Hurricane/TS Emergency Prep

[Hawkeye]

I think I'm going to buy a backup generator because we have so much refrigeration equip at the restaurant that needs to keep running in an extended outage. And, in this part of PRVEPA's district, it doesn't take much of a storm to knock out power.

Where you think might be the best deal on a generator in the 5000-7000Kw range? I bought a 5.5 Genterac at Lowe's before Katrina and paid around $500. I've used it quite a lot and have had no problems with the brand.

[rollinthunder]

http://articles.directorym.net/Backup_Generators_Mississippi-r877109-Mississippi.html

[bpitt]

Dude, if your freezer with the steaks in it starts to thaw, call me, I come grill and eat, lol.

[BassCatter]

Hawk,

Better get on the horn with Lowes and Home Depot now to secure one........People will be rushing the spots. I have a generac generator powered by a Briggs 15 HP. engine. 8KW running 13.5 KW starting. I think they sell for like 1200 now at Home Depot, and burn 7 gallons every 10 hours on half load. I PM mine monthly. I don't expect the storm to be as bad as Katrina, and don't forsee any extended outages in electrical services. We'll keep pumping the crude so the prices shouldn't go too nuts.

[bpitt]

I think it's gonna mainly be a rain dumper.

[carsalesguy]

salesguys around here are saying probably 35mph

but nobody takes salespeople seriously..........

[BassCatter]

The reports we've got project sustained winds of 36 to 38 MPH with Gusts up to 48 by the time the storm get's in the Hattiesburg Area.

[carsalesguy]

excellent-

maybe some more cars get flooded by this one so i can make a little bit of money!!!!!!!!!!

at least i hope not tho-

[bpitt]

Bullcrap, you know u want cars to get flooded, admit it! lol....

[Hawkeye]

Dude, if your freezer with the steaks in it starts to thaw, call me, I come grill and eat, lol.

Dude, our meat is never frozen. Quality steak meats are never frozen. Bad idea. If freezing worked, I'd buy loins by the truckload when prices are down instead of being a slave to the ethanol/cattle feed FUBAR which as caused rising food prices.

On the generators - checking every outlet I could think of in H'burg, gensets in the 5500 watt range are running between $650 - $700 + tax. These include Snapper, Troybilt, and Generac. Looking at the specs on the different brands, it is weird how much the HP varies from manufacturer to manufacture for the same wattage output. For instance, Troybilts 5.5 runs on a 249cc Briggs and Stratton, while Generac uses a 389cc.

The 5.5 Generac I have already uses a 15 HP B&S and drinks a lot of fuel.

Underwood is promoting a new brand called "Sycamore" which is made by a joint American/Chinese company. He claims they are as quiet as Honda's and are very fuel efficient. But they are a little higher priced per spec wattage output.

[bpitt]

My Craftsman works fine, got it during the Katrina fiasco. It's 5500 watts with a 6530 watt surge. It's got a 30amp receptacle so I can hook my travel trailer up to it, which is helpful.

[Hawkeye]

To you EE's. A guy told me an easy way to get aux generator power in your home box. I know it could be dangerous if you don't do it right. But what do you think of this;

Place your generator outside next to the dryer vent. Disconnect dryer vent and use hole to run power cord through. Make up a double male, heavy duty cord with a 240V twist lock male plug for the gen side and a 240V dryer male plug on the other.

Turn house box MAIN breaker and all other breakers to OFF position.
Plug genset to dryer outlet.
Crank generator
Then switch ON only the house breakers for the minimal circuits you need to run min. lights and TV, plus refrigerator and freezer.
WARNING: Never switch on main while you have genset running in this configuration. (because if the power should suddenly come back on, you would have arc welding going on in your box, not a good thing.)

Now, apprx how many watts total would it take to run one ref/freezer plus two small chest freezers? Separately, apprx how may watts req'd to run the typical 3.5 ton central A/C system?

Honey, your old man ort to know about this too.

I like this idea cause you don't have extension cords running all over the place

[Hermione]

Let's don't hope for car flooding, please. I live in a low part of town, and I have no flood insurance, plus I have rugs I can't lift and can't replace.

[BassCatter]

" it is weird how much the HP varies from manufacturer to manufacture for the same wattage output. For instance, Troybilts 5.5 runs on a 249cc Briggs and Stratton, while Generac uses a 389cc.




