Hurricane Sandy! (Watch out, NE)

[BUTCH1]

New generator acquired (local Gander Mtn. had a shipment of 200 come in overnight) so no worries here. The store even opened early, and every single sale at 7 AM included a generator in the lengthening line.

Important!. your unit will ship with enough oil to fill the crankcase, before everything closes down go and grab several quarts of what the manufacturer recommends (usually 30WHD but possible multi-viscosity allowed). If power is out for an extended time you will need to be doing oil changes on a genny, they work hard are and air cooled, during 2004 a local small engine repair shop had a whole lot of genny's that people bought then ran full-bore for 2 weeks with the original oil in the crankcase, all of them had blown motors and NONE were covered under warranty as the owners had neglected to read the manuals and change the oil on schedule. just a heads-up..

 

[Exterous]

Help desk guy is inundated with people who are fucking stupid and have forgotten how the hell to log in to VPN.

Ha - I remember those days. We got in the habit of always sending out 'How To' reminders before a 'Snow-pocalypse' (Many of which never actually happened)

 

[bignateyk]

No generator?

Nah. It's not worth the $$$ to install a 20KW generator switched into the main breaker given that the power goes out maybe once a year for a few hours.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Thought this was funny:

 

[iamwiz82]

HMS Bounty has been abandoned at sea:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/us/sandy-bounty-ship/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

[Capt Caveman]

Nah. It's not worth the $$$ to install a 20KW generator switched into the main breaker given that the power goes out maybe once a year for a few hours.

Can you use car batteries to power the well pump?

 

[bignateyk]

Can you use car batteries to power the well pump?

I could get a small generator just to power the well pump. It would be a pain in the ass though because its not like the well pump has a chord on it that would plug into a socket. I would have to disconnect it from the breaker box, then wire it into the generator every time I wanted to use it.

I whole house generator (20KW) would probably cost about 10 grand by the time I got it installed and put a tank for the fuel source and everything. Those would be nice though because you would just have a transfer switch into your main breaker to swap between the two sources.

 

[BUTCH1]

HMS Bounty has been abandoned at sea:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/us/sandy-bounty-ship/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Those idiots, WTF didn't they make for port days ago, this storm is generating 18 foot waves, not something you want to deal with in a sailboat..

 

[bignateyk]

Those idiots, WTF didn't they make for port days ago, this storm is generating 18 foot waves, not something you want to deal with in a sailboat..

They should have gone farther out to sea. The navy sent all its ships out of norfolk to ride out the storm on the open sea.

 

[BUTCH1]

I could get a small generator just to power the well pump. It would be a pain in the ass though because its not like the well pump has a chord on it that would plug into a socket. I would have to disconnect it from the breaker box, then wire it into the generator every time I wanted to use it.

I whole house generator (20KW) would probably cost about 10 grand by the time I got it installed and put a tank for the fuel source and everything. Those would be nice though because you would just have a transfer switch into your main breaker to swap between the two sources.

Kinda late for any generator now, they fly off shelves the moment they come in, you might be able to buy an inverter and run it off your car, just make a plug and run it directly to the pump, disconnect the pump from the feed from the circuit box though to avoid sending juice back into the panel..

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Really surprising, over 10,000 homes without power here in Connecticut and it's barely doing anything yet. Winds maybe 25mph, rain VERY light. Storm track has eased my flooding worries, but I expect to lose power for an extended period later in the day.

 

[bignateyk]

Kinda late for any generator now, they fly off shelves the moment they come in, you might be able to buy an inverter and run it off your car, just make a plug and run it directly to the pump, disconnect the pump from the feed from the circuit box though to avoid sending juice back into the panel..

Yeah that's way too much effort unless the power is out for more than a couple days. If it gets passed a few days I'd consider doing that though.

 

[BUTCH1]

They should have gone farther out to sea. The navy sent all its ships out of norfolk to ride out the storm on the open sea.

Yea, they probably steamed full speed due west to avoid the worst, the navy had experience with different ocean conditions, the HMS Bounty remake has no business being out there, it's 1850's technology!..

