Electricity is out for the past hour. Estimated time of repairs is 2:30 am. 317 houses out. Not sure why. I'm using tablet tethered to my phone.
Glad batteries are charged!
I'm listening to an audiobook on my phone.

There's always something ...
Hope it returns soon ...

G'nite ...

Don, what an opportunity to hold your wife real close. (smile)

John C.

stay safe

Don I hope the power is back on by now, if not hang in there.
I hate when then that happens.

Don..you gotta tell me how you tether your tablet to your phone?

About 15 years ago, I purchased an emergency generator, one large enough to power the entire house. Cost me about $400, manual start, fires up on the first pull of the starter cord. Spent another $150 to have an electrician to have the connections made to the house. This, after the passage of a hurricane put us out of electric for 4 days. Best investment I ever made. Especially that I am now on life support with an oxygen generator 24/7.

During the past few years, I have spent a lot of money on home safety equipment, including an electric stair lift chair, handicap accessible bathroom, safety rails and shower seat, electric scooter, handicap ramp for front steps, outdoor step rails, scooter transport rack for the car and two portable oxygen generators. Getting old can be a bit expensive, but in the long run, it's worth it. The items listed above can be essential to life, especially during a power failure if you happen to be dependent upon them to take that next breath.

Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to go this afternoon.

Gary

John...you are at Don's house?

Don
I hope all gets fixed soon. Its always something it seems lately.
Here in Bluffton SC we're getting another round of severe storms with Tornado and Hail possibilites tomorrow. It never just rains here its always a major monsoon. That and having a hurricane threat every year I've been here, not to mention the virus is starting to get to us.
Gary--great investment, even better is a Generac automatic system. My neightbor who is an electrician is a dealer. I also bought a home generator a few storms ago and had a doulble input plug installed on our front porch so I don't have to run any wires thru a doorway, but since we are in a new neighborhod and have a nearby new substation our risk of losing power is low. That according to my neighbor who used to work for the elec. company. So far so good,no power outages.
Everyone stay safe and listen to the experts not the political hacks.

Most smartphones have the option of becoming a "personal hotspot" ... look in your settings. This way, the tablet can "find" your phone as a connection. remember to turn it off after use, cuz it will use data, and possibly heat up. Mine gets quite hot if I use it too long.

I'm having a 22k Generac whole-house generator installed next week. I already have a concrete pad near the service entrance so installation shouldn't be very expensive. Only 5k at Home Depot, the cost of a TOTL arranger. My entire house is electric except for the kitchen range, outdoor grill, and the gas fireplaces. We have very few outages as all of the electric power in our neighborhood is underground and not subject to falling trees, etc., still, it's cheap insurance. We had one major blackout during the winter of 2018 (2 1/2 days without power) and that was enough for me. I had a similar setup in my house in Florida; there it was really necessary. Had a large but portable setup in Hawaii because, where we lived, no electricity also meant no water.

It's funny how we think some things are extravagant, UNLESS it's something we want.....like an expensive keyboard .

chas

Don,
Glenda and I have had several discussions about not only doing a full house generator like Gary and Chas mentioned but also doing solar panels. Only Problem is the generator is around $5000.00 and the Solar Panels about $17,000.00. The weather has changed In the past 5 years and the DFW area is experiencing more serious storms than in the past. They once went either North or South of us- but not now. I really don't want to be without power for a week or two. Anyway, take care and hang in there.

Chas, I couldn't agree with you more. My wife is doesn't want to spend the money but you are right - if I wanted a new TOTL keyboard she wouldn't say a word about the cost.

Deane

chas, good for you ... I've thought about it from time to time, just never did it ... we have underground utilities also, but there is always an overhead transformer somewhere that gets knocked out by a storm, auto accident, whatever ... fortunately we have not suffered any losses when the power has gone out ... but ...



RIGHT !!!

It came back on sometime early this morning, a little later than they thought.
A friend just came by for me to put a grip on a golf club for him, and as we were standing in the garage, it started hailing. Not big or severe, but hail for sure. Forecast is for thunderstorms again today.
As far as the tethering, your phone can become a Hotspot. You may have to pay a few bucks extra every month for it though.
Mine doesn't heat up because I use it for four hours every night when I work. I have unlimited data so no problem there.
I think you can connect up to five devices at the same time if needed.

