they rather liked (I dropped them a feed)

When I came home that winter and found Frosty the AirBlown (TM) Snowman sleeping on the job when he should have been standing at attention.

I hit the basement. Picked up the custom extension cord (30 amp twist lock both ends) plugged the OUTLET end into the house INLET on the back of the house,,, Unrolled as I walked to the motor home,, Plugged the Motor Home end into the basement connector, Entered the motor home grabbed the GEN-TURI and hooked it up, back inside and push the button... Once the Generator Varoomed I waited till I saw evidence of power and back to the basement.

To the Generator Transfer Panel

CLICK: LIGHT
CLICK: Furnace came on
CLICK: Refrigerator
CLICK: Freezer
CLICK: Computer and modem
CLICK: Televisions and radio.

HINT: My hall light, which is almost never used (Hall was only like six feet long with doors every 3 feet or less did not need a light) was NOT on the E-panel..

I turned it on

When it glowed once again it was back to the basement and CLICK CLICK CLICK back to MAINS, back to the MH to kill the generator.. I left the cord till spring.

[jeepfreak]

What we did during and after Hurricane Irene was to make a short male plug to male plug, went to the basement shut off the main breaker to the house started the genny and plugged an extention cord into the outside receptical on the coach , then used the above adaptor and plugged that into a receptical in the garage. Powered almost half the house. The frige ,one of the bathrooms , our verizon Fios , living room tv and lights. didn't need the heat, but did use the MH for hot showers. Ran it for 4 days like that. I know there will be those who say you should spend the money for a transfer switch. But this worked GREAT, and will do it again if I have to. Just make sure you turn off your house power, and keep an eye on the street lights , if they come pull the plug.

[bluepill]

We are near the end of the power line run, so 2-4 day outages are all too common. I'm guessing a dozen in as many years. I'm actually glad that I just drove the MH to Florida for winter storage - no damage from falling trees.

My backup power is from 2 gennys. The Honda EU3000 is electric start (so DW could start it), whisper quiet, and sips about a gallon of gas every 5 hours. It powers all the 120 volt loads. For the 240 volt well pump, I fire up the POS Coleman 5000 while we shower and refill the bathtub. It's REALLY noisy, and in 7 hours burns 5 gallons of gas and enough oil to trip the low oil shutdown. I usually only run it for a half hour a day.

[EngineerMike]

Sorry to hear about the in-laws.

Adding to the emergency preparedness, I suggest:
1) figure out which appliances in the house you need that require 120V to get by in reasonable comfort (probably fridge, some lights, HVAC heat side (no good if its electric heat, only gonna work on gen if you are powering the fan & thermostat logic), maybe the TV assemblage
2) figure out which breakers need to be left on for #1
3) make up a male-to-male cord like wa8yxm is using
4) write up procedure for safe power cut over, making sure nothing is hot while you are plugging the male-male cord in (exposed plug contacts may be hot if you get this wrong!!). Start w/hut down service main breaker for house, shut off non-essential breakers, plug in cord both ends, start gen, test to see you are getting desired circuits powered
5) install 30A or 50A TT plug on new breaker from house or garage panel
6) when power goes out for a while, break out list from #4 and follow the directions, cord from #3 & install, start gen & live like there's no emergency.

Except for those in-laws. Actually might be better to rev up engine, put 'er in gear, and head south till the snow melts.

[RVThere]

FINALLY got power back at about 4:45PM today!

Forget the male to male plugs, electrician is coming tomorrow to price out a mega, propane powered whole house generator that automatically cuts over during a power outage.

BTW, we are also installing one at the in-laws house...

[BigV]

Those are pretty sweet. My local Costco even stocks them. The one they have uses a nice quiet OHV engine with tons of sound insulation. A neighbor has one and you can hardly hear it run.