Westchester County still has 94,000 without power including my in-laws in Ardsley. Con Ed is getting scorched.

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Sure you did

Good thing our Governor fixed the corrupt Lilco/Lipa by bringing in PSE&G! What a joke!

Corrupt you say! Nah, they just did what state protected monopolies do. I contracted with LILCO's gas division engineering department, and have to say, it was a really sweet gig.

Well, its 7PM on Saturday and still no power. The gen is still going strong, even running two window AC units.

The good news is the trees are off the lines and a crew was spotted in the area repairing the primarys, fingers crossed...

The power company has said they think everyone will have power by Tuesday 6pm.

So for you Generac guys, the neighbor unit stopped running. Had the repair man working on it all day and part of the next. Its back up but sounds funny now...

I read an article written by a Long Island news organization about PSEG, LIPA, Sandy and Isiasas (sp). Two things caught my eye.

1) The idiot power company has no way for even police and fire to report a downed live line. That's flat out stupid.

2) Where PSEG have been changing out old power poles for stronger ones that are more wind resistant, they meet resistance from the residents. What's up with that?

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Release the Kraken

We had a 16 KW Generac installed last spring. Propane fired, enough to run everything , lights well pump, 2 refers, freezer, etc. Good investment.

The two things I worry about most in regard to whole house propane-fired generators of any brand are: a) What do you do if it fails to start when needed (or stops running) and, b) the cost of running it on propane for other than brief outages. I'm not advocating against them at all, but those are the two problems my friends with permanent generators complain about most.

If I can get over those two worries and solve the location issue, maybe I can have one too someday.

Generac has what they call Mobil Link. It is a transmitter/cell phone device that attaches to the generator and allows you to monitor the generator via any wireless device, ie cell or IPad, remotely.
There’s a monthly/yearly fee.

I had it on my propane unit and now have it on my natural gas unit. I allowed the service guy I had in NY to monitor it also since I was constantly traveling. One time the generator was not “ready to run”, he came by when I was away and took care of it before I was even aware.

The guy I have now in NC never offered that same service but I can always call him from anywhere and I’m sure he will get it up and running.

I never worried about the cost of propane, as Caj says, it be what it be.

Mobil Link
Generac 7169 Mobile Link 4G LTE Remote Monitoring Feature For Standby – FactoryPure

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Sure you did

In Yorktown, no power since Tuesday. Reports were Con Ed had ONE truck working the entire town of Yorktown during the first few days. Glad their rates are so high. Hope your in-laws are doing ok.

A lot of my concern about those issues goes back to our infamous October Snowstorm in 2011, which instantly became my design basis outage. My folks, my kids and a lot of my friends were without power for over a week, some well over a week. I took care of both my folks and their neighbor by sharing one of my fleet of 3,500 watt generators for 8+ days. Obviously, we did a lot of wire switching to be able to cook, heat the houses and keep the lights on. On the positive side, that little generator sipped so little fuel that it truly amazed me.

Some friends with permanent whole house generators did just fine, others not so much... but again, they were not all Generac products so I can't honestly say how the Generac-owning folks made out. I just know that there were failures and those folks had to scramble to find portables. It was not pretty.

But in regard to the propane cost issue, I seem to remember whole house consumption numbers in the 3-4 gallons per hour range. So for my 8-day design basis outage, that's maybe 700 gallons, give or take depending on load. That's a lot of money to a poor old retired poverty case like me!

Chris, as of this morning they are still without power. Hope you and yours are ok.

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Sure you did

Here on Long Island, I lost power from 1pm on Tuesday until 1pm yesterday.
Used our generator that we bought on day 10 of our 11 day outage from Sandy.
(I was wondering why it was so loud. Not that many hours on the thing, and it broke the juncture of the one piece exhaust pipe and muffler. Seems to be a poor design, given the vibration created. Of course, it appears to be a part no longer available, so something with a flex pipe might be the solution)

The crew that repaired our lines is from Indiana.

I can't believe that some housewives being interviewed by the local station, actually think that PSEG should compensate them for their lost groceries.
...Only in America, the land of the entitled.

I don’t know all the technical aspects but I think they consume more fuel depending on load. I never had my house lit up like a Christmas tree during any storm.
My only concern was to keep warm and have running water. And if away, that the heat stay on and the frig stay cold.
Nothing like coming home to a burst pipe.
I was in Williamsburg VA looking at houses during that Halloween storm. We beat feet back home, because we only had a portable, to find most of our tree stops hugging the ground.
Hurricane Sandy was the final straw, got the automatic gen right after.

