There is a winter storm warning in effect for Alabamastan. All sorts of
schools, government offices and businesses will not open tomorrow
Tuesday 2/11/2014 and everyone is freaking out and they don't want a
cluster coitus like what happened the last time snow fell. What may
happen is nothing which I've seen before when the weather mavins
predicted heavy snow and people ran around like ants from a disturbed
ant hill cleaning out the grocery stores. People were really angry at
the weather sorcerers that time. ^_^

TDD

On 2/10/2014 4:19 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
There is a winter storm warning in effect for Alabamastan. All sorts of
schools, government offices and businesses will not open tomorrow
Tuesday 2/11/2014 and everyone is freaking out and they don't want a
cluster coitus like what happened the last time snow fell. What may
happen is nothing which I've seen before when the weather mavins
predicted heavy snow and people ran around like ants from a disturbed
ant hill cleaning out the grocery stores. People were really angry at
the weather sorcerers that time. ^_^

TDD

The last one ought have been the caution. Have
water and food stored at home at all times. I
heard on the radio, that Georgia is preemptively
declaring state of emergency to get ahead of
things.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/10/2014 4:07 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 2/10/2014 4:19 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
There is a winter storm warning in effect for Alabamastan. All
sorts of schools, government offices and businesses will not open
tomorrow Tuesday 2/11/2014 and everyone is freaking out and they
don't want a cluster coitus like what happened the last time snow
fell. What may happen is nothing which I've seen before when the
weather mavins predicted heavy snow and people ran around like ants
from a disturbed ant hill cleaning out the grocery stores. People
were really angry at the weather sorcerers that time. ^_^

TDD

The last one ought have been the caution. Have water and food stored
at home at all times. I heard on the radio, that Georgia is
preemptively declaring state of emergency to get ahead of things.

Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out power.
I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go bonkers without
my computers running. ^_^

TDD

On 2/10/2014 6:04 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out power.
I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go bonkers without
my computers running. ^_^

TDD

Much the same here. I remember the one ice storm,
I brought my computer home from the repair guy.
Plugged it into the generator, had dial up land
line at the time. I had fresh OS, so I program
my outlook express, and download my emails. Got
about six virus in that email batch, and had to
take the computer back. Next time load anti virus
before check email. sigh.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/10/2014 6:04 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out power.
I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go bonkers without
my computers running. ^_^

TDD

I have natural gas range, but that doesn't get
heat all the way to the bedroom. I'd love to
put in a vented heater by the bedroom door,
but I can't afford the heater, at the moment.
Life is never perfect, during a power cut.

I need a big warm dog.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

Per The Daring Dufas:
Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out power.
I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go bonkers without
my computers running. ^_^

We just finished five days without electric.

I was *really* glad I had one of these: http://tinyurl.com/mhoccd8
and one of these: http://tinyurl.com/a6e9fgn

The transfer switch came after a couple of years' running extension
cords through windows. Money well spent IMHO.

After 5 days of getting up at 0200 to re-fuel, the next thing will be
one of these: http://tinyurl.com/o2djjla
--
Pete Cresswell

On 2/10/2014 8:02 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 2/10/2014 6:04 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out
power. I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go
bonkers without my computers running. ^_^

TDD

I have natural gas range, but that doesn't get heat all the way to
the bedroom. I'd love to put in a vented heater by the bedroom door,
but I can't afford the heater, at the moment. Life is never perfect,
during a power cut.

I need a big warm dog.

My 11 pound attack dog has a normal body temperature of 102.5°F and
she's like a four legged hot water bottle. I can wake up and find that
she has burrowed under the covers and curled up next to me. I suppose
Sandy is the only female of any species who really loves me. ^_^

TDD

On 2/10/2014 8:13 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per The Daring Dufas:
Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out
power. I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go
bonkers without my computers running. ^_^

We just finished five days without electric.

I was *really* glad I had one of these: http://tinyurl.com/mhoccd8
and one of these: http://tinyurl.com/a6e9fgn

The transfer switch came after a couple of years' running extension
cords through windows. Money well spent IMHO.