 

[BUTCH1]

Yeah that's way too much effort unless the power is out for more than a couple days. If it gets passed a few days I'd consider doing that though.

It's hard to tell but with the damage expected to be widespread the outages can last for weeks though..

 

[purbeast0]

just received an email that we're closing here at noon and are closed through tomorrow as well.

awesome thing is my company is paying us up to 12 hours for today and tomorrow, so i'll have my 4 hours work today and get paid for the time off the rest of today and tomorrow.

 

[Exterous]

I could get a small generator just to power the well pump. It would be a pain in the ass though because its not like the well pump has a chord on it that would plug into a socket. I would have to disconnect it from the breaker box, then wire it into the generator every time I wanted to use it.

Does the wire run through the wall? I would think it would be pretty straight forward to cut the wire and wire it into a receptacle. Then add a three prong plug to the other end and you'd be all set.

It seems really odd that there is no plug given that the pump would almost certainly need to be replaced at some point

Those idiots, WTF didn't they make for port days ago, this storm is generating 18 foot waves, not something you want to deal with in a sailboat..

Well, its not like there was any warning of the storm or anything. But maybe I am missing some really good reason as to why they were where they were.

 

[nageov3t]

if it wasn't for work, I'd probably be chilling at my parents house today they've got a generator and a basement stocked with enough canned goods to outlast an apocalypse.

I think I'll be fine in a power outage, but my real worry is that my 90 year-old landlady starts freaking out and I have to spend the whole time calming her down instead of just relaxing on the couch reading by candlelight.

 

[Saint Nick]

But maybe I am missing some really good reason as to why they were where they were.

They were filming scenes for "The Perfect Storm: Pirates of the Caribbean in New York"

 

[BUTCH1]

I'm shocked that so many here were required to go in to work, ant boss with half a brain is going to realize the conditions are going to degrade during the day. I got caught in a feeder band coming home friday, the rain was so inense and then it's being driven sideways by a 45MPH blast made for close to zero visibalty, lucky when it hit I was only a mile from my house..

 

[LTC8K6]

It might be a Cat 2 now...

 

[Saint Nick]

So what are you all going to do on your days off? I'd just get drunk and smoke all day. Maybe play some board games with the neighbors or something.

 

[bignateyk]

Does the wire run through the wall? I would think it would be pretty straight forward to cut the wire and wire it into a receptacle. Then add a three prong plug to the other end and you'd be all set.

It seems really odd that there is no plug given that the pump would almost certainly need to be replaced at some point

The pump itself is 250 feet underground, and is wired to a pressure switch in my basement, which is wired into my breaker box (The pump needs to have its own 15A breaker, so putting it on a breaker with other stuff is out of the question). The only way I could do it is to disconnect from the breaker box, wire it to a 3 prong plug, and plug it into the generator directly. I think the pump itself uses close to a KW.

 

[Capt Caveman]

In MA, all MBTA services will be suspended at 2pm.

 

[13Gigatons]

Important!. your unit will ship with enough oil to fill the crankcase, before everything closes down go and grab several quarts of what the manufacturer recommends (usually 30WHD but possible multi-viscosity allowed). If power is out for an extended time you will need to be doing oil changes on a genny, they work hard are and air cooled, during 2004 a local small engine repair shop had a whole lot of genny's that people bought then ran full-bore for 2 weeks with the original oil in the crankcase, all of them had blown motors and NONE were covered under warranty as the owners had neglected to read the manuals and change the oil on schedule. just a heads-up..

Sounds like Genny's suck. They should auto-shutdown to prevent damage.

 

[nageov3t]

So what are you all going to do on your days off? I'd just get drunk and smoke all day. Maybe play some board games with the neighbors or something.

if the power goes out and I'm not babysitting my landlady, I'm probably going to take out all the meat from my freezer and throw it on a grill pan on the stove (iirc, I've got a couple salmon fillets, lobster tails, and turkey burgers)

after that, I'll be chilling on the couch with a book, some candles, and a bottle of wine.