Chas - Great point! My wife has asked several times that we put a whole house generator in... We have been without power a few times in the past and as you relayed... "It sure ain't fun". Not to mention the spoilage of the frozen and refrigerated stuff... So I just surprised the Missus and called the local gas company - will have to install a gas line under the road in front of my house but might get a discount as a new customer.

Being in FL (underground utilities here too but coming from the substations they are above ground in places...) it sure would help us rest easy to know we had the generator. Thanks for the "inspiration"!

I have thought about getting a generator, but we rarely are without power. When the BIG tornado of 1999 hit we were without power for more than two weeks. That would have been the perfect time to get one, during rebuilding.
Our house, and neighborhood is all-electric, so no gas. Ya got me thinkin' again . . . and that usually leads to spending money.

Today's warning from the Sheriff:
Severe Weather Today & Tonight

The National Weather Service in Shreveport forecasts Severe Thunderstorms are possible Wednesday afternoon through the evening for Bossier Parish and NW LA, to include possible tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds.

A Flash Flood Watch is in effect from 2 p.m. Wednesday through 7 a.m. Thursday, with one to three inches of rain possible.

Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington, Bossier Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, and local officials encourage residents to pay close attention to the forecasts, as weather conditions can change rapidly.

Residents can find out about weather alerts here: https://twitter.com/i/status/1248309705195155457 - to find ways to receive Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) from the National Weather Service and other ways you can received weather alerts through radio and TV.

You can also click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqmguEWojYw&feature=youtu.be

Don - definitely hear ya. We have suppressed the urge in the past. But these days we are spending a month or so at a time in MD (when not in virus mode) and if the power were to go out for an extended period, yikes, our food would spoil and remain unattended til we got home. Double yikes. Also, the wife was just saying the other day how scary it would be to lose power now with the distancing going on. We are stocked up right now but the AC, fridge, and freezer are our lifelines should something interrupt the power. Probably not going to be cheap but money well spent I am sure in the long run....

Another good investment these days would be a STORM SHELTER or cellar as we called them in Oklahoma.

Just another thought on the Generac. You have to have natural gas service to run it. I'm in the older section of our neighborhood and don't but the newer section does. I 'd also like to look into an on demand water heater but again no gas.
Ok now lets talk storm panels for the windows Jeez --- lets get back to music.

Don, sadly we don't have Natural gas here in my neighborhood either but we have a 250lb propane tank (in the woods out of sight) courtesy of the gas company (they own the tanks). Normally, one filling lasts us a year but we don't use the fireplaces much (bedroom, family room, living room) so it's mostly just the gas range for cooking. Hook up a line to your grill and one to the generator and you still will probably only have to top it off once a year. I don't know of anyone that has installed one that regretted it and if you sell your house, it's a good selling point. Like I said, it's probably one of the cheapest worthwhile upgrades to a house you can get. All the new whole house gens are equipped with wi-fi.

chas

Bill, the model I ordered will run on LP or natural gas. In fact, the same model generates 22,000 watts when fueled by propane and 18,000 with natural gas. So not a problem.

chas

I moved into my house 20 years ago. My house in the country had numerous power outages. Since the power is all underground, there has never been a power outage in the new home (been there 20 years). I did buy 4 Harbor Freight gas generators; one for me and one for my three kids. Each will power a fridge, electric stove, computer and about 12 outlets. We all have fireplaces.

Just a little insurance we hope we will never need.My mechanical minded son does regular testing and maintenance every 90 days.

Russ

Chas, that 22,000-watts sounds like a bit of overkill to me. Have you ever had your power consumption checked out to see what you actually draw? I run 3,500 square feet of house with central air, electric stove, big refrigerator, couple of flat screen TVs and two PCs on 6,500 watts. And, that also includes the power to run our well pump, which is a 3/4-HP electric submersible pump placed 550 feet beneath the ground. When the well pump kicks on, the lights dim slightly for a couple seconds, but that's about it. The gasoline generator runs forever on 6 gallons of gas. We have a 30-amp connection to the generator that is positioned beneath our deck and a connection to an inlet on the adjacent wall that feeds directly to a knife switch next to our 200-amp service box.

