Gonna be cold this weekend

[LCHIEN]

Going to have a cold Norther come though Friday Night, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with temperatures down to the 21-22°F at times.

In Feb 2021 we had a deep freeze that lasted 3 days and put much of Texas without electric power.

Well, the grid operator ERCOT has said their forecast shows we have sufficient power margin. THis will be OK with limited outages due to falling iced-over trees and such.

However what killed the grid in 2021 was not insufficient planned plant operations but unexpected loss of power plants due to extreme weather - one of the big ones was the natural gas supply being cut off because heaters for the gas water condensation filters either failed or worse, were disabled by localized rolling blackouts. Gas companies did not know that they could apply for no rolling blackout status if they simply filed a form stating they part of the critical energy supply.

Anyway, we hope they learned the lessons of 2021.
Anyway stores are out of bottled water and a lot of other staples.

[leehljp]

I'm tired! I spent the day getting my 8000+ watt generator prepared and in position; and a number of other things.. I have a 100 ft 10 gauge extension cord and hunted up a male and female connector. I cut my 10 gauge cord into a 60 ft and a 40 ft. Then I put a grommet through the wall of the back bedroom so that the 60ft heavy cord could go though - and another 12 gauge wire with numerous outlets every 8 ft. Both cords will fit through the "hole in the wall" doored on both sides grommet. The back bedroom has a covered 12ft patio and the generator is stationed there about 10 ft from the door and wall.

I dawned on me that the blower fan for my central gas heater had a 120v fan (installed 2 years ago) on its own circuit and instead of a direct hook up, someone installed an outlet next to it and a 12 gauge wire going to it. With this in mind, it also dawned on me that if the that were true, IF the ice storm tears the electric lines like it did in '94, I could run the 40ft cord directly to it (the attic has a door to the roof right above the patio cover.) While I might not have electricity to my lights, but I can use my lamps, I can have my central gas heater running. I also have a gas fireplace in the living room, so we can handle the cold if the electricity is out.

In 94, our home town was without electricity for 3 to 4 weeks as was all of N. Mississippi and most of Arkansas too. (I was in Japan at the time) This time we are on the boarder of all forecasts for sleet/snow versus predicted very heavy ice storm with trees and lines down over a huge area in Arkansas and MS.

My generator has 2 different 30amp 120V lines and a 220 line also. I thought about running a line to our electric stove/oven, but I wasn't going to pay the price for a female plug and an 8 gauge wire for a 220 cord through the house. I have a two burner camper stove, an air fryer that we use often, and an electric frying pan, toaster and other items that we can run a 120v (12 gauge) cord to them. I believe in heavy duty wire gauges!

I also got my four 5 gallon cans filled with gasoline to run the generator as needed. We are going to have 8 straight days with the low temperature at 20° or lower each night and 2 nights forecast down to 9°. I have my lawn tractor under my garage to use it as my "snow blower" if we get snow of any depth.

[leehljp]

BTW, Mine has electric start also.

Our house is on city, well Atmos gas (covers 8 states), but I seriously considered getting it changed to propane in a large tank last year. Last year in February, when we had 3 to 4 day cold spell down in the lower teens at night and mid 20s in the day, - in the mid afternoon of the first night, I told LOML that is sure was getting cold. I checked my fire place heater (gas) and the pilot light was out. I went outside and noticed the gas was cut off. (My payments are automatically deducted from the bank) A call to the gas office gets me someone in a different state every time, but the one I got said, "We sent the gas sensing truck through your town today and it noticed a gas leak at your house. They cut your gas off and left a note on the front door. While talking I was outside and there was no notice, nor on the side door. It took till the next night to get them to turn my gas back on. The leak was discovered at the connection of their meter to my house! I got very mad and posted a complaint to the MS Public Utilities the morning after the leak was discovered stating that 2 elederly (above 75) had their gas shut off on the eve of the coldest spell of the winter, and without any warning as we were both home the whole day as I was recovering from a knee replacement two weeks earlier. Within a couple of hours I began getting Atmost people calling me and sending guys to work behind my licensed plumber to find the source of the leak and getting it stopped. (There was more to it but that is the gist.) FOR THAT REASON, I almost considered getting off of a big company utility!

AS to the GENERLINK transfer switch- I considered the "Generlink" or even something similar when I bought the generator about 4 years ago. However, Entergy which covers MS, AR, LA and TX. said they do not allow it. I called the company and I called a couple of guys who worked their lines locally and they too said they were not allowed to do that and they were not permitted in MS (But I know some who have Generacs). I am sure if I pushed it, that would be illegal for them to forbid hooking up a generator of some sort with a licensed contractor or electrician with their oversight. I found a loop hole of sorts in the process with Entergy's denials in another matter with a church that I worked with when they were adamant that we could not do what we wanted to do. After about 5 phone calls, I got a person who was a bivocational pastor. HE told me the process and what we needed to do, how to do it and the right questions with the right words if I needed to call back. He told me that basically unless unless I asked the right words and questions to others, they would not help.

