Storms and power failure. Were you prepared today?

[jblomenberg16]

Lost power 2x today with the storms. Most recently 20 minutes ago. Heard a nearby transformer sizzle and go off line. Guessing it will be down a while.

Flashlights were ready and kids asleep. 20 minutes in I snapped a glow stick for some ambient lighting if anyone has to get up in the middle of the night. I expect one if not bot kids to get scared at some point and come into our room.

If no power in the am I will fire up the genny. Fridges and freezer should be fine for a few hours.


How is everyone else doing in these storms? Hope none of you have any major damage.

 

[jd4320t]

I had candles and a battery lantern out and ready. The power went out for about ten seconds earlier.

 

[GunSlinger]

Power has been out for a little over three hours now. LED lanterns at the ready with plenty of flashlights and batteries in the ready. Fridge should be good for another 3-4 hours as will the freezer.

New storm just now rolling in here in BC. Fun stuff!

 

[Vamptepes]

Power has gone off and on all day here in speedway. had candles and what not and generator on standby.

My poor truck got hit though.

 

[SirRealism]

My power has been out since noon. I had forgotten that my new generator can't quite crank enough amps to start my sump pump. Good thing I had a little backup pump. All is well.

I might fire up the coke can stove and cook some Ramen.

ETA: Ugh, bad pun not intended. lol

 

[SirRealism]

A couple folks in my family made fun of my grab-bag Christmas gift, which included a headlamp. ("Someone planning on going mining? Yuck yuck yuck.")

I'm glad I grabbed my own gift that year.

 

[dsol]

I got a larger generator this year for the new house because of our finished basement and the need to make sure the sump pump runs. Got a small backup and battery, but it probably could not keep up with all of this rain. All of our powerlines are underground here but they still have to be fed from somewhere. So far, just a little street flooding, no power outages.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Sounds like you all, just to the east of me took the brunt of the storms yesterday. I don't think we even got a good shower out of the stuff the hit in the afternoon. I don't think we got much from last night either--we got lucky. But yeah, we've got flash lights, candles, lanterns but no generator. We've never gotten around to buying a generator--someday.

 

[DRob]

Our power seldom goes out but flashlights and candles are always close at hand. Wind tore out a couple of the pockets on our deck canopy. I need to replace it but it's a forgotten brand no longer carried by Menards. Been needing a replacement anyway but now it's a must-have. Neighbor lost half a bradford pear but I think somebody sneezed on it just before the storm came through. Hope everybody got off as easy as we did.

 

[wabash]

My power has been out since noon. I had forgotten that my new generator can't quite crank enough amps to start my sump pump. Good thing I had a little backup pump. All is well.

I might fire up the coke can stove and cook some Ramen.

ETA: Ugh, bad pun not intended. lol

what was the pun? I guess I missed it.

 

[bocefus78]

I had flashlights ready, and the Gen too. Didn't need em. I had power all night.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Storms? What storms?

In all honesty, they just missed us throughout the day yesterday... they looked nasty so I was monitoring the radar pretty closely...

I don't think we even got a good shower out of the stuff the hit in the afternoon. I don't think we got much from last night either--we got lucky.

You should have gotten something overnight. 1 am I went to bed and the radar was clear, everything had missed me to the east. ~4 am I woke up to nasty thunder & a heavy down-pour (hail came a bit later). I checked the radar and it showed that a pretty nasty looking front had developed out of nowhere right along the Monroe/Lawrence County border, extending west into Green and further east of Lawrence County moving in a south-easterly direction. I didn't monitor what it did after it passed me but it didn't look like it was going to go away; all appearances were that if you lived in Lawrence County you were going to get hit with it.

 

[churchmouse]

My son's power went out yesterday and they stayed the night with us.
The young never think ahead.
Our power flickered a few times. We had the genny's/cords/low watt lights at the ready. Never needed.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

We got that 4am thing. It lasted about 10 minutes of rain and a little bit of a light show...pretty tame stuff, really. (I'm not complaining )

Storms? What storms?

