# Anyone want to buy some snow?



## Wade E (Feb 1, 2011)

Ths is getting ridiculous over here! I have 3 1/2' in my yard now and now and we are now supposed to get more tomorrow along with up o 1" of freezing rain and then another storm on Sat. and another on Tuesday again. If we get that 1' of freezing rain there is going to be some serious news about roofs and power outages. Most of us here still have about 2' of snow on our roofs despite everyone being told to remove it. Roof rakes are selling by the thousands in a 3 hour time period day by day here and until this year Ive never even heard of one. Luckily I was smart enough to grab one when they were cheap as the price gouging going on here is just sickening!


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## Runningwolf (Feb 1, 2011)

...and the smart ones will go get a generator while they're still available.


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## djrockinsteve (Feb 1, 2011)

Last year I was shoveling my roof. Neighbors thought I was crazy until the news started showing roofs caving in. 
It's just rain tonight for us.


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## Minnesotamaker (Feb 1, 2011)

Just another reason to fill the house with floor to ceiling wine racks. All that wine will act as a heat sink, support the weight of the roof, and keep you comfortable.


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## Wade E (Feb 1, 2011)

I have a big generator thats wired into my fuse box. Lets just hope I dont lose the phone lines as that would take my internet!!! Nooooooooooooooo! I just heard parts of Oklahoma got 2" of ice!!! ouch!!!


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## countrygirl (Feb 1, 2011)

after the ice storm we had here in ky 2 yr. ago, i highly recommend the generator, plenty of water and food that doesn't have to be cooked. don't forget your pets/pet food. i'm trying to remember what else seemed to hurt the most during that time???...oh, yeah, plenty of deodorant,  rofl
after 2 days with no showers AND sleeping with the dogs for warmth, we were smelling a little


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## Wade E (Feb 1, 2011)

With our generator we can shower, have heat, cook, do laundry watch TV, and run the computers if the phone lines are still there. Running water is no problem.


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## countrygirl (Feb 1, 2011)

Wade E said:


> With our generator we can shower, have heat, cook, do laundry watch TV, and run the computers if the phone lines are still there. Running water is no problem.



you will be sooo glad you did that wade! we "thought" we were prepared, got our old generator to our house (from the farm) only to find it didn't work
by then, they were price gouging and hubby refused to be gouged, so we slept in one room with the pups for 2 nights until another shipment of generators came into home depot!


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## Wade E (Feb 1, 2011)

We had a power outage about 6 years ago in the hottest time of the year. That was when I bought mine. I forget what the problem was, I tgink it was a blown transformer at a station but when I came home from work pretty much the whole state had just lost power and I was dripping with sweat and did not like it at all and heard on the radio after an hour that it could be out for 3 or more days. I didnt really wnt to spend as much as I did but Im not one to play around with buyig cheap products like power equipment so spent about $2500 on a good size Honda and luckily my brother is a licensed electrician.


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## grapeman (Feb 1, 2011)

Two inches of ice is bad, four inches like we had here in '97 seems like the end of the world. It wiped out tens of thousands of acres of forests in four days time. Forget going anywhere for days on end. Even the National Guard couldn't get the generators out to the countyside to save the dairy cows - no milking means sick and ultimately dead cows. The landscape looked like Japan after the nuking. All the treetops were broken off. Hardly a power pole was left standing and some remote areas too months to get power back. I had power back after about 10 days and almost killed myself with carbon monoxide trying to keep the pipes from freezing. Dozens of people weren't as lucky. 

Wade I am glad you have the generator and I am hoping you don't need it over there. We are expecting less than a foot so it will be a mere nuisance. We are coming up on the snowy season, so your troubles will soon be heading north to us.


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## Wade E (Feb 1, 2011)

We have never seen a season like this. You guys are used to this stuff. You can keep it!!!


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## Runningwolf (Feb 1, 2011)

We are just starting to get the freezing rain here. Even though they are predicting up to an inch of ice here I can not believe the majority of the storms keep missing us and head up towards you guys. What a switch from last year. I also have a 7500w Honda generator.


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## Redtrk (Feb 1, 2011)

Runningwolf said:


> We are just starting to get the freezing rain here. Even though they are predicting up to an inch of ice here I can not believe the majority of the storms keep missing us and head up towards you guys. What a switch from last year. I also have a 7500w Honda generator.



Dan there is a lot more behind what you are just starting to get. It hit here about 3:30 this afternoon and is still building up. 
I too have a generator and I'm hoping we don't have to use it.


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## Redtrk (Feb 1, 2011)

Look at it this way! We won't have to worry about a groundhog seeing it's shadow because it's hole is frozen shut.


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## woodsxdragon (Feb 2, 2011)

my college has been shutdown for 2 days now. It took me an hr to get my car cleaned off to go to work then another 30 min to get it cleaned 5 hrs later... stupid ice.


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## jet (Feb 2, 2011)

Monday night when I saw the blizzard warning, I thought "WTH, this is MO we don't have blizzards". Well, that just shows what little I know.