SO, I am sure if I pushed it, I could find the way to get it done, but the cost may be more than I want to pay for using it once every two or three years for no more than a couple of weeks at the most, and then a couple of days because of a spring or summer storm once every 5 years or so.

[capncarl]

Lee, GenerLink advertises that some utility companies actually provide this device to its customers the same as a backyard street light with a small uptick on their monthly bill. When I purchased my GenerLink the company required permission from my utility company, which they quickly provided. I was their first GenerLink installation When the device came the utility company sent several trucks and crews to install and train on the installation. (Which took 15 minutes). After this installation I have heard that there have been quite a few installed.
I can’t say the GenerLink is worth its cost, but I look at it as a form of insurance. It’s like carrying a battery jump starter or air compressor in your car, or a SawStop table saw.

Hindsight is 20-20. 2 years ago I replaced my 18 year old heat pump and air handler with an energy efficient inverter model Rheem. The factory rep had doubts that my generator would start and run the Rheem compressor and suggested that I not even try! This would have been the ideal time to convert to a gas heat air handler. This hi tec heat pump warranty has already had a rain frog short out the inverter mother board ( shame on any manufacturer that builds a high dollar outdoor machine and doesn’t even bother to protect the electronics from little critters) then the condenser unit variable speed fan died. Both devices were valued at over 1k each. I’m not sure that high tech saves us any money!

[leehljp]

"Frog shorted out the mother board"
When I started working with our local churches in 3 rural counties in 2012, one rural church had a tornado tear up their building. In rebuilding, I convinced them to use split AC/heat units instead of installing all the duct work, which would save them time and money on the building. Two years later a tree frog worked itself up inside to the mother board and shorted it out. We had the paper work and ordered a new motherboard for about $200.00. It was going to cost another $200 or so to get an electrician to install it, but the pastor, knowing my background since I was a kid (I grew up in this area) knew that I used to build stereo amps and radios of all sorts as a kid, asked me if I could do it. I didn't want to, but he talked me into it. I took picts of the original layout and wires, and made sure the new board was not a "revised" board that required changes. The new board was the same. I think I unhooked about 15 wires and re-hooked them. then we proceeded to seal every crack and open space we could find. It has worked since!

[RangerRick]

Good luck to everyone and stay safe.

[LCHIEN]

temperature dropping all day long (Sunday afternoon 4 PM), never warmed up. Going to be 22 tonight.

[leehljp]

Going down to 9° for us just south of Memphis.

[billwmeyer]

We're supposed to hit -9° actual temperature tonight. Tomorroy high is to be 17°. Up until this weekend, its been a mild winter.

[dbhost]

Hey Loring, you are in Katy if I remember right. It got down to about 22 deg F here in Galveston County as well... Pretty sure my timbers were shivering!

My tropical coast living self is NOT used to this...

[LCHIEN]

Yup, it will be 24°F overnight (early Tues AM) in Katy but will be up to 40 Tuesday afternoon.

[cwsmith]

Last night it was zero here and this morning it was 4°F. Right now it is 14°F!

I spent a good share of Sunday and Monday outside in similar temperatures with almost a continuous snow fall that I was trying to stay ahead of with the snowblower and shovel.

I usually do both my neighbor's as well as our own, because he doesn't have a snowblower. We share the same driveway entrance, and it's silly just to do my half. The neighbor also has a corner lot, and so I do that also, as well as the house next door to him, because that's a rental occupied by some college students who have no equipment to handle the snow.

My neighbor recently purchased this home, and both them are school teachers working about fifty mile north of here, so I told him I'd handle the snow and such because he's up at 5:00 and doesn't return until almost 7:00 pm. Yesterday, they had a 'snow day' so he was home and we shared the snow removal.

This morning the city was still busy with snow removal and so between yesterday and today, we have the challenge of getting our driveway plowed in a few times and have to return to clearing it again and again.

According to the News report this morning , we received 18-inches. Fortunately it's quite cold and therefore the snow is fairly light. I don't look forward to this month's gas and electric bill; last month it was close to $350!

Personally I like the snow and can deal with it better than the 90°F plus summer temperatures.

Whe I was a kid, we lived just east of here on a big hill, and the present snow was minor compared to what we often say back then. My Dad had a lamp post next to our driveway and main-entry sidewalk. Many years, between the shoveling and wind drifting, that lamp post would be completely covered over. I loved it, because you could turn on the lamp and the pile of snow would glow and night.

I was always outside back then; hiking, cross-country skiing, and often camped out. My paper route was five-miles long, seven days a week and a few times I did it on skiis.

Personally I love the winter!

CWS