Ice Storm

Our power has been off since yesterday. We are not total electric, so my welder will run the whole house. It’s running about 1 gallon per hour. My neighbor can’t find a generator anywhere, they all sold out. We have lots of damage, I will be sawing up limbs and trees for days.

North Central Oklahoma


91 coupe, 93 coupe, 13 Gt

Good luck man.

Just keep the fridge cold. Been there before.

Stay safe. Hope all will be ok

Where you at? Stillwater here and I had power out for about 10 hours yesterday.

Ouch, not fun.

bluebosss197 said:

Where you at? Stillwater here and I had power out for about 10 hours yesterday.

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East of Glencoe


91 coupe, 93 coupe, 13 Gt

Power is back! That wasn’t too bad. My welder deserves a oil change and back on the battery tender
And lots of limbs to clean up

91 coupe, 93 coupe, 13 Gt

I lost power here a couple months ago for 8 freakn days! Yes 8! I had to drive 6 hours to Pennsylvania from CT to find a dam generator.

I swear I say this every year but it would be wise to buy a shitload of generators cheap! I know I could have doubled my money if I did so. Seems every year somewhere there is a shortage of generators.

A friend of mine has a "whole house" generator that tied right into his home electrical panel. Power goes out and he instantly is on the generator. I think he paid around $15K for it, installed. For the number of times every 5 years we lose power for more than a day, I just can't see spending that kind of money for a full-on generator. I really should, though, consider a portable generator than runs on gasoline. Enough to at least power our two fridges and freezer.

@13BlackGT, good to hear that your power is restored. Be safe cleaning up all of those limbs with your chainsaw.

If you have a generator, you have to keep it charged and ready to go. I bought a 4 bank battery tender a few years ago that can take care of 4 batteries. I try to make sure that I start it at least every couple of months and let it run long enough to warm up. Good luck starting a generator that sits for extended periods


91 coupe, 93 coupe, 13 Gt

CobraBob said:

A friend of mine has a "whole house" generator that tied right into his home electrical panel. Power goes out and he instantly is on the generator. I think he paid around $15K for it, installed. For the number of times every 5 years we lose power for more than a day, I just can't see spending that kind of money for a full-on generator. I really should, though, consider a portable generator than runs on gasoline. Enough to at least power our two fridges and freezer.

@13BlackGT, good to hear that your power is restored. Be safe cleaning up all of those limbs with your chainsaw.

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buying a small generator is definitely another maintenance thing to stay on top of.

Maybe its more up there, I believe my grandma was just quoted under 10k including burying a propane tank for a whole house generator. Down here our concern is keeping the AC going and those older units take a big hit on startup. Or look for a nice used one right after an outage and people start getting power back on again.

We are on propane, and I’ve got a 220 plug outside from where the hot tub used to be. It’d be super easy for me to install one, plumb gas to it, and back feed it in through the existing outlet.

However, I’m lazy.

72MachOne99GT said:

We are on propane, and I’ve got a 220 plug outside from where the hot tub used to be. It’d be super easy for me to install one, plumb gas to it, and back feed it in through the existing outlet.

However, I’m lazy.

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just make sure you remember to kill the main breaker when running it that way

Its not anywhere near that much Bob. Its just hooks up to propane and automatically turns on when tripped. Generac sells a 15k watt unit for $4k. 15k watt unit should run any house. Another $500-1000 in labor. I considered doing it myself as I have propane for heat.

I have a Briggs and Stratton 6200 watt unit ($800) right now that plugs into the house. Works great but I cant use my dryer with it but can run everything else. fridge, well pump, etc...

I had an electrician come over and wire it to my box so I can plug in. U just turn off ur main breaker and then turn the Generator breaker on and ur good to go.

CobraBob said:

A friend of mine has a "whole house" generator that tied right into his home electrical panel. Power goes out and he instantly is on the generator. I think he paid around $15K for it, installed. For the number of times every 5 years we lose power for more than a day, I just can't see spending that kind of money for a full-on generator. I really should, though, consider a portable generator than runs on gasoline. Enough to at least power our two fridges and freezer.

@13BlackGT, good to hear that your power is restored. Be safe cleaning up all of those limbs with your chainsaw.

Click to expand...

CobraBob said:

A friend of mine has a "whole house" generator that tied right into his home electrical panel. Power goes out and he instantly is on the generator. I think he paid around $15K for it, installed. For the number of times every 5 years we lose power for more than a day, I just can't see spending that kind of money for a full-on generator. I really should, though, consider a portable generator than runs on gasoline. Enough to at least power our two fridges and freezer.

@13BlackGT, good to hear that your power is restored. Be safe cleaning up all of those limbs with your chainsaw.

Click to expand...

You can get a dual fuel generator for $1200 that can be plumbed into natural gas (if you have it). I've watched youtube videos of guys doing it, it's quite a bit more expensive to power a house with that than power from the electric company but it beats having to keep gas in it.

It should be enough to keep the fridge running. But like mentioned before, hit your breaker so it doesn't fry a line guy down the road who thinks power is down.

Dang. Well, cut that stuff up and burn it next year.

I've got two generators, but that's because here in CA they just turn off the power.

DSG2003Mach1 said:

just make sure you remember to kill the main breaker when running it that way

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Meh

As long as I remember to kill it before the power comes back on, I’ll be fine!

For sure though.

You get a special breaker that as you throw it, it turns off the grid and turns on your gen.

We have a Generac here tied into the propane tank, nearly 20 years old and still ticking. Auto disconnect/switch is nice, don’t even have to get off the couch since it’s on a 30 second timer.