Electric Grid Down
 

We had a snow storm. In my part of Louisiana we got 4-6”. I’ve lived in Upper Michigan for a winter and Cody Wyoming for a winter. The infrastructure is built for heavy snow and ice. Snow plows, salt, etc. routine.

Around here we rarely get snow. It’s a big deal. Bridges ice up. People drive too fast, etc. And tree limbs get weighted with snow and crash to the ground. Sometimes bringing wires down with them.

This is the third day without electricity. We go up to my Mother-on-laws for a shower. Two years ago we bought her a 16 kv Generac. I bought a 20 kv for our new house that is just about complete. Unfortunately, the Generac dealer has been waiting sometimes 3-4 months for a company delivery. Says it’s been like that for over a year, demand is so great.

Why?

Power company says they’ll have ours restored tomorrow. I think there were 50k homes without power.

I want my Generac!

Might be worth buying stock in the company.

Its been a while sine we've had 4-6 in IN. LA, that's bad. I remember Tulsa with 6 inches. Same thing, people trying 65 in a 45, and down to 1.5 lanes.

With infrastructure reliability issues in states like California, I'm not surprised that the demand for generators is high. CARB allows the use of gas generators for "emergency" events...

I have always enjoyed watching southerners try to navigate snowy/icy roads :)

But Bot - 3 days no shower ....NO I do not want to know that smell!

First, I'm no generator expert. that said, I just went out looking on the internet and there appears to be quite a few manufacturers of natural gas/propane generators for both home and commercial use. I also checked out generators made in china, there are a lot of those as well.

It seems to me that local dealer support is the key to a successful home generator install. Perhaps buying one from the internet and then DIY might not work out well in the long run. I read several stories about the internet sellers/manufacturers dropping the ball on the customer when a problem arose.

All of this highlights the importance of the nation's power grid. For those not up on this important subject I suggest reading up. It is old and it wouldn't take much for one of our dedicated enemies to take it out which could spell serious trouble for US.

Of course, if China or Russia decide to ruin our day, rest easy, a simple 911 call will fix everything! thank god for those government funded operators, right?

My mother lives in Michigan, in suburban Detroit. She also has a big natural gas powered Generac. It’s so slick that when the power goes out in the neighborhood she doesn’t even notice. The infrastructure up there is rickety, I think she averages 3-5 days/year of outage. A few years ago a line came down in her backyard and killed her collie, we almost lost her to Detroit Edison too.

Day before yesterday we were coming back from Vegas and spent the night in Oklohama City. There was a snow or ice storm there in the last few days. Branches down everywhere.

Propane costs more and you need local storage and advance purchase, but it does not rely on the natural gas part of the grid/infrastructure to be up and running. Similar to diesel and gasoline.

Some other aspects are that NG doesn't go bad. Doesn't foal up the engine sitting there. Also, in emergencies, NG usually is not in as much demand as auto gas. That might be till everybody gets NG powered Generators. Also, I hear NG is less expensive in TX and Alberta Canada. The Oil Wells just burn it off.

Power Out
 

Sorry to hear this, when I were a lad Down East we'd use snow to wash with in the woods, not happy memories .

For those looking at generators, BE CAUTIOUS ! .

Some years back I bought a Chinese made copy of a 7KV Honda generator very cheaply "out of the box" , still new .

Turns out the decal telling you which way to turn the fuel shut off was backwards so it'd run a few minutes then quit...

I peeled off and flipped the decal and all as well .

The problem is (not was) : it's NOISY ! I'm deaf and it hurts my ears, I can only imagine how back it is to my neighbors .

Building salvage places often get in older but unused REALLY BIG gensets, maybe look there .

Agreed, propane / natural gas is usually better than gasoline / diesel because the genset tends to sit and after two years you no longer run it to keep it ready...


Here's hoping you get you power back soon ~ I drove to La. just after the Katrina mess, it was nasty .

I have a Honda 3kw inverter generator I use for camping and on the house if power goes out. It’s quiet .. maybe like a dishwasher or wash machine kinda noise. If I toss it in the corner behind something you wouldn’t even know it was running. I have a small house so 3kw is enough to power the majority. I’m sure the neighbors won’t mind the noise if your nice enough to run a power cord to their house

GNRC is symbol, has gone from $93/share to $252 since 3/2020.

Crap. I missed that one.

I have a Miller Bobcat 225 that I hook up to the old house. Maybe 900 ft^2. It has a fireplace and a small gas heater. Also no insulation and you can see daylight around the outside doors! It gets warm from bellybutton up but your toes freeze. Also has a water heater. So it kicks us back to say, the 1930’s or so. Well, not here: they didn’t get electricity until 1953.

It’s the new construction that’s like a thermos bottle. It held inside temperature comfortably in the lower 60’s / upper 50’s for 24 hrs. Now it’s holding ambient temp like a champ! We got electricity back about 2 hrs ago but I’m still in the old place for WiFi. Don’t have Internet/WiFi over there yet.

Now we are struggling with the teevee issue. We have been without for 5-6 years but internet is so slow out here you can’t even stream YouTube! Rumor has it that an act of Congress last year had money for rural high speed Internet. That became a huge problem for school kids here in the year of Covid. We are hoping we will see something coming down the infrastructure alimentary canal sometime in our lifetimes.

You missed the point. Supply disruption. And it has been a long time since I have seen a properly idled engine not fire up immediately .

Power Again
 

Good to see you're back on the grid .

You're oh so correct about modern insulation~ my house was built in 1923 and tends to remain cold in the Winter and hot in the Summer, I added some (not all ~ $!) double glass windows and that helped a lot, when I re roofed with a foam roof (flat roof) it was night and day better .

It never gets over 89 inside now, and the small electric heater I use keeps my sleeping area nice .

I don't think anyone here grasps how noisy Chinese shyte can get ~ I bet it's too loud a block away and I'd not piss down my drunken neighbor's throat if her guts were on fire .