The Tenth Crusade
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Still no electricity...
Estimated repair time from the electric company....September 4th!
I am a lot of things but living like a pioneer woman is not among them. I enjoy the finer things like warm water and lights.
I've figured out though the most important item in the scheme of things. When you get right down to it, it's the hairdryer.
:)
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14 comments:
Oh, eeeeee gads, Carol. How perfectly awful and insufferable. The lights should have gone out here in Behesda and didn't. I will surely pray for hot water and heat to return your way soon. Hang in there friend.
So sorry to hear that ! Ugh! I hope you have some friends or relatives offering a hand! My prayers are with you! You're most welcome in our home if you are inclined to hop down here to Philly :)
LOL! For me it is the coffee pot. I highly recommend a generator - we finally made the investment after realizing that power losses are increasing in frequency and duration. Maybe they gave you a later date so that you will be singing their praises when the lights come back on today - it's all a matter of perspective! Hoping for the best......
I think it is a good thing to see how over-reliant we are on electricity and to rough it a few days. We had to do the same thing in the middle of a very cold winter about ten years ago when an ice storm left us without electricity for three days.
Veronica
Oh Carol, I'm so sorry to hear that! Sounds like your power company is nearly as bad as Maryland's notorious Pepco.
Thanks all for the empathy!
Kelly, Thank God, I have a good smattering of friends and relatives I can rely upon...and a generator on its way today so I can plug in the fridge and one other rotating appliance - like a light or a computer!
And I was miffed that my power was out from 10 AM till 6 PM Sunday! The kids loved it, just as they did when we were out for almost 5 days in the ice storm. I have a generator, of course.
This storm was hyped for days before it hit, and the power companies really have no excuse. But greenie Massachusetts tree-huggers are to blame, too, because they won't let the power company clear out the trees.
Prayers for you Carol...The worst for me would be the air conditioning!
I hope it comes back on before you need your new generator. +
Back in business!
That was not fun. At all.
Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes.
Jerry, how big is your generator?
5000?
I agree with you Jerry! The owners of those trees that took poles down should be fined. I can't believe some of them like my neighbor who says "it's God's way of trimming the branches" then she complains that the Town won't pick up the piles of LOGS they clear to make the roads passable. God Have Mercy on me & God Bless them!
Carol,
Glad to hear you're lit up again.
No, my generator is around 3000 Watts. But I get away with it because I'm an electrical geek type. I'm happy to plug the gen into the clothes dryer outlet and then play with the power panel to "manage the load" by flipping breakers on and off. That lets me run the fridge and freezer, then turn them off, then run the well. And then run the window AC or the boiler.
You might want to get a battery-start 5000 W gen and have an electrician install a switchover panel. Then you're playing it safe and easy. That'll cost you about $2K or more.
How often do you have a 3 hour outage?
Jerry, I just want enough to run a light and the fridge - alternate with the boiler.
I'd say the juice goes out for more than three hours a couple of times a year. This was long stretch. I had more in mind to spending a couple of hundred. LOL.
Carol,
You want to do it the way I do it. I spent under $400 back in '96, and it has been worth every penny.
The trick is running the boiler. To do that, you have to get the generator connected to the power panel. That entails the following methods and precautions:
- You have to make a cord to plug it into the dryer outlet. (If you have a gas dryer, you might still have an outlet.) No store will do that for you because of liability.
- You must observe strict procedures on how you plug a live generator into the house. Mistakes could kill you, damage the generator, or start a fire. (Scared yet?)
- You will have to control the circuit breakers so that you don't overload the generator. This includes cutting the big "main" breaker so you don't ever connect the generator to the outside line.
If you're up for this, find an electrically savvy friend who is willing to trust you to learn how to do it. I can describe how to make the connector cord, and send you the detailed procedure I wrote up for connecting, using, and disconnnecting the generator.
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