Hawk,

Generally the bigger the engine, the less load put on it to run the brushes in the generator and better fuel economy......I know that doesn't sound like it makes sense, but it's what the electricians out here have told me.

[BassCatter]

Place your generator outside next to the dryer vent. Disconnect dryer vent and use hole to run power cord through. Make up a double male, heavy duty cord with a 240V twist lock male plug for the gen side and a 240V dryer male plug on the other.

Turn house box MAIN breaker and all other breakers to OFF position.
Plug genset to dryer outlet.
Crank generator
Then switch ON only the house breakers for the minimal circuits you need to run min. lights and TV, plus refrigerator and freezer.
WARNING: Never switch on main while you have genset running in this configuration. (because if the power should suddenly come back on, you would have arc welding going on in your box, not a good thing.)

Now, apprx how many watts total would it take to run one ref/freezer plus two small chest freezers? Separately, apprx how may watts req'd to run the typical 3.5 ton central A/C system?



Yes Hawk you can do that but it's real dangerous for the line workers, if you don't disconnect the power from the line to your house. If you don't have a double throw disconnect, you'll need to dump your meter base to ensure you aren't backfeeding the lines.

Look at the back of the freezer and it should say the freezers draw.

[Hawkeye]

Yes Hawk you can do that but it's real dangerous for the line workers, if you don't disconnect the power from the line to your house. If you don't have a double throw disconnect, you'll need to dump your meter base to ensure you aren't backfeeding the lines.

Look at the back of the freezer and it should say the freezers draw.If you have the MAIN breaker off in yur house box, there is no way you could feed the grid is there? And, no way the grid can butt heads with your gen if the MAIN is OFF, is there? I guess I could pull the MAIN totally out of the box.
I don't think they like us pulling our own meters off.

[BassCatter]

They don't but they prefer that to being electrocuted. I don't have a "Main" in my outside box. My service box is old, like from the 70s, and the main I have in the house doesn't kill all of the power, because I have service running out of the service box as well as the inside breaker box. Whoever wired my house, in the 70's with no code was either a.) an electrical genius b.) a dumbass c.) Freebasing [I think that was all the rage back then]. At my house, for me to ensure I'm not backfeeding the line, I have to dump my meter base.

[Hawkeye]

They don't but they prefer that to being electrocuted. I don't have a "Main" in my outside box. My service box is old, like from the 70s, and the main I have in the house doesn't kill all of the power, because I have service running out of the service box as well as the inside breaker box. Whoever wired my house, in the 70's with no code was either a.) an electrical genius b.) a dumbass c.) Freebasing [I think that was all the rage back then]. At my house, for me to ensure I'm not backfeeding the line, I have to dump my meter base.

You have like a 200 amp or larger main breaker at the top of your inside box though, don't you? Mine is 4x50 four pole breaker labeled "MAIN". I do have a sub box off my meter base going to the office A/C but it has a disconnect switch. Just in case, how do you pull a meter? It has a band around it. does it require a special tool or do you just yank the damn thing out?

[BassCatter]

It's like a big plug, you break the seal, open the box and pull downward and it will pull the two big prongs out of the slots. Put your meter base in a Plastic Bag and hang it at the box. The big open hole needs to have waxed card board put in it to keep water out in case of rain.

[carsalesguy]

if you need help pulling it hawk, let me know. i'll run down there-

[BassCatter]

Oh yeah Hawk I have a main on the inside box. I can turn it off, and the Shop and my master bedroom still have power, cause they get service directly from the outside service box, just like the inside breaker box.......Like I said I think he was freebasing.

[TheCapitalist]

Those prices sound about right. I have a 5550 continuous, 8550 surge/start watt w/ 10hp Briggs. The Honda motors are better, but you will pay for them. If I could have sprung it, I would have gotten a diesel generator. There were NO lines or shortages at the diesel pump during Katrina! About 3x the cost, though. Could not justify it...

[carsalesguy]

i heard one of those little honda generators the other day-

all i can say is WOW

[Fotno]

Pull the meter hawk.

[Hawkeye]

Pull the meter hawk.
Okay but dese bastids will accuse me of trying to run it back and charge me double :cool:

[BassCatter]

When the lines were heated up post Katrina at the house, I asked the powerline guys to put my meter back in. They had some questions, but I told them I did that to keep from backfeeding to them, and they thanked me put the base in and called Pearl River Electric to have their reader bring me a new seal.

