Well, winter decided to make up for all the lack of snowfall in just one day. I was woken up to the sound of losing power. That's when i knew it began. No sight of restoration anytime soon as our whole region seems to be without power. Missed work today because of all the snow. Spent 6 hours in the bobcat removing snow in the driveway and the private community road. Its a wet heavy snow. 

 

It took its toll as trees and power lines have fallen everywhere according to news and feedback from others. Lineman can't get started until they are ensured safety. I imagine they've been at work for a while now, but they certainly weren't out in it until it subsided.

 

Once i called it quits for the day, it proceeded to undo all my hard work. Looks like i didn't even do anything... sigh.

 

Well, sitting here, at least I'm warm next to the wood stove. Put my skillet on top and can cook food. Running the generator to keep power to the fridge for a bit and can run the well pump so i can maintain my sanity to be able to shower.

 

I venture to say we've accumulated at least 12 inches in the past 16 hours. Doesn't sound that bad, but when a plow truck can't keep up with the snowfall, county roads are on the back burner. Glad i made the right decision to shelter in place today.. 

Cool I'm jealous, I leave for this sh.t. sounds like you got it under control, we're supposed to get some snow here in IA but it's usually a joke. Last good snow we had was in 2010 I believe, and time before that 2008 that's when we had the flood later that year. 

Stay safe.

6 hours ago, hex0rz said:

Well, sitting here, at least I'm warm next to the wood stove. Put my skillet on top and can cook food. Running the generator to keep power to the fridge for a bit and can run the well pump so i can maintain my sanity to be able to shower.

 

 

Man, I'm glad I've got my 4k Inverter and batteries. The only thing I can't power is oven, dryer, stove, and the heat pump system. 

 

After being 21 days without power during the 96-97 flood I'm ready for any type of failure nature can throw.

I guess the 3" we got last week does not count fo much. Gone the next day pretty much. Be safe and warm.

Feel free to send some to Colorad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far this winter has been an easy one but we still have a ways to go. Last winter they said not much to worry about and began with a surprise snow storm. Snow storms are harder to predict in our warmer area, about 80 miles from the coast.

 

When power goes we can use the rv for hot showers and cooking but need a good weather forecast to know when to de winterize and fill with water. We have a good wood stove like you guys too.

 

Hold on the reins...... we are supposed to get an arctic blast soon.

I'm counting my blessing being I'm still doing the 250-mile round trip every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for @MoparMom dialysis treatments in Ontario, OR. I'm not complaining one bit that there is a lack of snow. Like last night coming home, its was hit miss with rain and snow showers at 10pm at night. Get up this morning to a yard full of half melted snow and froze back up early this morning so it super slick to even walk on. 

 

PS: I love the wide angle view of my cellphone...

Edited December 20, 20177 yr by Mopar1973Man

I hope it warms enough today to be dry by the time the real cold hits.

 

Where's your rv?

Just now, JAG1 said:

Where's your rv?

 

Hidden in the back corner. It's in the photo. Just put on your glasses and zoom in you'll see it.

Dang, I was hoping it was in town near where Mom gets her treatment so you don't drive in bad weather.

Too cold for the RV. I would only have power. Not to mention I've got to monitor the house back home to keep it from freezing. So I've got no choice to do the round trips.Again I'm not complaining about the lack of snow. I'm glad it nothing like last year. Ugh!

Well, i went about 16 hours without power. Got it literally back on just in time. I need to figure out what's going on with the generator. I turned off the main breaker to prevent back feed. Turned everything else off and started doing one circuit at a time. Couldn't figure out why nothing would work. Eventually i got to a point that i had to leave a couple breakers on to get power to flow. I have literally 5 panels to deal with!

 

So what i couldn't figure out is at one point got the circuits running to power fridges for a few hours. Then i shut them off to get the water heater to run for a little bit to get hot water. Then shut that off and then went to go use the water. Nothing...

 

So i spent an hour or so trying to figure out why i had no power. Still didn't figure it out. Looking back on it, it doesn't matter anyways. The generator does not have enough power to run big draws like a water heater or well pump.

 

So i switched the shop light circuit on and nothing. I had them switched on at one point. I don't get it. My breaker combinations didn't make any changes to it. I was getting power from the generator. Any ideas?

 

Going to need to invest in a larger generator system. A permanent system with dual fuel capabilities. Something that can run the whole house at one time!

