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Old 01-28-2011, 02:46 AM   #1
bncinwv
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Time for a generator test!!!!

Phone goes off at 5:00 a.m. this morning with the recorded message from the school board that school is canceled today due to the overnight snowfall. Then at 5:15 a.m. power flickers and then goes off and stays off. DW laying in bed complaining that she will not be able to have her morning coffee (doesn't this sound familiar??). Obviously, there is no way that DOH (dear old hubby), can remain in bed any longer. Time to spring into action. Fill kerosene heater and get it going to keep the women warm. Grab the Honda 2000 and get it going on the porch to provide some light to the situation (via extension cords). Then comes the back breaker. Kipor 3000 is in the garage and the job of getting it up the stairs and to the porch to sit alongside the Honda falls on non other than yours truly. 150 pounds and steps to take it up. Phewww, what a morning!! Hold on though, oldest daughter commutes to college and car is in the garage with electric garage door opener. Run extension cord to garage, lift garage door, and put DD's and DW's vehicle out in the snow. Now, what's next, hook up refrigerator to genny extension cord, got lights, got heat, food is protected and I decide to run extra cord to basement for chest freezer in case power outage is prolonged, ...............and then the focus turns to the most high-priority, gotta have, can't live without it item in the house. What could possibly be left you ask??? One more extension cord to run. Can't leave for work until it is done. Hook up big-screen and Directv receiver!!! Got it, now DOH can leave for work, arrive half-hour late (helps being the boss!!), back is done for the day, but the women are comfortable and the neighbors are jealous!!! What a start to the day, but tat least the generators are getting their regularly scheduled workout!!! Ahhhhh, life is good!!!!
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Old 01-28-2011, 03:24 AM   #2
Lee F.
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Bingo,

I had the same situation. Five am the microwave beaps which lets me know the power is off. I roll over and sure enough, the alarm isn't lit so it's official, the powers out and the temp. is -17 degrees. The difference is that after many years of wanting one I finally had a 14K Kohler installed last July. All I had to do is wait 15 seconds and smile when I heard the microwave beap again and the the clock light came back on. Why didn't I do this sooner? Oh well, it's there now and my 68 year old body is loving it.
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Old 01-28-2011, 03:40 AM   #3
bncinwv
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I envy you Lee!! DW called me and told me the power was restored at 9:00 a.m. All of that work for a pot of coffee???? and getting a car out of the garage???? Geeeezzz!! Oh well, at least Momma was happy!!!
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Old 01-28-2011, 05:08 AM   #4
Waynem
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Bingo,
You did not mention in the first post that you made the pot of coffee. According to your DW, that should have been your first priority. (hee hee!)
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Old 01-28-2011, 05:36 AM   #5
bncinwv
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She would never let me Wayne!! It is one of those automatic thing-a-ma-jigs that grinds the beans and makes the copy. Each morning before I leave for work some magically appears in my travel cup. I never question how it got there and definitely would never say anything bad about it!!! Wisdom comes hard!!!
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Old 01-28-2011, 08:28 AM   #6
Bill-N-Donna
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Bingo a household natural gas generator with an automatic throw over switch sounds really nice for times like these. One could have the coffee pot set to brew automatically. Wake up to the experience of being without shore power, have a cup of Joe and then evaluate whether one needs to go to work or not. One of the toys I would like to have but I don’t. I would have to manually hook up the Genny make certain the gas if full and them sit back. I am somewhat thankful I don’t have any stairs to inhibit the situation. My advice is to be careful, take your time and whatever you do….” don’t break the coffee pot!”
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Old 01-28-2011, 10:51 AM   #7
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Bingo,

Cathy will remember that pot of coffee longer than you will; it will have been worth the effort!
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Old 01-29-2011, 12:23 PM   #8
coyoterick
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by bncinwv