After 5 days of getting up at 0200 to re-fuel, the next thing will
be one of these: http://tinyurl.com/o2djjla

That little generator might run a furnace blower motor. What have you
used it to run? The largest generator I installed for a home was a 40kw
Kohler and it would run everything in the house. I got my late friend GB
to build a doghouse that matched the home as a cover for the big genset. ^_^

TDD

"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...

Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out power.
I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go bonkers without my
computers running. ^_^

Eh. I just go to bed when the power goes out. We have electric heat and it
gets cold! Does your gas heat stay on when the power goes out? When it
goes out at my mom's house, she loses her heat.

On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 00:44:58 -0800, "Julie Bove"
wrote:


"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...

Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out power.
I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go bonkers without my
computers running. ^_^

Eh. I just go to bed when the power goes out. We have electric heat and it
gets cold! Does your gas heat stay on when the power goes out? When it
goes out at my mom's house, she loses her heat.

Modern gas furnaces wont work without electric. A water heater or old
gas fireplace will though.

On 2/10/2014 9:13 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

We just finished five days without electric.

I was *really* glad I had one of these: http://tinyurl.com/mhoccd8
and one of these: http://tinyurl.com/a6e9fgn

The transfer switch came after a couple of years' running extension
cords through windows. Money well spent IMHO.

After 5 days of getting up at 0200 to re-fuel, the next thing will be
one of these: http://tinyurl.com/o2djjla


Good idea, not having to go outdoors for your
2 AM pee wake up.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/10/2014 9:13 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per The Daring Dufas:
Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out power.
I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go bonkers without
my computers running. ^_^

We just finished five days without electric.

I was *really* glad I had one of these: http://tinyurl.com/mhoccd8
(Honda inverter generator)
and one of these: http://tinyurl.com/a6e9fgn
(transfer switch)

The transfer switch came after a couple of years' running extension
cords through windows. Money well spent IMHO.

After 5 days of getting up at 0200 to re-fuel, the next thing will be
one of these: http://tinyurl.com/o2djjla
(extended run fuel tank)


I think that you'd appreciate the natural gas
connection. Must be nice to have a constant
energy supply without the trips to queue up
at the gas station. That is, if you can find
a gas station that has power, gasoline, and
is in operation.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/11/2014 1:43 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
My 11 pound attack dog has a normal body temperature of 102.5°F and
she's like a four legged hot water bottle. I can wake up and find that
she has burrowed under the covers and curled up next to me. I suppose
Sandy is the only female of any species who really loves me. ^_^

TDD

That's nice, that you found true love after
all these years. Some day maybe I will.
--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

I heard on the radio that a lot of northern
Pennsylvania and southern NYS lost power in
the last week due to the storm. Hope they are
OK, it's 12F at night here.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/11/2014 1:48 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
That little generator might run a furnace blower motor. What have you
used it to run? The largest generator I installed for a home was a 40kw
Kohler and it would run everything in the house. I got my late friend GB
to build a doghouse that matched the home as a cover for the big genset.
^_^

TDD

I'm not (Pete) but my finding is that a 1200 watt
ETQ brand gas mixer generator did run furnace for
a friend of mine. Big belt drive blower, too.

I've not tried refrigerators, though. They take
more start up current.

The doghouse sounds like a good idea for cover. Might
muffle the sound, also.

When the power goes off, I look up and down the street.
Try not to appear better off than my neighbors. I
usually go with a couple candles and oil lamps, which
also put out heat. Propane two mantle lamp is excellent
for both heat and light.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/11/14 12:43 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

My 11 pound attack dog has a normal body temperature of 102.5°F and
she's like a four legged hot water bottle. I can wake up and find that
she has burrowed under the covers and curled up next to me. I suppose
Sandy is the only female of any species who really loves me. ^_^

TDD

C'mon now. Get real. She knows where her food comes from.

