GOT MY POWER BACK!!!!!

[Blayd]

Power went down last Friday at 9PM....thanks to the storm I'm sure you all heard about....in this area.....300,000+ people with no power...100+ degrees every stinkin' day... still had to work.... beyond miserable. Still alot of people out of power...but the crews, God bless 'em.. are working super hard cutting trees and getting people back to the grid.. my greatest admiration and thanks to the guys and girls out there doing the job so we can get back to something of a normal life...thank goodness, I had shipped my family 50 miles away to my Mom's house to wait out this while I manned the fort.
Just came back on like 30 minutes ago...

But as a freak is a freak.....
On Sunday, about 7PM, 102° day, I had absolutely nothing left to do but suffer in my house in 92° heat inside....when I realized.. I had gotten 7 batteries charged on Friday before the power went out..... So.....I WENT FLYIN'!!!
7 fantastic flights, took all my suffering away for awhile....pushed the envelope far beyond what I've done before.....sunset, all alone on a huge field.....I may have had to take cold showers and throw away about $200 in groceries.. but I had a great flight day.....Glad to be back!!
Mike

[Maypole]

Glad your ordeal is over and you can get back to normal stuff. I've been through the no power thing on two seperate occasions. No fun indeed.

[Manzooka]

This is how you justify a portable "home" generator purchase to the wife. Just so happens that it also works for charging batteries at the field... but that's incidental.

[FuntanaS]

Good to hear you have power. Losing power is never fun but with the heat is really sucks!

[NC_2_VA]

You are a true freak! You are my hero.

[Blayd]

Originally Posted by Manzooka

This is how you justify a portable "home" generator purchase to the wife. Just so happens that it also works for charging batteries at the field... but that's incidental.

I wrote to another member just a few minutes ago...
My wife had dragged me out to look at generators TWICE back in February, and I talked her out of it.. telling her the winter was so mild, it be a waste.....guess what the first thing I heard when the power went out was.....yeah.
The plan is after everything is calmed down a bit... we'll be getting a decent generator...the way the power lines here are woven through the mountains and valleys....this wont be the last time it would come in handy.

[Easy-Ed]

STILL doing the generator thing in central VA. I have officially lost my pioneer spirit after 4 days of generator power and 100 degree heat. Did fly everyday though, and will fly tomorrow, power or no power...

[jorge141020]

We just got our power back about an hour ago as well. Perfect timing. I'm off tomorrow for the fourth and since I haven't flown since the storm on Friday, I got some catching up to do!

By the way, if any of you helifreaks out there are working 16 hour shifts for the power company to get folks back online, thank you very much for your hard work and sacrifice these past few days.

[Blayd]

I'm feel you buddy...I'm glad you have a generator. I was in the worst way today after getting home from work and the heat today was so bad... my truck said 107°. Probably more like 100°...no a breeze.. just..hot.
I hope you get back on soon......I know they're working hard....

[Just Another Flyer]

Yeah the storm, I went trail running in the middle of it. It is not something I want to do again, but I was hungry and there was pizza at the end so....


120 SR, DX6i, 20 in Nimbus II unicycle

[NCcraig]

Best thing I did for my home was buy a generator and have my breaker box wired so I can plug the generator to it. It has come in handy a few times!

[Blayd]

I could really use some advise if you have time to PM me sometime NC....we are going shopping for one in the next week or two once things calm down a bit, friends have told me they too are wired so it feeds the panel box.. another told me he just made a male/male extension cord, and plugs the generator feed out line into a wall socket that is on a circut that feeds the devices you want to run....that will feed the enire circuit....like the lights, fridge, TV, phone chargers..etc....but I'm totally lost when it comes to what I should be looking for as for the wattage it should be putting out, tank capacity...
My Father in law swears by his Coleman.. its 6500 watts, has 4, 20A outs and 1, 30A out...We're not looking to runthe whole house on it... but we dont want to make the mistake of buying something that cant help us....
Its taken us awhile to figure out that after power issues in the winter and summer.. its an investment that couldnt hurt. I especially need to also think, my mother is in the middle of no where.. and thank goodness, she had power and that where my kids and wife have been for the past 5 days....but if she was to loose power.. she also looses the well...here, at least I am on city water.
Again, I feel your pain if your still suffering in this thing....and thanks again to any and all of the power and tree people out there doing the tuff stuff.....

[pctomlin]

I feel your pain, I was out of power for nine days after Hurricane Ike in '08. I was never so happy to see the fleet of repair trucks hit the neighbourhood to put all the lines back up, and then be so let down because they did not know when the power would be restored. All the guys were from Ohio. Took another two days for the power to come back on. I had 50 gallons of gas in 5 gallon containers before the hurricane hit, it lasted just long enough for some of the gas stations in the area to come back on-line again, my generator used about 10 gallons of gasoline a day. I also changed the oil at every morning fill up (24 hour run time between oil changes)

If you are going to install a connection to your breaker box for a generator get it professionally done. You need a disconnect from the incoming power so you don't try and backfeed the whole block. Then you can decide what you want to power and get an appropriately sized generator. In the event of a power outage turn off the breakers/things you won't be using. If your hot water heater is electric you can turn off the other items and get some hot water and then turn back off, trust me you will miss hot water.

[Blayd]

Originally Posted by pctomlin

If your hot water heater is electric you can turn off the other items and get some hot water and then turn back off, trust me you will miss hot water.

I did.....ice cold showers isnt no fun at 3:30 in the morning before going to work....my ticker isnt that strong.....