Anyone want to buy some snow?

[Runningwolf]

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.

 

[Racer]

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.

 

[Larryh86GT]

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

 

[jtstar]

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

 

[Racer]

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.

 

[Wade E]

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.

 

[Flem]

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?

 

[Runningwolf]

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.

 

[Wade E]

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

 

[Wade E]

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!

 

[Runningwolf]

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.

 

[Wade E]

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!

 

[Racer]

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.

 

[Wade E]

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

 

[Larryh86GT]

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.

 

[Randoneur]

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

 

[woodsxdragon]

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.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Our street just got horrible. Big height differences.

 

[Wade E]

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Runningwolf]

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.