[Fotno]

Tell them that your Electrician(me)pulled it and if they have any questions that I'll be available to answer them.

[BassCatter]

Thanks Fotno, it's good to have friends with good educations and licenses!

[Fotno]

You better stick with TKP and The Capitalist if you want friends with good educations.
I went to school at Brooklyn.

[TheCapitalist]

Look out, now. I'm just a sewer worker. What do I know?....

BTW, I still can't wire an anchor light that will not short out. Dammit, boy. Two wires. 12 volts. How much more simple can it be?

[Fotno]

I'm concerned that all of those trees that Katrina "almost" blew over are going to go all of the way when Fay comes through.
That's gonna suck.

[Powerman]

Separately, apprx how may watts req'd to run the typical 3.5 ton central A/C system?

If you try and run your central with less than a 10,000 watt gen one of three things will happen.
1 Burn generator up
2 Burn AC up
3 Burn up both AC and generator

[Hermione]

I'm worried about the tree thing too. Is three years long enough for the iffy trees to re-strengthen?
And after I had all the remaining pine trees in my yard cut down after Katrina, I go and move to a house with . . . . PINE TREES in the dang yard. Nuts, absolutely nuts.

[Powerman]

To you EE's. Place your generator outside next to the dryer vent. Disconnect dryer vent and use hole to run power cord through. Make up a double male, heavy duty cord with a 240V twist lock male plug for the gen side and a 240V dryer male plug on the other.

Turn house box MAIN breaker and all other breakers to OFF position.
Plug genset to dryer outlet.
Crank generator
Then switch ON only the house breakers for the minimal circuits you need to run min. lights and TV, plus refrigerator and freezer.
WARNING: Never switch on main while you have genset running in this configuration. (because if the power should suddenly come back on, you would have arc welding going on in your box, not a good thing.)

Just between us this is the very thing I did after Katrina. I pulled my main breaker out so there would be a visible disconnect and no way to back feed. Drastic times call for drastic measures. Line guys should not get in a tiff over that as long as the disconnect is clearly visible and cannot be accidently made up,

:eek: but you may be the last guy on the block to get restored if they find out.:eek:

[SoMissTV]

BTW, I still can't wire an anchor light that will not short out. Dammit, boy. Two wires. 12 volts. How much more simple can it be?

Dude, just go wireless.

[Flowergirl]

Ohhhhh, I see why you copy and paste more than you post original material now....

[Hawkeye]

Louis, is this a prank? How much water will Fay dump on us? Seriously, if you have an idea. Are you serious about weather or do you see websites simply as a google ad revenue generator? When I goolged hurricanecity the other day, I found a ton of websites that seem to be playing the same angle.
Just curious.

[katzeyez]

If you have issues with individuals that happen to post on this forum as well as others, then you need to resolve your issues with them on the forums where the issues arise, but here is not the place to do so.

[bpitt]

Here's some 'preparedness' info that our tax dollars have paid for........

http://www.ready.gov/america/beinformed/hurricanes.html

[bpitt]

Here's a link to a lot of .pdf files on disaster preparedness from the Red Cross, there's one for hurricanes.
http://www.redcross.org/disaster/disasterguide/

[bpitt]

If you have a scanner, vhf radio, weather radio, or a HAM radio, here are the frequency's for the NOAA weather radio broadcasts....
162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525, 162.550

Usually, one can pick up at least two of the above freq's.

[bpitt]

For those interested in the technical aspect, here is the website for the NOAA data buoy center.......
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

[Hermione]

Most of the preparedness sites I've read have been somewhat lame, but maybe that's just because we all know that stuff or have shared it so much in the past few years. Still, every year somebody comes up with something basic I would never have thought of.

One of my favorite preparedness tips is to have all your laundry done.

[bpitt]

And if you ain't done it yet, get saved.

[Hawkeye]

Last I heard, in the event of another Katrina grade storm, we are not supposed to be counting on FEMA or the Red Cross for much of anything. Even the National Guard response would be less. And there won't be any ice at Camp Shelby.

[Hawkeye]

What about affordable inverters? I have several auto batt I keep charged up ahead of bad weather and keep the recharged when I have the generators running. During katrina I used these batteries to power DC appliances like radio, tv, and even a small fan. But I've never used an inverter except for the one in my RV.

Is there a type you could rig up in your home to convert auto batt DC to AC for running small appliances, like at night when you're trying to conserve gen juice? Mainly a FAN!

