Early unexpected hurricane prep

[Bruce]

Can never be too early in your preps.

Upon arriving home today about 1pm, I notice power is out. No biggy I think been raining hard and windy, pole breaker tripped.
Go outside to check pole, sure enough breaker tripped. As I survey my drop to the house I notice the neutral is missing a 4' section.
Now I'm thinking lightning strike. Head to the panel and slight odor of ozone(ozone is given off on electrical arcs and corona discharges to wet salty environments) has me pull the cover expecting the worse. Everything looks good so I head out front look at the pole to follow wires down to the transformer and where did the transformer go?
For that matter where the hell is the pole it was sitting on?

Walk 3 house down, look over the fence and the pole is splintered laying on the ground. Pole rotted, little bit of wind and it came down.

Call electric provider and I get idiots and promises of the power being back on in a couple hours. I'm no line man but installing a new pole, transfer all the feeds, repair drops is a minimum 6 hours.

Realizing no electric for a while and two fridges and two freezers need juice I go to transfer to genset then realize I needed a new reg board and have just kept putting it off. Next break out the Honda. Fill with fuel and try and start. Fuel pours out the drain hose take into shop by flash lite pull cover and I never tightened the carb drain from putting it away last time.

Tighten and she starts right up. Scrounge enough cords for the reefer units, cable box and tv.
13 hours later power is back on.

Monday, of which I see it already is will get the reg board ordered.

As I talked to my neighbors who were bitching and moaning I reminded them this may just be an early hurricane season test.
Use it to asses your preparedness.

[Charlie J]

yea 6 to 10 hrs for pole replacement and transfer
depending on location

[Pete Fallon]

Bruce,
I just read your post, My power goes on and off all the time last night 3 times, I am going to fire up the generator set tomorrow , it hasn't been used in four years but I start it every six months just for shits. I don't plan on being here from August 1 to Nov 1 but it's still a good idea to be ready. This year is looking like it's going to be a active hurricane season water temps are already high in the gulf stream, the last time they were like that was 2004/ 2005 and we got the crap beat out of us here in South Florida.
Pete Fallon

[Kevin]

I lost power tonight during a passing storm. Palm branch went airborne and landed in the top wire on the pole. Nearest palm tree........at least 60 feet away.

What do you guys recommend for portable diesel generator in the 6 KW range? On a budget if you know what I mean. I prefer diesel since I have a 165 gallon tank in the back yard. I was looking about a month ago but was a bit scared on buying since most are Chinese......but some must be better than others.

I have a Yamaha 2000 inverter generator but that will not have enough juice for central air or operating the boat lift. Only has 110 outlet.

My understanding is, disconnect main breaker or feed into the house near the meter. I have a millermatic 200 in the garage with a big ole 220? plug outlet. I assume I can back feed the breaker panel in the garage there. I know there has got to be some sort of law saying you can't do it...............but when you lose power for more than a day all bets are off in my opinion.

[mike ohlstein]

I found a 16kw genset that was being swapped out of a 45 Hatt. Still running, just lots of hours. Hooked up a radiator from the junk yard and wire tied an attic fan to it. The fan runs off of the generator. Ran the exhaust out of the garage and hooked the fuel line into the home heating oil tank.

Worked pretty well after Sandy (among others).

[Rawleigh]

Kevin: Legally, you can backfeed a dedicated breaker if you put an interlock on it so that the main breaker and the genset breaker cannot be on at the same time. I used the upper left breaker in my Seimens box for the genset and used a small barrel bolt mounted vertically above it that would interfere with the main as the interlock. Here are some commercially available interlocks, but I didn't want to spend the $149+ bucks for one.

http://www.interlockkit.com/squareDmain01.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I had a circuit that used to run a hot tub that was heavy enough to handle my 9kw genset. You need a retaining strap for the backfed breaker so that it cannot pop loose, but if you look at most of the kits, they just use a wire tie that goes around the backfed breaker and the breaker across from it so that they are both held together as a unit.

Yes, you can do it illegally with a dryer plug, etc, but ask Charlie why that is not a good idea!!

Here is s diesel that will power anything you want:

http://affordablepower.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://emerson2-71gm.com/Gensets.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also propane and natural gas conversion kits:

http://www.propane-generators.com/a-c_k ... omy%20kits" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And a rig to tell you when the power has returned:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/202216506? ... dQ8gZzfIaY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Can you tell I have been thinking about this a lot??

[Bruce]

Kevin,
If your looking to power whole house, forget the chinese junk. Go mike's route, so did I.

The alternative is get the inexpensive gen transfer panel. They usually cover 4 to 6 circuits. Fridge, freezers, some lights outlets.

AC can be covered by buying a 6k btu shaker unit, throw in a window in a bedroom.

That 2kw gen will cover the shaker unit, fridge, a light or two. Thats what I did in 04.

I've installed a bunch of those panels for family and friends. Its easy.

For 5-600 bucks you can buy a 5500 watt genset that will put out 220 for the lift.

[Charlie J]

kevin
you can pull the meter to prevent back feed, if its possible put cover back and rap the pan in a plastic bag.
when working storms and hearing a gen,in the area realy put up the red flag when working on the line.
reason being the voltage back feeds thru the transform coils and comes out primary voltage.
any way you can islolate from the distribution side is fine

[Kevin]

I do the like the idea of powering the whole house with a permanent set up. If you guys don't mind me asking, how much coin did it take for the DIY generator install? Any leads in south florida for something I can fit in a F150 for transport? I had 1,400 lbs in the bed and that is pushing it. I would not mind rigging up a cooling system on my own like what Mike did. I might swing by the local diesel shop and see what they have in the used and abused department.

I think the transfer switch is probably the best route to go also. In the long run it beats messing with extension cords. It cant be that hard to install, although I have never done it.

The back up plan for AC is the boat. But I still need to get it in the water from the lift.........pending I still have a boat that floats. You can never have too many options. I think I went to every Hurricane from Punta Gorda to Diamond Head when things were busy a few years back. If you have electricity, you are king.

[Bruce]

Kevin,
Its a matter of finding something your budget can live with and what kw load you'll need to run whole house. 12 to15kw usually will cover it with single zone ac coverage.

Depending on where this will go, you may not need to convert to use a radiator. With being on the water, you can use a primary pump using and dumping into the canal.
It will also be quieter with water exhaust.

Watch some older marine gen sets are just real ambient noisey like the old onan's.

Our member Rickysa bought a surplus detroit genset on a sled and rebuilt it. They are available cheap with some work.
They can also be noisy if your trying to be neighbor quiet.

[Rawleigh]

The Detroit gensets come out of railroad reefer cars. Our electric utility sells and installs a base that goes between the power meter and the meter base that has a plug built into it that acts as a transfer switch.

Kevin: If you have room in the panel box to run some 4-2 cable from the genset plug for a permanent backfeed it is not very expensive. Outdoor plug, cable, circuit breaker, interlock. The same basic expense goes into doing a setup like Mikes. Make sure your genset and any aux. cooling pumps are above the flood level though.

[Kevin]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10KW-ONAN-Diese ... 232a98ef94" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is anyone running one of these or have any experience with them? MEP003a seems to be a desirable unit. Some say parts are hard to find, others say they are easy to get. This is all based on internet reading.