Classic pattern for a week of no power is in place. Warm air at 2000 feet bracketed by freezing air above and below. Snow forms above, melts through the warm layer, freezes on contact with objects below, particularly tree limbs, power lines, and highways.
Power company and tree service heavy equipment from multiple states are staged in mall parking lots, golf resort parking lots and strategic spots.
I got the little Honda 2000 fired up in anticipation. It will keep the freezer, tv, wifi, computers and a few lights running, but 220 stuff like the well pump and water heater will be idle. Gas logs will maintain 68-72 degrees in most of the house, so we won't be cold. Toilets flushed with stored water and purchased gallons of cheap water.
Meanwhile, I've contacted an electrical contractor about a whole-house, natural gas-fired generator. $12,000 plus or minus; he's coming next week to scope it out and firm up. End of February installation.
I've dealt with this crap every 5 or 6 years, sometimes twice in a year, either from ice or hurricanes, since the mid-seventies and I want this one to be my last one.
Of course, all of my neighbors should thank me, 'cause once I spring for this, we'll never have another one.
ha ha - just finished digging out of last one that caught us and I-95 off guard.?ÿ ?ÿI repaired the generator and got the Honda ATV w/snow plow running for tomorrow.?ÿ Like you, guaranteed to not be a significant storm.?ÿ
Just think back a century ago with no weather forecast and snowed/iced in - they managed.
This click bait video just popped up on my YouTube.
Generac or Kohler?
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Generac. Contractor is a dealer, does residential & commercial.
I??m right there with you. Not so much snow and ice here as hurricanes. But I??m eyeballing the whole house solution powered by natural gas.?ÿ
We dodged the bullet around here, but currently more than 60,000 without power statewide, down from more than 90,000 a few hours ago.?ÿ
Our saving grace was that the warm layer bottomed out high enough for the melted snow to refreeze into sleet before it hit the ground.
Just enough snow and sleet to make things nasty on the roads.
We lost power for about 6 hours, but the Ben Franklin wood stove kept us toasty and the candlelight lit the way.?ÿ My wife tried to pop corn on the stove, but ended up using the propane camp stove.?ÿ The kernels had been toasting on the wood stove and so by the time they popped they were like half size pop corn,?ÿ mmm tasty.
Here, just west of Atlanta, we just got rain and a little snow.?ÿ The snow didn't accumulate so we had no problems.?ÿ Northeast Georgia got hit pretty hard though.
A couple of years ago we had a big wind storm (not tornado) near here that took out some major power lines.?ÿ We were without power for about 48 hours.?ÿ I pulled our little motorhome up in the driveway and fired up its generator.?ÿ Like you we kept freezers going and our neighbors came over to charge cell phones and laptops.
Andy