On 2/11/2014 3:44 AM, Julie Bove wrote:

Eh. I just go to bed when the power goes out. We have electric heat
and it gets cold! Does your gas heat stay on when the power goes out?
When it goes out at my mom's house, she loses her heat.

I've had friends with electric heat. Yes,
it gets cold, and fast. I think it's a good
idea to have something that burns propane
(camp stove, or infrared heater) and a bunch
of tanks.

Typically, the gas stays on. Most furnace need
power to open the gas valve and run the blower.

Burners on the top of a gas range usually work,
might have to light em with a match.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/11/2014 7:12 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
On 2/11/14 12:43 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

I suppose
Sandy is the only female of any species who really loves me. ^_^

TDD

C'mon now. Get real. She knows where her food comes from.


Piggly Wiggly on 4th street, by the gas station?

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/11/2014 6:12 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
On 2/11/14 12:43 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

My 11 pound attack dog has a normal body temperature of 102.5°F
and she's like a four legged hot water bottle. I can wake up and
find that she has burrowed under the covers and curled up next to
me. I suppose Sandy is the only female of any species who really
loves me. ^_^

TDD

C'mon now. Get real. She knows where her food comes from.

Sandy adopted me after my roommate WT died. He brought the barking rat
to the house a few years ago and he was angry because Sandy liked me
better. WT would yell at her for doing things that were dog-like and he
talked like he was growling all the time so the critter would run hide
behind me or jump in my lap. After WT died, I tried to find a good home
for Sandy but one day I was very ill and I awakened to find that Sandy
had burrowed under the covers and curled up leaning on me to keep me
warm so after that I couldn't get rid of the little bitch. Sandy is a
Red Deer Head Chihuahua who thinks she's a Rottweiler thus I refer to
her as a Rotthuahua who weighs 11 pounds. Back in the 1970's I raised a
Weimaraner from a pup and by the time he was a year old, he could stand
on his hind legs and place his front paws on my shoulders. That goofy
dog retrieved bricks. So the question I have for everyone would be, "Is
it a real dog, if you can pick up full grown example with one hand?" o_O

TDD

On 2/11/2014 6:42 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 2/11/2014 7:12 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
On 2/11/14 12:43 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

I suppose Sandy is the only female of any species who really
loves me. ^_^

TDD

C'mon now. Get real. She knows where her food comes from.


Piggly Wiggly on 4th street, by the gas station?

I once did a lot of work for some Piggly Wiggly stores in the area. I
serviced and installed a lot of stuff for them. ^_^

TDD

On 2/11/2014 6:11 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 2/11/2014 1:48 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
That little generator might run a furnace blower motor. What have
you used it to run? The largest generator I installed for a home
was a 40kw Kohler and it would run everything in the house. I got
my late friend GB to build a doghouse that matched the home as a
cover for the big genset. ^_^

TDD

I'm not (Pete) but my finding is that a 1200 watt ETQ brand gas mixer
generator did run furnace for a friend of mine. Big belt drive
blower, too.

I've not tried refrigerators, though. They take more start up
current.

The doghouse sounds like a good idea for cover. Might muffle the
sound, also.

When the power goes off, I look up and down the street. Try not to
appear better off than my neighbors. I usually go with a couple
candles and oil lamps, which also put out heat. Propane two mantle
lamp is excellent for both heat and light.

A standard single door refrigerator doesn't draw that much current even
at start up. So I don't see why Pete's generator wouldn't run one. ^_^

TDD

On 2/10/2014 4:07 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 2/10/2014 4:19 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
There is a winter storm warning in effect for Alabamastan. All sorts of
schools, government offices and businesses will not open tomorrow
Tuesday 2/11/2014 and everyone is freaking out and they don't want a
cluster coitus like what happened the last time snow fell. What may
happen is nothing which I've seen before when the weather mavins
predicted heavy snow and people ran around like ants from a disturbed
ant hill cleaning out the grocery stores. People were really angry at
the weather sorcerers that time. ^_^

TDD

The last one ought have been the caution. Have
water and food stored at home at all times. I
heard on the radio, that Georgia is preemptively
declaring state of emergency to get ahead of
things.