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Sure you did

What's the fun of having a big whole house generator if you can't turn on all the lights and make the neighbors envious?

That's what they all do around here.

I know, everyone on my street in NY had one. The folks across the street had a 45k generator and 500 gallon propane tank.
They love to put everything on, even the driveway lights.
The owner was some Wall St guy and needed all kinds of electronics.

With my little 5500 watt we sat in the dark, but had heat and running water.

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Sure you did

TTSH—I don’t have the mobil uplink plan Mike talks about above and I have never had an issue at two homes where I have had Generac whole-house generators. I had both units set to start at 6:00 a.m. Monday for their weekly, 15 minute test run. Neither has ever failed to start.

Plus I have the excellent Generac service plan. A serviceman comes out every 6 months and changes the oil, does a full page diagnostic check list on the unit, trips the power to the house to check the relays and make sure the unit automatically kicks on as it should. I believe yearly they change all the belts and hoses. The battery gets changed every three years, I believe (it’s all on the check list and Generac keeps a complete electronic file on your generator).

These generators are simply small engines that need maintenance and service just like any automobile. (Generac had a far superior service plan to Mercedes Benz—which is the best I have ever seen).

Due to all of this, I never saw the need for the monitoring program. Plus I have a 24/7/365 1-800 number to call for emergency service. (I test called it once at midnight on Christmas Eve and it was cheerfully answered on the second ring. I never did that again because we had an actual blizzard with warnings in Arkansas—the first in my lifetime—the next day! But we never lost power although I figured I jinxed us).

Both my past and current unit run on natural gas which is dirt cheap in these parts, so I can’t speak to propane. You would have probably an hours consumption monthly for the weekly test starts.

I don’t believe anyone with a Generac service plan would have the slightest concern about the unit running when needed because of all I describe above. Plus I hear it power up weekly. (I also forgot to mention it has a Light panel on the side (Red, Yellow, Green) where you can visually check the unit too. Red/Yellow—call for service immediately, Green you are good to go).

As to propane costs, you would have to simply decide what it’s worth to you to keep power, plus how frequently you lose power. At our former home we lost power frequently because the power lines were all strung on poles above ground. At our current home they are buried and we have not lost power once in 18 months.

If at your home the power lines are buried, I am not sure these generators are worth the expense of putting in—we got our current unit with the house, so I did not put in. At our former home, we installed.

You are welcome to PM me if you have any other questions.

__________________
Possum—The other white meat!

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Sure you did

I just checked mine downstairs and it is a 20KW. The Generac man told me it would run the wing of a hospital! At my former home it was a 12kw.

At 45kw would probably run the whole hospital!

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Possum—The other white meat!

Maybe they were growing tomatoes in their basement. People love to show off in any case.

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Sure you did

Just spoke to my sister in Lindenhurst, and she lost power from the storm until last night. Only her block and the one next to it were knocked out. Lucky for her, the block behind her house never lost power, and the back neighbor ran an extension cord over for sis's refrigerator.

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Slava Ukraini!

It sounds like both you and Mike are extremely satisfied customers of Generac. That says a lot.

At our new place, the service line coming in from the street is buried, but the poles and lines on the road are exposed and very old. Neighbors report lots of outages, but typically not long outages. That is partly due to our location on top of a hill where the wind blows like stink. If anyone is going to lose power, it will be us on top of the hill before any others.

And yet the neighbors we know about with generators have gone with gasoline portables. That could be because we don't have natural gas available and some of the houses don't even have propane. It seems the approach is to tolerate the short outages and only drag out the big portables when it looks like it's going to be a while. That's our read on it anyway.

Propane costs vary a lot with location, season, tank size, your contract and other factors, so it is hard to know exactly what it cost my friend's neighbor to keep his house up and functioning during our infamous October 2011 outage. I seem to remember something approaching $2K. It shocked me pretty good at the time. Still does.

That was a very expensive power outage!

Well as of 11am today we have power back

No noisy generator running, ahh silence.


