I told my kid it was gonna be 45 next week so the snow will melt. He said "Can I go swimming?" And he's not even kidding either. Kids are insane. If the ice is off the lake, they're bugging me for a swim and pull um skiing.... Lol
Growing up, my family had a summer cottage in northern wisc., as many of you know , memorial day weekends can be a bit chilly there . There were a bunch of us teenagers who water skiied in jeans & a sweatshirt when it was around 40° ( pier takeoff , beach landing) , locals thought we were insane , can't imagine why ?
Is that Natural gas or Propane fueled? I always have used gasoline generators, and what happened this past week has reaffirmed my belief in them over natural gas. Think of it this way: Electricity is provided by a utility. So is natural gas. In my 20's I was a lineman for an Iowa utility. I hated this kind of weather. 16 hours on, 8 hours off until all the shit was fixed. Sometimes it took a couple weeks to get everyone back on line. Every now and then someone would thank you, but a lot of the time it was "how come it took you so damn long to get this fixed?" Terry Peak? Joe Dirt knows how to deal with a cold related emergency:
Two days ago we had a low of 15 degrees below zero! The weatherman is predicted a high of 70 degrees next Tuesday ! Crazy weather...... but it is Oklahoma and you know what Will said! Bones
The blizzard of 1888 made it all the way down to Beaumont Texas as there are stories of snow and deaths from that mess. SO it seems that there is a cycle to these events as the last major storm to cause problems in central Texas was in 1991 when I didn't have water for 2 weeks. Now I live in Colorado and the only problem is crazy ass drivers, that is a story of how I almost got killed today and is for another time
You guys down South were SUPER CLOSE to some serious trouble. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/18/texas-power-outages-ercot/
Yep, they dodged a big bullet... What I found the most interesting is in an attempt to avoid 'gubmint regulation' Texas has it's own independent grid with little or no connections to the two large nationwide grids so as they had in-state failures they were unable to import power from elsewhere. And it's not like they didn't know; this is the fourth time since the late '80s this has happened although the previous times weren't as bad.
Ebb, you want to go with propane! That way you can buy it when it’s cheap and store it for emergencies! Here in my area we had exceptionally cold temperatures and have electric outages! But here’s the kicker, when the electric went out the demand for gas went up with everyone trying to heat their homes with cook stoves. We also had natural gas outages or close to outages. If you have 250/500 gallons of propane stored.... you are fully independent of the utilities....natural gas.... you are somewhat still dependent on the utilities! Edit: around here you can buy propane tanks all the time for less than a dollar a gallon. Bones
i have a 500 gal. LP tank that i own. that way, i can buy gas from whoever is the cheapest. there is quite a difference if you shop around
I keep a 100 pounder around for backup. Small enough to throw in the truck and take in for refills abut big enough that I could heat my folks 5th wheel camper for over a week.
The advantage of a propane generator out weigh a gas fired one. Main thing is if the generator sits unfired for few years, you don’t have to worry about the carburetor gumming up and have issues. Now the thing with a home generator is you NEED to put in an auto transfer switch set up, a bit pricy, but worth possible future issues. Joe home owner has a generator wired in with a disconnect switch. He thought he did good, he wired it to his main breaker, and when he loses power he starts the generator. Issue is, unless he wired it to the out put side of the breaker, he’s now lighting up the wires coming into his home with 240 volts. Now, we know Joe should shut is main off, but if it’s cold, wet rainy or snowing, is Joe going to remember to shut off the main? If Joe forgets and the utility company goes to work on the wires they now get 240 volts heading their way.
Good thing I’m not Joe! I have one 10,000 watt diesel powered generator, one 10,000 watt gas powered and a 5,000 watt gas powered portable. I have double male leads for all and a fifty amp service for my motor home. Fire up any generator, plug it into the fifty amp motorhome plug in on the unattached garage. Trip the main switch on the 200 amp house service, I am not isolated from the power grid....on my own! With fifty gallons of gas 100 gallons of diesel.....I’m good to go .......for a while. I’ve been at my house twenty years and have been with out electricy for two weeks , twice! I ready for about anything! My next door neighbor has a huge propane generator with a 250 gallon tank! My next purchase is going to be a big extension cord! Bones
if the power is out I could care less what is making the generator spin, wind, gas, fuel, diesel, rubber bands, small rodents on a wheel...
The disadvantage with a propane-powered generator is you'll have to buy a bigger unit for the same output. Propane contains less energy than gasoline, run time will be reduced per gallon, as will output, generally around 20% less. Not saying that's bad, but is something you need to be aware of. And if you don't properly isolate your service, you'll put more than 240 volts into the grid. Once it hits the transformer feeding your home, it'll be bucked up to whatever the distribution voltage is which could be anywhere from 2300 to 7200 volts. As to an auto-transfer switch, I don't use one but I'm also a retired electrician so I'm very aware of the danger to utility crews and always disconnect from the grid before starting my generator. But if you fail to isolate, unless the break is very local in most cases your generator will attempt to power up your neighbors and trip out under load.