Having been through several here in Oklahoma I can say that
a good ice storm is nothing to sneeze at. It can pay big
time to be prepared. Bad enough to be stuck at home with no
power, being stuck at work or on the road is really the pits.

Bill

On 2/11/2014 2:44 AM, Julie Bove wrote:

"The Daring Dufas" wrote in
message ...

Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out
power. I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go
bonkers without my computers running. ^_^

Eh. I just go to bed when the power goes out. We have electric heat
and it gets cold! Does your gas heat stay on when the power goes
out? When it goes out at my mom's house, she loses her heat.

I have a wall heater and a gas stove. The central heat was damaged by
the combustion chamber rusting out and the controls burning up. The
central AC is working but I installed the natural gas wall mounted
heater and have another identical one that I'd have to repair because it
was originally installed and a goofy roommate broke the control and now
the grill is missing. Two heaters would be enough to heat this old house
which originally had a floor furnace. The wall heater is in one side of
the house and the gas stove is in the other. I set the oven to low and
leave the oven door open about 4 inches but can open it wider if more
heat is needed. The oven thermostat cuts it on and off just like the
wall heater. I also have a 5 gallon stock pot full of water on one
burner set to very low to add humidity to the air. I have three electric
heaters to average out the temperatures. Heck, the four desktop
computers running add heat to the air. When the temperature dropped down
to 7°F, the house was comfortable and no pipes froze, temperatures that
low are unusual for Alabamastan. Snow paralyzes the area and now we have
an ice storm hitting North of here and it's expected to descend upon
Birmingham tomorrow. ^_^

TDD

Per Stormin Mormon:
I heard on the radio that a lot of northern
Pennsylvania and southern NYS lost power in
the last week due to the storm. Hope they are
OK, it's 12F at night here.

We are about 23 miles West of Philadelphia and were out for the better
part of five days.
--
Pete Cresswell

Per The Daring Dufas:
That little generator might run a furnace blower motor. What have you
used it to run? The largest generator I installed for a home was a 40kw
Kohler and it would run everything in the house. I got my late friend GB
to build a doghouse that matched the home as a cover for the big genset.

Somebody else observed that there are two extremes in home generators:
"Cruise Ship" and "Lifeboat".

We went "Lifeboat".

Our house cruises on 800-1200 watts depending on how hard the natural
gas furnace's blower is working.

That gets us:

- All the hot air heat we want.

- Couple of PC's, a NAS box, and various LAN stuff

- TV

- Lights in almost every room of the house.


It does *not* get us:

- Toaster
- Coffee maker
- Microwave
- Electric stove
- Washer & Dryer.


I have a little screw-on stove burner that works with a 16-oz propane
bottle and it is extremely effective. Just ordered 2 more, in fact.
That's good for coffee, and whatever else can be made on a stove burner.

We have a mini-propane grill (about 10" x 18") that also works on a
16-oz bottle. That gets us toast, store-bought pizza, and so-forth.

I have been obsessing about a second 2KW generator (these things are
made to run in parallel) to run intermittently around meal times to pick
up the slack for microwave, coffee maker, toaster....

But we're older than dirt and the wife has become adamant about getting
a natural gas powered auto-transfer setup against the day that one or
both of us are too sick or too feeble to manage the two "manual"
generators.

That would be full "Cruise Ship" except, maybe, for the central AC.

I have not priced it yet, but am bracing myself for sticker shock.

OTOH, I don't want our survivors to have *too* much fun..... -)


But the bottom line for me is that 2KW works if you don't want the sun,
the moon, and the stars.... or central air...

It's also good on fuel: about six hours per gallon. My little hoard of
gasoline in the garden shed got us through 5 days with plenty to spare.
OTOH, my neighbor was driving heaven-only-knows-how-far and standing in
lines to feed his Home Depot monster.
--
Pete Cresswell

Per (PeteCresswell):
That gets us:

- All the hot air heat we want.