A friend has a big gen at his house its water cooled and 1800 rpm. It just rumbles away quite as a mouse. He has a big house and runs three central AC units plus the rest of the house. Only thing is it seems to burn just under fourty gallons of propane per day. It has a small car engine for power, maybe a Mitsubishi?

I dont know what a gallon of propane costs in bulk, its got to add up after a few days

Nothing wrong with a portable, just requires a bit of planning as to size and fuel sources. During an outage such as Sandy most gas stations were closed.

I think some states now require a generator backup for service stations.

If you stay mostly close to home a portable is fine, imo.

Propane costs more, the less you buy. If you don’t own the tanks, good luck trying to get a competitor to fill you up, ain’t going to happen.

I rented mine because we knew we were moving.

Btw, having a standby gen was a big plus when it came time to sell.

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Sure you did

TTSH—I researched this a bit and spoke to my Generac man (I wound up helping him in a divorce and we have become friends). Without a ready, cheap power source—we are blessed in SW/SE with abundant natural gas—I would get a big Generac portable.

https://www.generac.com/generaccorpo...gp17500e_1.pdf

However, get the Generac transfer switching system put in just like a whole house set up. You don’t want to fool with extension cords and you want to run your heat and air. (I assume you have electric heat, but you may run fuel oil, I know that is common in NE).

Generac Power Systems - The Best Pressure Washers for Sale

(This is not pressure washers, it’s transfer systems)

Get your local Generac dealer to set this all up and put together a discounted maintenance plan where they will come check everything for you occasionally. Keep a couple of days gas on hand, and run it though your car every 6 months, where the gas stays fresh. Start and run your unit weekly too.

That is probably going to be your best solution.

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Possum—The other white meat!

[QUOTE=6518John;140863394]TTSH—I researched this a bit and spoke to my Generac man (I wound up helping him in a divorce and we have become friends). Without a ready, cheap power source—we are blessed in SW/SE with abundant natural gas—I would get a big Generac portable.

https://www.generac.com/generaccorpo...gp17500e_1.pdf

YUP.. That's the one alrighty!!!



Hooked it up and ran the electric stove,oven,HVAC and the hot water heater.. Understood not all at the same time mind you



Shop around the prices vary from $2800.00 to $3200.00.

Good luck

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SWCA #2306
DAV in honor of POP

You probably missed my earlier post, but our electrician has already wired the house for the portable generator and is putting in some gizmo (haven't seen it yet) wherein we manually switch to the essential power bus during power outages.

We are looking at generators about half the size of that monster Generac. That should be plenty to power the well pump, the heat pump-type water heater, the propane furnace and other vital uses without excessive fuel use.

Gizmo= transfer switch.

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Sure you did

I have a remote unit that has the signal lights on it, so I don't even have to go outside to check the status of the generator.
I probably sound like a salesman for Generac, but I am sure happy that I was able to get a generator installed and not have to worry about long term power outages.

For some reason, I don't think it's quite that simple. Remember that we are set-up with two separate buses: Essential and non-essential... with only one bus (the essential bus) to be fed by the portable generator. I admit that I didn't fully understand it all when the electrician described it.

One thing for sure: Our electrician does everything 110% by the book, so I know that whatever he's installing is legal and per code. The dude is obsessed with the MA electrical code.

I had a simple 6 circuit transfer switch, off to the side of the panel. It powered just what I needed and kept the power from going to the line side.
I knew when the power was restored as the rest of the house started perking up.

Now, this was a simple switch done almost 30 years ago before I went whole house, so the technology has no doubt evolved.

It was put in by a friend who was a union electrician, so I know it was done right.


Looked similar

https://www.googleadservices.com/pag...IDxCSAQ&adurl=

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...OIJkZsd5gn1lam

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Sure you did

Yeah, I've again got to admit that I don't know what our electrician is providing. All I remember is him talking about lockouts, Lockouts, LOCKOUTS! I kinda get the impression that this involves a lot of manual actions... but he did the same set-up at his own house so we'll see.

When he puts it in, I'll take a photo and post it.

My friend's daughter on Long Island is STILL without power. An hour ago, some linemen from Tennessee arrived on her block to restore power. When she noticed them walking back and forth pointing and shrugging their shoulders, she sent her husband out to inquire.
Some thief had stolen all the damaged power transmission cable from the poles on the street.

