Dolly's a comin!!! - Page 2

futuresoptions · 07-30-2008, 08:37 PM

futuresoptions · 07-30-2008, 08:39 PM

bivenator · 07-30-2008, 08:48 PM

Wow what a ride. Glad to hear that you are mostly uscathed. It looks like the piers under the house did thier job. I was suprised to read that you are just now getting power. The story fell off the radar here in the local media after the landing. Not enough dead people thankfully. Notice the gun in the pic, were there any looting problems?

futuresoptions · 07-30-2008, 09:00 PM

You would not believe it, the people across the street from me had power since Friday afternoon, but me and the folks that live north & south of me had nothing.... We would stop and tell the line crews about the situation and they told us there was nothing they could do because certain circuits were assigned to individual crews and that we would have to wait until our crew arrived.... they arrived today from Arkansas.... I had been listening to talk radio since the storm, and I believe it dropped off the airways on Friday... storm came in Wednesday.... Don't know how bad the looting was, but we did hear reports of an increase of burglaries and some looting... I suspect it was nothing like we have seen in other situations.... Needless to say the 95 degree temps and 100% humidity made it terrible... no showers.... sewage... just plain miserable... then we at least get water back and then the standing water starts a stinking..... now you can not walk outside without getting attacked by the mosquito's... luckily I had my 928 jacked up from the rear so I can pull the tranny... If not for that it would have been a fish bowl..... One other observation that I made is that for the most part we do not have frogs... the night after the storm it was like the Egyptian plague from the bible... all night long for the next three nights ..RRRREEEEEEEP RRRREEEEEP!!! Geez..... but with power back and the A/C on things are looking up, I need to let the water recede in the yard so I can start my cleanup....

Rot 911 · 07-31-2008, 06:07 AM

Sorry to hear about all the hassle you are going through. We got the remnants of Dolly here yesterday and it still had enough left to drop a couple of inches of rain.

onewhippedpuppy · 07-31-2008, 06:21 AM

Damn, that sucks. Hopefully you don't have too much work to do once the water recedes. Like Kurt, we also got several inches of rain from Dolly. Can't say it upset me too much, it knocked down our 100+ temps for several days.

Jims5543 · 07-31-2008, 06:54 AM

Minus the flooding it sounds like your typical Cat 1 through 3 hurricane aftermath.

In Sept 2004 I went 20 days with no power and in Oct 2005 I went 1 week.

I now have a 15 k/w standby generator that not only runs my entire house but my A/C as well, we just do not have the hot water heater hooked to it and the range. Thats what the Weber Grill is for.

After a couple of storms you have a great game plan in place, I have a irrigation well that I can hook up to my house for water if we loose city water. We have many little tricks now so we are not miserable after the storm. It is the worst being without air in 100% humidity and 90+ temps.

futures - you just went through a week of Hell on earth. I hope you can get some relaxation soon.

futuresoptions · 07-31-2008, 11:31 AM

Got some gooood sleep last night guys thanks... I really like to cook but allowed my wife into talking me into one of those flat top electric ranges... this thing is headed for the landfill as soon as I can afford to purchase one of those 6 burner commercial gas ranges.... as far as power goes I was thinking of adding a small addition onto the west side of my residence that would contain a transfer switch and a large amount of batteries that would be fed via solar panels.... this I have been thinking about doing for a while now... would have all 120v circuits running off this system year round.... and would only need commercial power for the A/C units and water heater..... Would definately lower my electrical bill and would supply emergency power during outages.... what say you....

futuresoptions · 07-31-2008, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jims5543

I now have a 15 k/w standby generator that not only runs my entire house but my A/C as well, we just do not have the hot water heater hooked to it and the range. Thats what the Weber Grill is for.

Yeah 15kw is a good size for a backup on a residence... without the hot water heater on there it probably doesn't get under a full load.... FYI any of you guys that do have generators, besides the problems of fuel stability from sitting too long (which Jim won't have because of the fuel source he has chosen) need to be aware of one thing... When you do not run your genset under a full load, it runs cooler... it produces carbon in the exhaust and it will actually ovetime start to clog up to the point where it will not start or will fail when you need it the most.... Always try to run your genset under a full load every year or two to heat the unit up enough to burn any excess deposits out of your exhaust.... I have seen alot of this in the larger diesel generators, but just something to think about just in case.. I would doubt that this would be a problem in most 2.5kw or 5kw units....

onewhippedpuppy · 07-31-2008, 11:53 AM

Your battery and solar idea is interesting, but sounds expensive. How quickly would the batteries discharge under a heavy load. The good thing about a generator, it's usually easy to find fuel.

futuresoptions · 07-31-2008, 01:53 PM

Good question.... The answer I don't really know.... haven't done the math as of yet.... Do know that I would take out all of the conventional bulbs out of the house and go with LEDs.... Would have to research what to replace my fluorescents in the kitchen with..... Believe the most expensive part would be the solar panels themselves.... Could set it up to do a little at a time though... say just hook up the lighting at first and then as money permits add on more panels and batteries until items like the deep freeze, fridge and microwave could be applied. In emergency situations prohibit use of the microwave, coffee pot etc... allow fridge and freezer.... if I do attempt this of course I will purchase the gas stove first.... this is without question. If and when batteries run low, have the transfer switch to put the circuits back on commercial power.... I do not have a problem with gensets, but I figure if I purchase one that it would not be used often enough to keep it in good shape... it would probably just sit and rot.... If I spend money, I would like to see it used on something that could be used on a daily basis, lower my monthly bill (which would help make it pay for itself eventually.) and at the same time give me the ability to at least have lights and refrigeration during power outages...