- Couple of PC's, a NAS box, and various LAN stuff

- TV

- Lights in almost every room of the house.

- Two refrigerators

- One freezer
--
Pete Cresswell

"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...
There is a winter storm warning in effect for Alabamastan. All sorts of
schools, government offices and businesses will not open tomorrow Tuesday
2/11/2014 and everyone is freaking out and they don't want a cluster
coitus like what happened the last time snow fell. What may happen is
nothing which I've seen before when the weather mavins predicted heavy
snow and people ran around like ants from a disturbed ant hill cleaning
out the grocery stores. People were really angry at the weather sorcerers
that time. ^_^

TDD

Heh Heh.
We have had a couple of slight frosts.
And quite a bit of rain.
http://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/se...oods+worcester

No probs with floods at my house.
Can function with no electricity if we have to.

On 2/11/2014 9:19 AM, Bill Gill wrote:
The last one ought have been the caution. Have
water and food stored at home at all times. I
heard on the radio, that Georgia is preemptively
declaring state of emergency to get ahead of
things.

Having been through several here in Oklahoma I can say that
a good ice storm is nothing to sneeze at. It can pay big
time to be prepared. Bad enough to be stuck at home with no
power, being stuck at work or on the road is really the pits.

Bill

A friend from South Carolina sent me his
local forecast. Snow, sleet. Sounds rough.

..WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST THURSDAY. .WINTER
WEATHER ADVISORY WILL EXPIRE AT 6 PM EST THIS EVENING. *
LOCATIONS.NORTHEAST GA & UPSTATE SO. CAROLINA. * HAZARDS.HEAVY
SNOW.POSSIBLY MIXED WITH SLEET AT TIMES. * TIMING.MAINLY PATCHY LIGHT
SNOW WILL IMPACT THE REGION THIS EVENING. THE PRECIPITATION WILL BECOME
HEAVIER TOWARD DAYBREAK & LAST THROUGH MUCH OF WED NIGHT BEFORE TAPERING
OFF THUR MORNING. MAINLY SNOW IS EXPECTED.BUT WITH SLEET MIXING IN AT
TIMES.ESPECIALLY AT LOCATIONS SE OF INTERSTATE 85. THE SNOW WILL END
FROM THE WEST THURSDAY MORNING. * ACCUMULATIONS.SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 8
TO 12 INCHES.ALONG WITH AROUND A TRACE OF ICE. * IMPACTS.THE COMBINATION
OF HEAVY SNOW & OCCASIONAL SLEET WILL MAKE TRAVEL TREACHEROUS. THE
ACCUMULATIONS MAY ALSO CREATE NUMEROUS POWER OUTAGES.ESPECIALLY LATE
WEDNESDAY THROUGH THUR MORNING. * TEMPS.IN THE MID 30S.

I keep expecting to be asked for my bank
account number so he can transfer L24,000,000.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/11/2014 10:01 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Stormin Mormon:
I heard on the radio that a lot of northern
Pennsylvania and southern NYS lost power in
the last week due to the storm. Hope they are
OK, it's 12F at night here.

We are about 23 miles West of Philadelphia and were out for the better
part of five days.


Sounds like you are the first hand wisdom
man on this list. This time. Dufas will be
first hand reporter, the next time. I think
I've seen your field reports on the groups.
Thank you for your wisdom of what worked.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 02/11/2014 07:07 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
A friend from South Carolina sent me his
local forecast. Snow, sleet. Sounds rough.

.WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST THURSDAY. .WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY WILL EXPIRE AT 6 PM EST THIS EVENING. * LOCATIONS.NORTHEAST GA & UPSTATE SO. CAROLINA. * HAZARDS.HEAVY SNOW.POSSIBLY MIXED WITH SLEET AT TIMES. * TIMING.MAINLY PATCHY LIGHT SNOW WILL IMPACT THE REGION THIS EVENING. THE PRECIPITATION WILL BECOME HEAVIER TOWARD DAYBREAK & LAST THROUGH MUCH OF WED NIGHT BEFORE TAPERING OFF THUR MORNING. MAINLY SNOW IS EXPECTED.BUT WITH SLEET MIXING IN AT TIMES.ESPECIALLY AT LOCATIONS SE OF INTERSTATE 85. THE SNOW WILL END FROM THE WEST THURSDAY MORNING. * ACCUMULATIONS.SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 8 TO 12 INCHES.ALONG WITH AROUND A TRACE OF ICE. * IMPACTS.THE COMBINATION OF HEAVY SNOW & OCCASIONAL SLEET WILL MAKE TRAVEL TREACHEROUS. THE ACCUMULATIONS MAY ALSO CREATE NUMEROUS POWER OUTAGES.ESPECIALLY LATE WEDNESDAY THROUGH THUR MORNING. * TEMPS.IN THE MID 30S.


That's all democrat fearmongering climate change propaganda. It's going to be a nice republican 74, sunny with a mild breeze.

Per Stormin Mormon:
A friend from South Carolina sent me his
local forecast. Snow, sleet. Sounds rough.

One of my sick friends sent me this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeNQhj73Koo
--
Pete Cresswell

On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 22:04:15 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

One of my sick friends sent me this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeNQhj73Koo

Why not Minot? "Freezin' is the reason!".

A dear friend was stationed at Minot AFB...he will dang sure tell you
in no uncertain terms why he hated it.

On 2/11/2014 6:09 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 2/11/2014 10:01 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Stormin Mormon:
I heard on the radio that a lot of northern Pennsylvania and
southern NYS lost power in the last week due to the storm. Hope
they are OK, it's 12F at night here.

We are about 23 miles West of Philadelphia and were out for the
better part of five days.


Sounds like you are the first hand wisdom man on this list. This
time. Dufas will be first hand reporter, the next time. I think I've
seen your field reports on the groups. Thank you for your wisdom of
what worked.

Ice and snow is expected tonight 2/12/14 and that can cause havoc if the
ice knocks out power and snarls traffic. A number of schools, government
offices and businesses are going to be closed because the ice storm will
make things worse than the snow that hit us last week.
It's just not a normal weather condition for our Southern province of
Alabamastan. ^_^

TDD

On 2/11/2014 9:16 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per The Daring Dufas:
That little generator might run a furnace blower motor. What have
you used it to run? The largest generator I installed for a home
was a 40kw Kohler and it would run everything in the house. I got
my late friend GB to build a doghouse that matched the home as a
cover for the big genset.

Somebody else observed that there are two extremes in home
generators: "Cruise Ship" and "Lifeboat".

We went "Lifeboat".

Our house cruises on 800-1200 watts depending on how hard the
natural gas furnace's blower is working.

That gets us:

- All the hot air heat we want.

- Couple of PC's, a NAS box, and various LAN stuff

- TV

- Lights in almost every room of the house.


It does *not* get us:

- Toaster - Coffee maker - Microwave - Electric stove - Washer &
Dryer.


I have a little screw-on stove burner that works with a 16-oz
propane bottle and it is extremely effective. Just ordered 2 more,
in fact. That's good for coffee, and whatever else can be made on a
stove burner.

We have a mini-propane grill (about 10" x 18") that also works on a
16-oz bottle. That gets us toast, store-bought pizza, and
so-forth.

I have been obsessing about a second 2KW generator (these things are
made to run in parallel) to run intermittently around meal times to
pick up the slack for microwave, coffee maker, toaster....

But we're older than dirt and the wife has become adamant about
getting a natural gas powered auto-transfer setup against the day
that one or both of us are too sick or too feeble to manage the two
"manual" generators.

That would be full "Cruise Ship" except, maybe, for the central AC.

I have not priced it yet, but am bracing myself for sticker shock.

OTOH, I don't want our survivors to have *too* much fun..... -)

But the bottom line for me is that 2KW works if you don't want the
sun, the moon, and the stars.... or central air...