 

Anyways, timing couldn't be better. After finding all this out with the generator, we resolved to sponge bathing. I had shut the generator off and turned the breakers back on in anticipation for restoration. Right as we were about to begin our bath, the outside light came on. Wahoo! A real shower. Ran out to pump house and restarted the pressure switch to get pressure back. 

 

I will also say that in the course of the storm, i under estimated the overall snow fall. I measured about 16" of snow!

 

Supposedly there's another storm forecasted to barrel through again today ready to bring another 6to10 inches. Like i said it with this last storm, ill believe it when i see it!

Edited December 20, 20177 yr by hex0rz

I've got to ask how big of a generator are you using?

 

Then consider I run my entire house on 4kw @ 120 VAC. I use a step up transformer to make 220V for the well pump. I've got a 6.5kw gasoline generator. I can run the entire house except for the big items like dryer, oven, stove, and heat pump. My inverter will run my modified water heater (1,100w @ 120 VAC). Being I've got mostly CFL or LED lighting there is little to no load on the inverter. 

 

 

Middle of the day in normal city mode but using my small amount of solar power generated. I've got a total load of 6-7 amp AC at 120 VAC which is roughly 840 Watts. For my daytime consumption. I'll wait till night time and post again with my total power usage again. 

Iirc it was 5500 watts. I wired a crazy cord to it to back feed into my 220 welder circuit. It only provides 20 amps at 240 though. 

 

If i can get something to run the well at minimum i would be happy with that even. At least for now. 

Here is a recent power usage capture by Idaho Power. We are burning firewood and also using the heat pump as well. I leave the heat pump set for 72*F on the upstair floors. The basement unit is turned off.  @MoparMom is a bit thin skinned so she needs the heat kept up a bit more. As you'll see I can still keep nearly within my 4k limit of my inverter for the entire house. Not bad... Most of the appliances have been upgraded to energy efficient, nearly all lighting in the house is CFL or LED now. Water saver faucets and shower heads reduce the amount of time to reheat the water heater also reduces the amount of power needed to pump water. 

House is rated energy efficient by energy star for its year,  2007. Wood heat solely for heat source but I'm going to invest in propane for supplemental. Which will also open new opportunity to convert over to propane water, stove, dryer, etc. All the lights in the house are LED. converted over when we moved here. I have an FLIR attachment for my phone coming in soon so i can address any energy inefficiencies. Once i get the propane setup i should reduce the electric bill significantly. I'll be going for heat on demand with my water for sure. Maybe then i can just use solar for the rest of my power needs or offset the grid demand. 

I got a white Christmas...

 

As for the power side of things, I'm still slowly converting over to LED lighting. I just changed over the guest house porch light to LED 120w (24w LED) flood lights. Turned up the gain on the motion sensor and aimed the lights out more and increased the time on from 1 minute to 10 minutes being the power is fractional compared to the two 120w bulbs previously. 

 

I have noticed the LED lights still emit quite a bit of heat despite their supposed decrease in energy consumption...

 

Merry Christmas, Mike!

I used to run a 5K gen with extension cords run all over the house from the generator outside and had to do as you did and continuously swap around to different appliances every few hours but then did a home improvement project and added a transfer switch along with a 98% efficient 110v propane furnace and got a 6500 watt gas powered generator that has 30 amp 240 hookup now and can now run all the critical circuits I needed through the transfer switch box and do not need to worry. Have run this for a week straight already during power outage a few years ago with no issues and a couple times with a day or two power outage.I have rural water so do not need to worry about running anything that is 220-240v anyhow although i could if need be. I do have a well too but only use it for watering garden and lawn when needed and or if need be emergency backup I can switch the house to well water with the flip of 3 ball valves.

Edited December 27, 20177 yr by Wild and Free

My system is similar but key feature is that power transfer happens at about 10 to 20ms from City to inverter. Also can run all key features of the house but using only 120VAC power and step up transformer. I might add the auto start to my generator allowing the inverter to stop and start the generator as needed.

Local weather advised of a snow storm that was to begin Thursday morning until Saturday morning. So far we have been getting steadily dumped on and today was forecasted of 9 inches and tomorrow will be 8.

 

I took this picture in the middle of the day. Overall height is about 24 inches to the top of the hives. Yes those are beehives under all that snow! I venture to say at the time of this picture the snow depth is 18 inches. I suppose i will follow up with one tomorrow after the snow subsides. 

 

Lost power once today for a couple hours. They were on it! Meanwhile I'm just gonna stay in the house and sit by the stove and do absolutely nothing. Got myself a nasty little ear infection...