Most of these gens that put out around 5500 to 6500 watts burn up to 1 gal of fuel per hour depending on load. Trust me, that can get damned expensive. If power is off too long, its sometimes cheaper to throw out frozen food than try to keep it frozen.

Another tip for chest type freezers is to cover them with extra insulation, like sleeping bags and don't open them unless absolutely necessary. And don't forget Hermione's tip: freeze all the 2 liter and gallon jugs of water you can now while you have the time and the power. I grant you that ice will be as hard or harder to come by if this thing interrupts power like katrina did.

[carsalesguy]

i bought a 200 watt power inverter for $40 @ lowes last week- didn't know i was really going to need to use it until now-

[Hawkeye]

i bought a 200 watt power inverter for $40 @ lowes last week- didn't know i was really going to need to use it until now-

So, it will convert 12V DC to 200 watt AC? That would be enough for a fan and small light bulb, huh?

[threekidspa]

So, it will convert 12V DC to 200 watt AC? That would be enough for a fan and small light bulb, huh?
Or run your laptop....

[threekidspa]

i bought a 200 watt power inverter for $40 @ lowes last week- didn't know i was really going to need to use it until now-
This is a good tip! Think there are still any around to be had?

[Hermione]

Another tip for chest type freezers is to cover them with extra insulation, like sleeping bags and don't open them unless absolutely necessary. And don't forget Hermione's tip: freeze all the 2 liter and gallon jugs of water you can now while you have the time and the power. I grant you that ice will be as hard or harder to come by if this thing interrupts power like katrina did.

If you have a down comforter cover the freezer and/or coolers with it. Fill in any dead space with clean towels.

And don't forget to pour out a little water before you freeze it! I have a cracked water bottle in my freezer right now cause I didn't leave enough space for the ice to expand. You can also freeze water in tupperware containers. I froze some in ziplock type bags before, but they can leak.

[carsalesguy]

i was in lowes last night and i honest don't know if there were any to be had at that time-

i had actually got it to run my dremel from the car- it's a black and decker, and came with both the alligator clips for straight terminal and also the cig lighter thing-

i'm trying to find a link to it on the lowe's site-

[carsalesguy]

power inverter (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100610038&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&PID=1646355&cm_mmc=CJ-_-1525396-_-16463&URL=http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/BuildLinkToHomeDepot?linktype=product&id=100610038&srccode=8685595&cpncode=18-2358564&cj=true&cm_mmc=CJ-_-1525396-_-16463&cpncode=18-2358564&SID=8685595.18-2358564&AID=10368321&cj=true&srccode=8685595)

that is home depot- mine is a little different as it has 2 outlets instead of just that one-
but it does have that USB port on it too-

[Hawkeye]

Dang, my 40" sony LCD requires 220 watts

[BassCatter]

We may have dodged a bullet, but it's a bit early to say without a doubt where the eye will make landfall. Wilkens Weather, the forecasting site we use has landfall Late Monday, Early Tuesday in Lake Caillou, LA, just south/southwest of Houma, LA.

[Hawkeye]

but I think gustav is using a shotgun. we could still catch hell with that landfall point. once they hit land don't they almost automatically steer to the NE?

[Queen Mother]

And the right front quadrant is usually where most of the tornados and wind damage exists, I think.

[BassCatter]

Correct, but we will be on the very outter bands of the storm as it goes on the decline if the line predicted is the actual line. If it heads Northeast it will decline greatly over land. We will see winds, and probable tornados, but nothing like Katrina if it makes landfall as predicted. Having said that, here comes my disclaimer: That is a prediction made by a weather modeling computer 5 days out of landfall.

[katzeyez]

Have I mentioned xanex lately??http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/22.gif

[Hermione]

I have been in knots about what to do with my cats, thinking of the misery of driving with them and inflicting them on other people. I sat at my desk while ago and just prayed for an answer; in just a few minutes, the perfect solution presented itself. They're going to stay in my mom's house and my good friend who lives around the corner from her and who isn't leaving, will take care of them. Thank you Lord, thank you.

[Hawkeye]

traffic is very light on 49 rat now. more going south than north. guess everyone took heed. i feel like i'm all dressed up with nowhere to go. me tink de morning will be more interesting. bout bedtime. wore out tarred.

goodnite

[Honey]

Nite Hawkeye.