It's also good on fuel: about six hours per gallon. My little hoard
of gasoline in the garden shed got us through 5 days with plenty to
spare. OTOH, my neighbor was driving heaven-only-knows-how-far and
standing in lines to feed his Home Depot monster.

I've installed a lot of natural gas powered automatic transfer switched
generators in grocery stores and homes, I've even converted some
contractor type gensets to natural gas and installed a manual transfer
switch. My favorite genset is the old Onan air cooled four cylinder 15kw
natural gas fueled gensets because they're very reliable. Every single
one of them I've installed was a used genset from a retail store and
restaurant salvage company. I've made repairs to the engines and
transfer switches when I installed them but all they needed was an
annual oil change and rarely needed spark plugs that tended to last a
very long time especially if I put platinum plugs in them. I'd like to
have one for the house because it would run everything. The largest
genset I installed in a home was a used Kohler 40kw. I've installed a
lot of new Generac 8kw to 20kw gensets in homes and I setup many of them
with an alarm system circuit board inside the transfer switch that would
dial in to an alarm system monitoring company to report whether or not
it had exercised on schedule or had a fault condition. ^_^

TDD

On 2/11/2014 6:39 PM, 0ren wrote:
On 02/11/2014 07:07 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
A friend from South Carolina sent me his local forecast. Snow,
sleet. Sounds rough.

.WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST THURSDAY.
.WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY WILL EXPIRE AT 6 PM EST THIS EVENING. *
LOCATIONS.NORTHEAST GA & UPSTATE SO. CAROLINA. * HAZARDS.HEAVY
SNOW.POSSIBLY MIXED WITH SLEET AT TIMES. * TIMING.MAINLY PATCHY
LIGHT SNOW WILL IMPACT THE REGION THIS EVENING. THE PRECIPITATION
WILL BECOME HEAVIER TOWARD DAYBREAK & LAST THROUGH MUCH OF WED
NIGHT BEFORE TAPERING OFF THUR MORNING. MAINLY SNOW IS EXPECTED.BUT
WITH SLEET MIXING IN AT TIMES.ESPECIALLY AT LOCATIONS SE OF
INTERSTATE 85. THE SNOW WILL END FROM THE WEST THURSDAY MORNING. *
ACCUMULATIONS.SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 8 TO 12 INCHES.ALONG WITH AROUND
A TRACE OF ICE. * IMPACTS.THE COMBINATION OF HEAVY SNOW &
OCCASIONAL SLEET WILL MAKE TRAVEL TREACHEROUS. THE ACCUMULATIONS
MAY ALSO CREATE NUMEROUS POWER OUTAGES.ESPECIALLY LATE WEDNESDAY
THROUGH THUR MORNING. * TEMPS.IN THE MID 30S.


That's all democrat fearmongering climate change propaganda. It's
going to be a nice republican 74, sunny with a mild breeze.

U R Just a climate racist! o_O

TDD

On 2/11/2014 10:53 AM, harryagain wrote:
"The Daring Dufas" wrote in
message ...
There is a winter storm warning in effect for Alabamastan. All
sorts of schools, government offices and businesses will not open
tomorrow Tuesday 2/11/2014 and everyone is freaking out and they
don't want a cluster coitus like what happened the last time snow
fell. What may happen is nothing which I've seen before when the
weather mavins predicted heavy snow and people ran around like ants
from a disturbed ant hill cleaning out the grocery stores. People
were really angry at the weather sorcerers that time. ^_^

TDD

Heh Heh. We have had a couple of slight frosts. And quite a bit of
rain.
http://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/se...oods+worcester

No probs with floods at my house. Can function with no electricity
if we have to.

Ice and snow are a rarity here in The South and when it happens there is
havoc. People go bonkers and blame the weather boffins. ^_^

TDD

On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 7:06:11 AM UTC-5, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 2/10/2014 9:13 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

Per The Daring Dufas:

Ice not snow is expected and that's something that may knock out power.

I have natural gas heat but if the power goes, I may go bonkers without

my computers running. ^_^



We just finished five days without electric.