It's cold here in NC. I have a new Edelbrock carb to install on the hot rod but these 76yo bones can't take the cold weather. It's going to be warmer next week!! Whew..........
A reminder that just shutting off the main breaker doesn't isolate you from the grid, you have to break the neutral as well to properly disconnect the service, that's why the disconnects are the way they are.
That's not true. A 'neutral' coming from utility power is actually just a ground. It doesn't become a 'neutral' until you separate it at your service panel and go out to branch circuits. If it's installed correctly, it will be bonded to ground at both the utility transformer and the main service.
Ya, forgot about those diesel ones. I know years ago when I was looking at them, they were high dollar, pretty much out of my reach. I almost pulled the trigger on one that would run off my MF 65 PTO, but that would limit me to how I could get to the dang thing or get the tractor in place. PG@E frowns on tossing range cable over your roof here
While its inconvenient in winter to not have electricity, what is necessary is to have some kind of back up heat. Its not just to keep you and the family warm but to prevent pipes from freezing and the subsequent damage when they thaw. Years ago we had an ice storm and it wiped out everything around here for weeks. People couldn't stay in their houses but many had no where else to go. Luckily we had some natural gas heaters that install on a wall. Here is a similar one. Bout $150 You can get propane or natural gas. No vent pipe needed and no electricity either. We actually use ours all the time because it keeps the furnace from cycling on and off so much and being in the basement the heat rises. We love it. Anyway, it saved our bacon during the ice storm and while we didn't have electricity for a couple weeks, we were able to get by pretty well. A woodstove or a fireplace that can be called into duty when needed is also an option. The thing is, whats going on should be a learning experience for everyone.....catastrophies happen ever so often and a little effort can put you in a lot better situation the next time. Jus sayin...... You can get them large propane bottles at tractor supply pretty reasonable.
Friend had one of those ventless heaters in his garage , he got rid of it , gave him a headache every time he used it . you can't convince me that burning a fossil fuel doesn't produce carbon monoxide ...
Hope all our Texas Hambers are staying warm well wishes from the northeast Sent from my SM-G973U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
It's a balmy 19* here and headed to 27! Looks like our bitter cold is done for a while. Here's hoping it takes a break for everyone so things can get back to 'normal'.
Texas has been on its own grid since World War 2.0, the recent shortfall was so great that interconnects wouldn't have helped once everything tripped offline. Huge MW shortfalls like that simply can't be moved around over great distances, and likely would have resulted in more widespread outages. It just doesn't work that way. Don't be fooled. They are subject to government regulation just like everybody else, and that was part of the problem. The fact they operate on their own grid is actually a plus, not a negative. The fact that ERCOT s&@t in their messkit shows how screwed up the "reliability" part of their name really is. Heads should roll for this, but that almost never happens in our brave new world. Some of it has to do with federal regulations, some of it has to do with a failure to winterize their equipment, not to mention the removal of a dozen reliable base load capacity coal fired plants and an over reliance on less reliable subsidized "green" energy. One element that has emerged are federal "clean air" mandates that require natural gas pipelines to utilize pumps that operate on electricity. This isn't limited to Texas, it is apparently nationwide. Traditionally or historically natural gas pipelines used the natural gas in the pipelines to operate the pumps. This is a very elegant solution from an engineering perspective. Natural gas is not kept on site to the end users in many cases, it is a form of "just in time" inventory. But if there is no electricity - the natural gas cannot be pumped from the wells, and it can't move from the tanks, and can't move through the pipelines. This is why a natural gas peak load electricity generating station would be dead in the water, when most needed. Natural gas, unlike propane, doesn't "freeze", it's good to go down to cryogenic temperatures. Unless of course, somebody forces you to do stupid things. In sort of a similar way a lot of residential natural gas stoves and furnaces will not operate if there is an electricity blackout.
It depends, there will always be some. Whether it reaches a significant level depends on whether it is running correctly or not. If it is defective. Those propane heaters are perfectly safe when running (and used) properly. If not, not. One dependable method of killing yourself and family or friends involves re-purposing them to cook food. By placing a pan or pot of water on something, it "quenches" the flame or combustion, and now the device produces lethal levels of CO.
ERCOT does not require the winterization of power plants hopefully that gets changed but I doubt it. Sure glad it did not get cold enough to freeze my propane tank. At -44 that would mean hell has truly frozen over. Only? got down to -2 here in north Texas. Has not been that cold since January of 1949 same year as the video Ryan posted.
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