Eaton AMA @10am (est)
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Before there were computers running around the clock, desktops or otherwise, the constant blips in power didn't matter much. A lot happened at night and no one would notice or they were a few minutes here or there throughout the day. Now that CPAPs cut off your air, AC stops, computers reboot, UPSs alarm even the five minutes here and there becomes very noticeable.
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@art_of_shred said:
@Minion-Queen said:
Our power goes out at least a half dozen times a year. Most times for just a few seconds (but enough to knock things out). But our infrastructure here is very old.
Not just "very old". In fact, most of it is over 100 years old in our immediate region.
Oldest that there is. First region of the world to be electrified.
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I miss the days when all you had to do was reset the time on the microwave and VCR.
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@art_of_shred said:
I miss the days when all you had to do was reset the time on the microwave and VCR.
You mean you actually did (and know how) to do that?
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And your alarm clock. Remember when people would miss school because their alarms would not go off?
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We have brownouts here more than we do actual power loss.
Though we did have a week without power from a super heavy snowfall that happened in early/mid October before the trees gave up their leaves. So many trees lost that year.
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@dafyre said:
@art_of_shred said:
I miss the days when all you had to do was reset the time on the microwave and VCR.
You mean you actually did (and know how) to do that?
Yes, we are the generation that had to because our parents couldn't figure it out.
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All this talk of power outages and generators makes me all warm and fuzzy. We do track power outages daily via our Blackout Tracker: www.eaton.com/blackouttracker. You can fill out a form to submit an outage report. Mention, mango and your t-shirt size and we'll send one out to you.
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@mdecamp said:
All this talk of power outages and generators makes me all warm and fuzzy. We do track power outages daily via our Blackout Tracker: www.eaton.com/blackouttracker. You can fill out a form to submit an outage report. Mention, mango and your t-shirt size and we'll send one out to you.
Should I add my one from two days ago? lol
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@Dashrender said:
@mdecamp said:
All this talk of power outages and generators makes me all warm and fuzzy. We do track power outages daily via our Blackout Tracker: www.eaton.com/blackouttracker. You can fill out a form to submit an outage report. Mention, mango and your t-shirt size and we'll send one out to you.
Should I add my one from two days ago? lol
Sure, especially if you don't see an entry for the one you experienced. -
@mdecamp said:
@Dashrender said:
@mdecamp said:
All this talk of power outages and generators makes me all warm and fuzzy. We do track power outages daily via our Blackout Tracker: www.eaton.com/blackouttracker. You can fill out a form to submit an outage report. Mention, mango and your t-shirt size and we'll send one out to you.
Should I add my one from two days ago? lol
Sure, especially if you don't see an entry for the one you experienced.
I can't find anyone who picked up the story... It must have been highly localized, but we were still down for nearly 3 hours.
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@Dashrender said:
@mdecamp said:
@Dashrender said:
@mdecamp said:
All this talk of power outages and generators makes me all warm and fuzzy. We do track power outages daily via our Blackout Tracker: www.eaton.com/blackouttracker. You can fill out a form to submit an outage report. Mention, mango and your t-shirt size and we'll send one out to you.
Should I add my one from two days ago? lol
Sure, especially if you don't see an entry for the one you experienced.
I can't find anyone who picked up the story... It must have been highly localized, but we were still down for nearly 3 hours.
Yeah, most of the localized ones don’t get reported. We do get a lot of unusual ones though: http://powerquality.eaton.com/thoughtleadership/Slides/Blackouts-Unusual-outages-2014/default.asp
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I've been out for over a week TWICE in the past 4 years, both at home and work.
We eventually broke down and bought a portable generator for the house. We don't have a transfer switch. We just run everything with cords. But I'd like to get a transfer switch so that we can power the furnace. (We have gas.) It's a pain to wheel the thing out and set up the cords, but it's better than the alternative. And keeps the beer cold and the Keurig working. And the TV. (Somehow our FiOS works even when the power is out.)
My mom lives with us and is in a hospital bed or power wheelchair basically 24/7.
We looked into a whole house generator, but it's just so pricey even at $3-4K. At least for us.
The last time it happened, it wasn't freezing yet, but it was cold. The whole thing just sucked.