I was *really* glad I had one of these: http://tinyurl.com/mhoccd8

(Honda inverter generator)

and one of these: http://tinyurl.com/a6e9fgn

(transfer switch)



The transfer switch came after a couple of years' running extension

cords through windows. Money well spent IMHO.



After 5 days of getting up at 0200 to re-fuel, the next thing will be

one of these: http://tinyurl.com/o2djjla

(extended run fuel tank)





I think that you'd appreciate the natural gas

connection. Must be nice to have a constant

energy supply without the trips to queue up

at the gas station. That is, if you can find

a gas station that has power, gasoline, and

is in operation.



--

.

Christopher A. Young

Learn about Jesus

www.lds.org

.

We don't have natural gas so I've been running a 5,500 Watt gasoline powered generator for outages. I've been thinking of getting one with a diesel powered one that I could run off the home fuel oil tank.

Paul

Per The Daring Dufas:
My favorite genset is the old Onan air cooled four cylinder 15kw
natural gas fueled gensets because they're very reliable. Every single
one of them I've installed was a used genset from a retail store and
restaurant salvage company. I've made repairs to the engines and
transfer switches when I installed them but all they needed was an
annual oil change and rarely needed spark plugs that tended to last a
very long time especially if I put platinum plugs in them. I'd like to
have one for the house because it would run everything. The largest
genset I installed in a home was a used Kohler 40kw. I've installed a
lot of new Generac 8kw to 20kw gensets in homes...

What is your take on installing a generator rated at 4kw for running on
gasoline - but powered by natural gas? I'm thinking that some of the
RV-oriented generators, although designed for propane, might be a
good fit because they are designed with low noise in mind.
e.g. http://tinyurl.com/pterzde

I came away from power.cummins.com thinking that a 4kw gasoline
generator was good for 3.6 on Propane.

But then I read http://www.propane101.com/propanevsnaturalgas.htm and it
sounded like natural gas is a *lot* less energy-intensive than propane.

Any idea what the conversion factor is for estimating a gasoline
generator's max output when it is run on natural gas?

Where I'm going is:

- My Better Half has become adamant about installing something that
will do the job even if we are both too sick and/or feeble to
go out and attend to it (as in startup, refueling...)

- Even though we don't pay highway tax on natural gas, it's still
far from free. Otherwise, I'd just go for something like your
15kw Kohler. But my experience is that fuel consumption rises
very sharply as the generator's peak power is increased.

- We already have a smart transfer switch (APC's UTS-6H) that is rated
for 4kw and accepts only 120v power.

- A 2kw generator is pretty much doing it for us now, although another
KW would add a certain convenience factor in terms of load shedding
and/or going outside to run a gas appliance when heating up food
making toast, making coffee, and so-forth.

- I am picking 4kw blindly - without any idea of how much power I will
get out of a 4kw gasoline-rated generator.
Maybe it will turn out that I will need 5kw...
But 6.5 seems like a stretch, as does 3, once the
device is running on natural gas instead of gasoline.


--
Pete Cresswell

On 2/12/2014 2:08 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
Ice and snow is expected tonight 2/12/14 and that can cause havoc if the
ice knocks out power and snarls traffic. A number of schools, government
offices and businesses are going to be closed because the ice storm will
make things worse than the snow that hit us last week.
It's just not a normal weather condition for our Southern province of
Alabamastan. ^_^

TDD

New York State also doesn't handle ice storms very
well. We have our share of drivers who don't adapt
to road conditions, and end up in the ditch. Or
piled into each other. I do my best to get home and
stay home in moments like this. Ice storm 2003, I
took my friend Jason to get dinner and food. Came
home to find my own power out, and trailer cold.



--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 2/12/2014 6:28 AM, Pavel314 wrote:

We don't have natural gas so I've been running a 5,500 Watt gasoline powered generator for outages. I've been thinking of getting one with a diesel powered one that I could run off the home fuel oil tank.

Paul


That should be legal, as long as you don't
drive your generator on public roads. (smile
here). fuel oil isn't taxed for road use.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..