Our heating system is oil-fired, hot-water baseboard for the main level and the basement family room is heated with a ventless, propane, gas log fireplace. Our hot water is fed through the boiler used for the heat, and has a summer/winter hookup system. It heats ice cold water to 160 degrees in less than 3 minutes. No electric hot water tank to contend with and the first boiler lasted us 36 years before it had to be replaced. Replacement cost was about $3,000, which included labor for installation.

Good luck,

Gary

Looks like storms the rest of the day and into the night here. So far nothing severe near us, but lots of rain.

Gary, you are missing one point.. Like myself , Chas is total electric (almost), I am total electric. I average more than 4,000KWh during winter..

I would say at least 15,000 watts generator would be needed for total electric for my house.. 2,500 sq feet.
2 heat pumps, 2 electic hot water heaters, range, two refrigerators, 5 TV's 2 microwaves, Jacuzzi, dish washer,2 laundry units(2 dryers and 2 washers), Music studio gear etc

I do have a 4,500 watt power inverter for emergency.

Fran, if you only draw 4,000 KWH during the winter months, then my 6,800-watt generator would run your entire home with 2,800-watts to spare.

Gary

Gary we are not on the same page


Here are specs of my electric uses (only ten)
You can see that your generator can not do the job at all.. Even if both heat pumps run, it is over 12,000 watts


Heat pump 6,000 watts (x2)

dish washer 1,200 watts

micro wave oven 1,450 watts (x2)

range 12,200 watts

lights 4,000 watts

dryer 4,856 watts (x2)

washer 512 watts (x2)

water heater 4,500 watts (x2)

color TV 200 watts (x5)

Refrigerator 615 watts (x2)



KWh is usage.. watts are the power supply (needed)

Gary, I think you mis-read Fran. The 4.5k unit is just an emergency backup. As he said, my house is all-electric and that includes three large HVAC units with the largest unit also zoned to a heated garage. The house is super insulated so heating and AC is fairly reasonable; also I don't have any kids running in and out so once at temp, the units run very little. However, I'm a creature of overkill, so I've got a lot of stuff that burns a lot of juice . Mainly, I wanted a system that would easily run all the systems at once. I have whole-house on-demand hot water but also a single point on-demand in the kitchen.

Oh, and yes, I intend to sell and move into a townhouse. It would be an apartment or condo if not for my musical toys.

chas

Thanks Dave. I never thought to look on my phone. looked and found it. May come in handy to know. Thanks again.

Fran, those wattage statements seem very high. I just looked up my heat pump and it only draws 1920-watts. My electric range is nowhere near 12,200-watts and that's if everything was running at the same time. That calculates to more than 50 amperes. My frig is connected to a 20 ampere breaker, but only draws about 8 amps. Now, all of this stuff I have is fairly new and low energy consumption rated, so maybe that has some bearing on the figures.

Either way, my electric bill only averages about 120 a month, and that's with an oxygen generator running 24/7.

Chas, if I lived in your part of the world, I would probably go for the largest system I could find to do the job as well. There's no such thing as having too much electricity available, especially given the weather patterns you have to endure every year.

Good luck,

Gary

True. BTW, my motorhome which I sold last year, had a 12,500W diesel generator. It also had a 2000W inverter (bank of 4 6v deep cycle batteries). House is considerably larger than that motorhome.

chas

Gary here is the link to the info.. BTW: my winter electric bill is around $500.

electric info

My sailboat, which I also sold last year, had a Honda 2000i Generator, which put out 2200 watts, which ran the boats 12,000 BTU AC unit, charged the batteries (4 6-volt golf cart batteries and one deep cycle marine battery) ran the refrigerator freezer and all lights. My inverter, which I rarely used, was just 2,500-watts. On the cooler nights when the AC wasn't running, the inverter powered my flat screen TV so I could watch a movie while anchored up in some remote cove or creek for the evening. It also powered my onboard laptop. Sure miss that boat, but I'm well past the age to sail single-handed, safely.

All the best,

Gary