In all honesty, they just missed us throughout the day yesterday... they looked nasty so I was monitoring the radar pretty closely...



You should have gotten something overnight. 1 am I went to bed and the radar was clear, everything had missed me to the east. ~4 am I woke up to nasty thunder & a heavy down-pour (hail came a bit later). I checked the radar and it showed that a pretty nasty looking front had developed out of nowhere right along the Monroe/Lawrence County border, extending west into Green and further east of Lawrence County moving in a south-easterly direction. I didn't monitor what it did after it passed me but it didn't look like it was going to go away; all appearances were that if you lived in Lawrence County you were going to get hit with it.

 

[rhino]

We got lucky and only had a few flickers this time (a few weeks ago we lost power most of the night). I was definitely prepared, though. Had one of my mini-lanterns sitting next to me along with my every day gear.

 

[JollyMon]

Had the genny ready to go for the sump pump in the basement, oil lamp, and a few flashlights..... most of my stuff is still in storage from our move and dont know where a lot of it is.... this might light a fire under my butt to actually go through some of the boxes in my garage.

 

[CountryBoy19]

We got that 4am thing. It lasted about 10 minutes of rain and a little bit of a light show...pretty tame stuff, really. (I'm not complaining )

Lasted at least 20 mins up by me. It let up a little bit in the middle then came back even harder... that's when the hail started... The light show really was something; the sky was almost continuously lit.

 

[Snapdragon]

We have a NG backup generator, so if we lose power, it's only for about five seconds. (Just long enough to have to reset all the clocks.) Even so, I've got a flashlight in every room and candles in the cupboard.

 

[AngryRooster]

A few flickers but nothing went out. Power outages for us have been very common in the past. The condition of the wires around here was very poor until a year or so ago. When a bird would fart too close to the line it would go out. Most of the time it was only for a few hours but it happened at least once a month all year long. We need to get a genny out here but haven't done it yet. We've got a few things rigged up though.

We have a couple solar panels in the barn with a couple marine batteries and a 750 watt inverter. The pole barn is new construction and we planned for it to be solar. Most everything out there is 12v already or low wattage off the inverter. Inside I've got a marine battery under the desk in a battery box with another 750 watt inverter. The box has several 12v cig lighter plugs wired into it with fuses, 2 powerpole connectors & a volt meter. It's hooked to a Battery Tender. Almost all the devices we have use the micro USB chargers. The MaHa charger has a 12v adapter along with the Lithium Ion charger. A 10Ah SLA is in the emergency radio go box. About 50 AA eneloops ready to go at all times.

All the lights in the house are either CFL or LED. I'm in the process of changing out the CLF's. As much as the CFLs sip energy compared to the regular incandescent bulbs, the LEDs are much better. In the barn I had a 60 watt equivalent CFL in a small lamp. It looked to be about 300-400 lumens. I put a 1200 lumen LED flood light in the ceiling. I hooked them up to the inverter to see what kind of power they were pulling. The 1200 lumen LED pulled 17 watts. The CFL pulled 25. CFLs are all getting changed and put away.

With the battery in the house we can run lots of lights if needed, charge all the devices & batteries, hook up the internet and router to the inverter so we can still know what's going on, laptop has a 12v car charger with it as well, and monitor the scanner and HAM radio. None of it was very expensive to do and until we get a genny it will work fine. The only thing we can't do is run the fridge & freezers. I haven't checked on what size inverter we would need for that. I may do that this week just to see.

 

[rhino]

We have a NG backup generator, so if we lose power, it's only for about five seconds. (Just long enough to have to reset all the clocks.) Even so, I've got a flashlight in every room and candles in the cupboard.

Questions:

1. Does it get everything it needs from the NG line coming to your house?

2. Can it run on any other fuels (such as LP)?


On another note, one of the power companies is building a big solar farm in what used to be a farm field behind my house. It sure would be nice to charge some batteries from it . . .