Mary a few years a group went into a downtown building here in the middle of the day dressed in orange vests, hard hats, and driving a white panel van. They had huge push carts, etc. and told the guard they were from the power company and would have to cut power temporarily. They emerged quickly thereafter, carting out all the heavy copper cable they could carry!

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Possum—The other white meat!

Talking to a guy at work, he lost power for a few days. They fixed all the damaged lines and the power was back on. The cable was still out, then they see the cable guy working on the lines. Next thing they know, powers out again. The cable guy trying to repair the wires cut the power wire by mistake. It was live and sparking on the ground.

Con Ed wasn't able to give an uptime.

A friend has been out since the storm started. Trees, poles and wires in a big knot. Tree guy says, cant touch it has wires. Power company says cant touch it trees. The boss who says what should happen works from home can wont come out to see whats what.

Crazy stuff these days.

Some people will steal anything that isn't nailed down.

Some of you folks with 20KW+ units make me feel under powered. I
simply us my 7.5KW diesel powered Generac in my old converted tour
bus which is parked about 60 feet from the house. It will run everything
we need, just not all at once. Oh yeah, it only uses 1/2 to 1 gal./hour
and the bus fuel tank holds 144 gal. although the intake for the Gen.
is set at about the 30 gal. mark, that is so the bus wouldn't run
dry going down the road if for some reason I didn't fuel up when
I should.

...very soon.

The power company in my area is totally incompetent and routinely have brief but irritating outages.

Had 30 minute thunderstorm Thursday evening. One-quarter inch rain TOTAL. No winds to speak of but a tree went down about one-half mile from my house.

Took the incompetent Potomac Edison twenty-one (21!) hours to restore power.

Neighbor is away but always told me I could hook up to her whole house generator any time I needed. Ran an extension cord from an outlet on her deck to my refrigerator. Problem solved. Did not lose any foodstuffs and beer was kept cold.

Mine should be an easy install. Central propane tanks (2 big ones) serve my 7 home community. Heat is via propane and manifold is about 30 feet from electrical box in garage.

Pros will do this job! Well beyond my capabilities.

Be safe...be well.

Glad y'all are okay.

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Jorge

That's a name I haven't heard in years.

Frustrated Long Island homeowners blockade repair crew until power is restored to their homes.

Long Island Man Blocks PSEG Truck, Forcing Workers to Restore Power – NBC New York

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Slava Ukraini!

I feel for that out of state crew for I've been there.
Stuck between management and and customers who won't see past their own front door.

It took a crew from Myrtle Beach to find the problem after FP&L's fumbling for a week after Katrina.

There's nothing worse than being without power for a week and then seeing everyone else get hooked back up except your home! PSEG LI is the worst rendition yet! I thought Lilco and LIPA were bad, but they at LEAST acknowledged that you were out of power - these morons kept telling us we weren't listed as being out. When homeowner's from our neighborhood kept calling in to report outages, they kept saying, " oh - this is the first report in your neighborhood - EVEN 6 DAY AFTER we lost power and reported it hundreds of times. Everything Cuomo does makes a bad situation worse!

Except NY took the worst Covid19 situation in the country and made it the best. Our little population here in SC is about the same as you guys on Long Island, and we are losing forty + citizens a day, with no end in sight. Heaven forbid we should look around and see what works.



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Slava Ukraini!

Cuomo has the blood of over 11,000 Nursing Home deaths on his hands - NO REASON to put Covid 19 patients in Nursing Homes when the President sent in a Hospital Ship docked in the Hudson River to take the Covis patients (which by the way wasn't used). There were also hundreds of school gymnasiums (schools were closed) the Nassau Coliseum, (not being used currently) The Jacob Javits Center, MSG, etc. etc. that could have and should have been set up as emergency hospitals for Covid patients. But no, the King decided to expose the most vulnerable people in the State to Covid! Few here has the gumption to say or do anything!

I hope your situation improves down there! Stay healthy!

NY is far from done with Covid.
Retailers and people are moving out, for not only the virus but because of the politics.
Cuomo will be known as the nursing home killer forever.

I see at least 3 or 4 NY plates here every day. Please leave NY politics in NY.

Great job! NOT

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...gS_qRTuuNznUlN

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...OIJkZsd5gn1lam

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Sure you did

Thank you.
Yes, I know about the nursing homes, my Aunt Virginia died in one. Many mistakes were made dealing with this virus, but the results now in NY are to be envied.



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Slava Ukraini!