And, just my luck, the wine filter that I've been waiting on is sitting at the post office but I can't get there to pick it up.


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## roblloyd (Feb 2, 2011)

Wade - If I loose power do you have room for 5? My daughter is interested in making wine but not drinking it (she's 7).

This weather is crazy. I don't mind snow but this icy crap has got to go! Messing up my work schedule!


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## Arne (Feb 2, 2011)

Spring is a coming. The last one went thru yesterday. Didn't drop much snow this time, the ice hit the eastern part of the state, but missed us. We made out on this one. Feel for you guys back east, the weather shows you getting clobbered with a bunch of ice. What snow we did get came as a blizzard. Was light and fluffy, but 40 mile per hour winds kept it moving. Had a service call out in the country, you could see the tops of the center pivots, but could not see the road in front of you. Good luck to all of you. Arne.


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## djrockinsteve (Feb 2, 2011)

With the last few years getting uglier around here my BIL installed a special electric plug on the backside of his house. He can plug his generator into it, then go inside and flip a switch and power a good portion of his home off of the generator including the furnace.

It's wired directly into the breaker panel and no problem when the elec. comes back on. All he has to do is flip the 3 pole switch back.

I think we will be doing that soon although we have been lucky.


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## Arne (Feb 2, 2011)

We had a big ice storm a few years ago. I bought a 5000 watt generator. Powers some of the stuff in the house. Found out it will heat 50 gal of water in less than a hour and 20 min. That shower felt wonderful and there was enough warm water the next morning for the wife to have a quick shower before work. The power was on that night so did not have to heat the water with the gen. again. Should shut off everything else, tho. The water heater is just about max for that small of a generator. By the way, if you have a gasoline generator, make sure you put stable in it. Otherwise when you want to use it you will get to be a carberator mechanic. We put some stable in, run it out of gas, drain the tank and the generators all seem to run with some fresh fuel. Also, get some fresh fuel before the power goes out. Gas pumps run on electricity too. Speaking of fuell, don't think I have any out in the shed, think I will buy 5 gal. today and let it sit around the rest of the winter. it will run fine in the car, lawnmower or whatever this spring. Arne.


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## Runningwolf (Feb 2, 2011)

djrockinsteve said:


> With the last few years getting uglier around here my BIL installed a special electric plug on the backside of his house. He can plug his generator into it, then go inside and flip a switch and power a good portion of his home off of the generator including the furnace.
> 
> It's wired directly into the breaker panel and no problem when the elec. comes back on. All he has to do is flip the 3 pole switch back.
> 
> I think we will be doing that soon although we have been lucky.



I originally wired mine up the same way Steve. Last year I added a transfer switch for safety's sake incase I have to give directions to my wife over the phone. Mine will run dang near the entire house including the well pump, furnace and range.


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## Racer (Feb 2, 2011)

The snow finally stopped coming down a few minutes ago here. Now I get to try and find my garage door and get the snowblower out. With all the high winds we got my driveway isn't too bad, but the 4 foot drifts around all the buildings and cars are going to be alot of fun to get cleared out.


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## Larryh86GT (Feb 2, 2011)

It appears that we missed the brunt of this storm. I'm just about dug out already.


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## jtstar (Feb 2, 2011)

Thats great Larry I just got home this morning after spending two night in South Sioux City because of the strom that just went through Nebraska


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## Racer (Feb 2, 2011)

All in all I do have to agree I made out really well. I have only one roof line that needs snow removal. Because of the high winds most of my snow appears to have become someone else's problem.


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## Wade E (Feb 2, 2011)

I too have the Emergenswitch like Dan is talking about. This prevents dble power in the house and also anyone outside working on the lines from getting back zapped. The only thing I cant do with my generator is run the oven in self clean mode as that may max out the generator at 50 amps.


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## Flem (Feb 2, 2011)

Wade and Dan,

You guys must have some awfully big generators to be able to provide that much power to all those appliances. How many kilowatts do they produce?


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## Runningwolf (Feb 2, 2011)

Mine is rated at 8750 start up and 7500 continuous running watts. I could clean my oven but dang I don't do it now why would I do it during an outage when all the windows are shut (ha ha my range is gas). Really though the most important thing is heat (which I have NG), well pump, lights, freezer and refrigerator. If I had municipal water along with my gas heat and range, I really could get away with less.


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## Wade E (Feb 2, 2011)

Mine is 6500 watts. I run my well pump, furnace, fridges, and everything. Not all of it at the same time but most of it. If Im drying cloths I have to shut a few things down but not much. Dan, which model do you have as I was looking for one a little bigger but it went from mine to an 11000 watt one which was more then dble the price at $5850. Mine is the EM6500


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## Wade E (Feb 2, 2011)

OMG!!! I went down stairs to have a cig as we smoke in the basement right at the back door with it open and what do I see... its freakin snowing again!!!!!! Argggggggggg!