Hold on though, oldest daughter commutes to college and car is in the garage with electric garage door opener. Run extension cord to garage, lift garage door, and put DD's and DW's vehicle out in the snow.
There should be no need for this, note the short rope with handle attached to the end of it coming off of the door opener track - you just pull the handle and it disengages the motor, thus allowing you to open the door manually! That's assuming you have an opener made in the last 20 years or so....if it's older than that it may not have a manual release...
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Old 01-29-2011, 12:47 PM   #9
bncinwv
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It does have the rope and believe it or not, I did not know that the rope was for that purpose!!! Thanks for the info, will definitely try to see if I can handle it. It is a double door so I am sure it will take some effort.
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Old 01-30-2011, 04:25 AM   #10
oldelmer1
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Bingo,
Sometimes when you pull the rope to open the door manually, when closing it, be sure the door latches back into the opener. Sometimes mine will not latch correctly, and when the power comes back on, I have to hit the button for the opener to come up, then hit it again to have it close, then, on the close, it will latch.
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Old 01-30-2011, 05:07 AM   #11
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OK, I hope Jim the electrician doesn't read this, or any of the retired linemen, but here is what I do:
Take the Kipor, wire in a disconnect in the garage or wherever you have a 220 breaker, ALWAYS turn off the main breaker first: 100 0r 200 amp panel whatever you have, then turn all the other breakers off.
Plug in the generator to back-feed the panel and turn on what loads you want to juggle, as long as they don't exceed the output of your generator. (Keeping in mind that the Main breaker is kept OFF)The correct way of doing this before all of you yell at me is to have a sub-panel and an automatic transfer switch. I just haven't got around to that yet at my Casa. It has worked for 30 years with no-one getting hurt.
I know this is not the right thing to do and proceed, or not, knowing this.... But it works. Well.
Did I say it was not the right or safe thing to do for the people 'upstream'? But, If the main is off, nothing will backfeed to the power supply.
I know this is a mistake, the little hairs on the back of my neck are standing up.
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Old 01-30-2011, 07:43 AM   #12
oldelmer1
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Ozz,

Your not alone on this one, we have a 7500 W generator and do the same thing, 220 outlet in the garage connected to sub panel. ALWAYS turn off the main breaker first. Using a male to male extension cord, connect the gen to the 220 outlet, then turn on the gen's breaker which powers the hole house. Generator sits outside of the garage, its on wheels.
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Old 01-30-2011, 07:54 AM   #13
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It beats running around the house trying to power up the different things that need it on a prolonged outage. Want to run the freezer for 20 minutes? turn on it's breaker, reefer the same way. If you just need gas heat, flip on the furnace breaker, the gas is-has always been on.
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Old 01-30-2011, 01:30 PM   #14
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Ozz, I understand what you're talking about, but when you live in the sticks, you can't watch your neighbors to know when the power comes back on. BTW, don't have an auto switch, but do have a generator sub panel that the gen plugs into to run necessities, so we don't have to turn the main off, that way we can tell when power is restored.

Bingo, I know it goes against the male grain, but probably if you read the opener manual it would have identifed the manual trip. If the door is balanced correctly it should open fairly easily.

Okay, better shutup before I get into trouble. LOL
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Old 01-30-2011, 01:48 PM   #15
bncinwv
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C'mon Michelle. Manual and man does not even belong in the same post?? LOL!! Actually I have never had a manual for the last two garage door openers since they were in the house's garage when we bought the houses. Guess I will have to bite the bullet and see if I can download one. Besides, not knowing the fact that there is a manual over-ride merely opened the door for another opportunity to learn something from the MOC!!!
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Old 01-30-2011, 01:55 PM   #16
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Yes, but Manual starts with "Man"ual
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Old 01-30-2011, 02:10 PM   #17
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OZZ we do the same thing. Have for a long time.. We have two generators the Kipor 3000 and a noisy Sears 3500. We have at times had the only power on the street. The Kipor stays in the bed of the truck so it powers the Montana first then if the outage is prolonged we protect the fridge, etc with thy noisy sears.
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Old 01-31-2011, 02:22 PM   #18
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While the power was out and the generator was off I wired a piece of romex into one leg of the service entrance lug in the breaker box. I then put an service cord plug on the end. So when the power goes out I plug a trouble light into it and then I know when the power comes back on and can monitor the voltage for lows or spikes.
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Old 02-01-2011, 02:03 AM   #19
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Your story sounds strangely familar to the hurricane drills I have to do around my house. Only without the white stuff of course!

Good hustle on springing into action!
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