Author Topic: Christmas day power failure in East Texas.  (Read 2521 times)

Offline roadrunnertex

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Christmas day power failure in East Texas.
« on: December 25, 2012, 06:43:34 PM »
Our Christmas day in East Texas started out with very heavy rain and wind and to top it off a power failure just before Christmas dinner.
So the old GMC Buffalo came out of the barn and it's diesel generator set cranked/ran and came to the rescue to power the microwave and things needed to make a Christmas dinner.
We were with out power for around 5 hours and then the power was restored and the old GMC Buffalo went back into the barn where it was out of the cold and snowy weather.
It's nice to have a backup plan when storms and power failure happen.
With that I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas ;D
RRT

Offline Dave5Cs

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Re: Christmas day power failure in East Texas.
« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2012, 09:35:05 PM »
Same thing happened to us in California the day before. We thought we would make the food the day before so all we had to do was heat it up and then in came another heavy storm so the coach is parked just outside the window to the kitchen. I just opened up the window and pulled a 10 gauge cord in and put a Plug box on the end and ran cords to the refrig, TV ( just local station though because Comcast was also out) oven and micro-wave, cranked up the genny and cooked it all up, put it in the refrigerator and were ready for today. Gotta love it.

Merry Christmas to you all!... ;D

Dave 5Cs
"Perfect Frequency"1979 MCI MC5Cs 6V-71,644MT Allison.
2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport 60th Anniversary edition.
1998 Jeep TJ ,(Gone)
 Somewhere in the USA fulltiming.

Offline wg4t50

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Re: Christmas day power failure in East Texas.
« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2012, 04:16:36 AM »
That is the exact reason we installed a generator at home, I normally just Back fed from the 15 kw on the bus.  My normal is leave home headed to Fl for a CCO Bus event, now the Arcadia rally,  all good, but the DW was in the dark for 32 hours and I am gone. Being in the emergency generator business, a few customers informed me that I was getting a generator. OH! That freed up the purse so I got the best of the best, a Onan 20 kw diesel sound attenuated sitting on a 4 day fuel supply EPA UL  tank. That was 13 years ago, I am the DW's favorite buffalo since.  Also lets me use the coach when ever I want.....
Cheers
Dave M
MCI7 20+ Yrs
Foretravel w/ISM500
WG4T CW for ever.
Central Virginia

Offline gulfyankee

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Re: Christmas day power failure in East Texas.
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2012, 09:23:14 AM »
Roadrunnertex, we were also without power for about 6 hours down here by Jasper, convinced me to make some changes! Those winds were rough!
Scott
Based out of Jasper, TX, but am hardly ever there

1958 GMC PD4104-2345
DD 6-71
Spicer 4 speed

GreyEagle

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Re: Christmas day power failure in East Texas.
« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2012, 09:33:18 AM »
Always nice to have a backup plan.... :D
I fire up my motorhome and generator every month and put a load on it to make sure she's really if I ever need it..

Offline expressbus

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Re: Christmas day power failure in East Texas.
« Reply #5 on: December 26, 2012, 09:37:05 AM »
Been there but didn't do that. We live in an area prone to power outages at the lightest wind. Our power company C(rappy) P(ower) and L(ight), now merged to a mega utility with Duke Power, used to blam power outages on the wisteria vines (cut the damn vines down), squirrels (heck just shoot them), and other stupid excuses. Once had power for part of the house but not the rest. Called CP&L and was told I had "partial power." At 2:30 AM I was not in the mood for humor and told them, "Fine, when I get my bill I'll just make a partial payment and we will call it even.

Now the wife runs a business from home. These outages became so frequent and shut her down so often that we opted for a small generator to keep her business running when the power went out. Well this is an old house we live in. It has had numerous additions/rehabs, including some done by us. There are two breaker panels in the basement and sure enough, we would have to rewire them to put all the rooms where business is conducted onto the back-up generator. So the small generator turned into a whole house generator, if I recall its a 17.5 KW using a GM V-6 running on natural gas. The neighbors have an open invite to come sit awhile until the power comes back on. The install has an automatic disconnect from the grid when it detects power out for 30 seconds, the disconnect then triggers a start circuit for the generator automatically. Once power is restored, the system detects the power and shuts down the generator and reconnects to the grid automatically. We have UPS battery back ups with surge protection on all our computers. In fact the generator system has a whole house surge protection device. Works really well.
Will Garner, Jr
Southern Pines, NC
1991 Prevost Conversion by Country Coach

 

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