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## Runningwolf (Feb 2, 2011)

Wade, I'm glad you asked. When I pulled it out to look I noticed the tires are flat. I think I better get it outside this week and run it for a bit. It is a colemen powermate 8750. It has a 13hp Honda engine. Its does not have the electric start but it does start easily. This was a special buy Home Depot had about 7 years ago for a $1000.00. It was a heck of a buy even back then.


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## Wade E (Feb 2, 2011)

Yeah, mine is electric start and like a good boy I run it about twice a year mainly to charge the battery but yes the Honda motor fires right up fast everyime. $1000 is an awesome deal!


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## Racer (Feb 2, 2011)

Boy I'm having wattage envy here. My generator is a pull start and is rated @ 6500w. I got it to help run the refrigerator to keep my wifes insuline meds safe during an outage. It sure helps run alot of other things too when needed.


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## Wade E (Feb 2, 2011)

6500 is a very decent number, I can run quite a bit with that.


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## Larryh86GT (Feb 2, 2011)

My generator is 5000 watts and I run heavy duty extention cords to everything I that want to run with it, furnace, freezer, fridge, tv, lights, etc. I also converted it to run on propane - no worries about stale gas.


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## Randoneur (Feb 2, 2011)

This last year has been something. First the extreme summer, now the extreme winter.


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## woodsxdragon (Feb 3, 2011)

anybody else run into the ice pot holes today? or was my car the only one bottoming out and almost high centering all day? i had to stop to see if my cai was ok or if i was gonna hydrolock.


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## djrockinsteve (Feb 3, 2011)

Our street just got horrible. Big height differences.


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## Wade E (Feb 4, 2011)

I just heard today that Thursday we will most likley be getting another huge storm, even bigger then the one a few eeks ago when we got 23". OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Runningwolf (Feb 4, 2011)

Well maybe you'll get lucky like us Wade. When they give us plenty of warnings and scares the wind usually changes and it goes back out to the lake and comes back in and dumps on Buffalo.


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## Flem (Feb 4, 2011)

Dan and Wade, 
You've got about 62 and 54 amps of power respectively. That's plenty of amperage to run what you're using.


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## Wade E (Feb 4, 2011)

Im guessing you are an electrician? Im not super familiar with what can be run all at once, luckily mine has a am gauge on it that I can monitor when Im using it to see when Im trying to push it too far and it also has auto idle so it runs harder when needed and slows way down when no load is being put on it.


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## Flem (Feb 4, 2011)

You've got a nice generator. The gauge on it can really come in handy. IMO you can't beat a Honda motor. The auto idle feature is nice too. It saves fuel. If you stay conservative, you can run your pump, furnace, fridges (and they don't run all the time), and a few lighting circuits and should have no problems. You'll also know if you're running too much as the motor will probably start to bog down. I'm guessing your dryer is on a 240 volt, 30 amp circuit. Like you said, just shut a couple of things down when it's running. How many circuits are on your transfer switch? Just curious.


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## Wade E (Feb 4, 2011)

I have the 10 switch Emergen switch. I had to look at it again and it too also has gauges on it for amps, one for each side of the circuit board. 4 of the switches are linked together for 2 220 circuits. One is the water pump and the other is the oven. To use the dryer I have to plug that directly into the generator. That is also where Id have to plug in my brewing system if I ever needed an emergency batch of beer as my brewing system is also 220.


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## Runningwolf (Feb 4, 2011)

Mine is the basically the same as Wades. I only need 220 for the well pump. I did not connect my AC to it and the dryer and range are natural gas. This left me with 8 circuits to play with.


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## Wade E (Feb 4, 2011)

I forgot I switched from a good size 110 Ac unit to a huge 220 ac unit so now we have to eithee go in a few rooms or go in the basement where the older big 110 unit went.


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## Flem (Feb 4, 2011)

Depending on your type of oven, you could be pulling up to 50 amps. Even though your water pumps are 220v, they're probably only pulling 15 or 20 amps. It really doesn't matter how big your generator or transfer switch is, it's a matter of managing what's running at the same time. Most of the devices that you have only run intermittently. In the unlikely case that every one of them started at the same time, you might have a temporary problem.


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## Runningwolf (Feb 4, 2011)

Mike if I remember right doesn't the garbage disposal have a big surge when it starts? What about the micro wave?


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## Flem (Feb 4, 2011)

Not too awfully big with the disposal. Just a quick start-up. However, many microwaves are rated at around 1000 watts. That's a little over 8 amps. The initial start-up on a refrigerator or freezer pulls a lot, but once they're started it's not too bad.
FWIW Watts / volts = amps


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## Wade E (Feb 4, 2011)

Most generators are rated lower then what they are good for and some can take almost 1000 watts over what they are rated for for brief periods to accomaodate for these power surges.


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## Flem (Feb 5, 2011)

Right, that's why Dan's is rated at 8750 for startup and 7500 running.


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