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@BRRABill said:
I've been out for over a week TWICE in the past 4 years, both at home and work.
We eventually broke down and bought a portable generator for the house. We don't have a transfer switch. We just run everything with cords. But I'd like to get a transfer switch so that we can power the furnace. (We have gas.) It's a pain to wheel the thing out and set up the cords, but it's better than the alternative. And keeps the beer cold and the Keurig working. And the TV. (Somehow our FiOS works even when the power is out.)
My mom lives with us and is in a hospital bed or power wheelchair basically 24/7.
We looked into a whole house generator, but it's just so pricey even at $3-4K. At least for us.
The last time it happened, it wasn't freezing yet, but it was cold. The whole thing just sucked.
Another way to do this is, turn off the main house breakers, then plug lines from the generator into a power socket on each leg of power in the house.
For example, I ran a 220 (both legs of 110) 60 Amp circuit to my garage. I can either run two 110 cables, one to each side, or a single 220 to the 220 connection I installed. This will electrify the entire house.
Definitely make sure you kill the main house breakers first, other really bad things happen
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@Dashrender said:
Another way to do this is, turn off the main house breakers, then plug lines from the generator into a power socket on each leg of power in the house.
For example, I ran a 220 (both legs of 110) 60 Amp circuit to my garage. I can either run two 110 cables, one to each side, or a single 220 to the 220 connection I installed. This will electrify the entire house.
Definitely make sure you kill the main house breakers first, other really bad things happen
I was told by so many people not to do that, I didn't even attempt it.
That's the real world equivalent of running a RAID5 array with 15 1TB drives.
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@BRRABill said:
@Dashrender said:
Another way to do this is, turn off the main house breakers, then plug lines from the generator into a power socket on each leg of power in the house.
For example, I ran a 220 (both legs of 110) 60 Amp circuit to my garage. I can either run two 110 cables, one to each side, or a single 220 to the 220 connection I installed. This will electrify the entire house.
Definitely make sure you kill the main house breakers first, other really bad things happen
I was told by so many people not to do that, I didn't even attempt it.
That's the real world equivalent of running a RAID5 array with 15 1TB drives.
Really? How so?
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@Dashrender said:
Really? How so?
Multiple reasons.
I was just under the impression that it's something you should never do.
This is something I am curious as to the opinion of @scottalanmiller on. He's very black and white with these sorts of things.
Best practice would be to not do that, but lots of people do to make the outlets work.
I'm going to guess and see what he says.
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@BRRABill said:
I was told by so many people not to do that, I didn't even attempt it.
That's the real world equivalent of running a RAID5 array with 15 1TB drives.
Not really. There are lots of PDUs that take 240v and give you two sections. 240v 50amp will give you 120v 100amps.
It's not quite the same as having fully to seperate lines (we run dual 240v to each rack, each is supplied from a different 3 phase data center system ups.
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@BRRABill said:
@Dashrender said:
Really? How so?
Multiple reasons.
I was just under the impression that it's something you should never do.
This is something I am curious as to the opinion of @scottalanmiller on. He's very black and white with these sorts of things.
Best practice would be to not do that, but lots of people do to make the outlets work.
I'm going to guess and see what he says.
It's generally safe as long as you make dang sure your mains are off!
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I'm trying to think of reasons not to do this.
- person forgets to turn off main, when the power comes back on, it causes the generator to blow, and possible everything else plugged in - yeah that's bad!
2)can't support the load of the house over a standard electrical outlet. Most outlets are 15 amps. If, for example, you plug in the generator to an outlet in the garage (which today has to be GFI enabled) the most you can provide is 15 amps before those lines will overheat and possibly burn your house down - OK that's bad!
So this leads me to a question - will a breaker trip if power is flowing in the reverse direction than normal?
- Most areas of a home don't have access to both legs of power. This means if you plug your 110 generator into a standard outlet, at best, you're powering half your house, maybe not the half you need (like the refrigerator, furnace), again still limited by the 15 amp line as stated above.
I'm starting to see why this is a bad idea, but mostly it's around people being stupid... thinking they can just live life like normal and overload lines while in an outage situation.
