2015 Hurricane season is here!

[MattKarma]

Generally the storms pass to the south, because Hawaii's too cold for them. So an El Nino would increase likelihood of Hurricane impact.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2015...s_1200.jpg

[Kapohocat]

quote:

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Originally posted by terracore

Great advice, however the experts say never leave your windows open during a hurricane. That is an old wives tale. FEMA recommends against it, NOAA recommends against it, MYTHBUSTERS busted the myth, if you google it there are a lot of explanations on why there are no positive outcomes of leaving your windows open and only negative ones. The best advice is to board them up....

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I'll tell hubby! Plus he loves myth busters so he wont mind watching it. He went through the Andover tornado. Saw whole neighborhoods just gone. He worked at Boeing and saw them lose 3/4 of a hanger.

And yes genny etc....but I didnt go into that whole portion as some people cant afford that... and others got theirs last year. But good time to check oil, etc. They might be on sale right now at Home Depot with Father's day on the way.

The duct tape wasn't for the windows. The duct tape can be a first aid item, can hold something together in the aftermath, etc.

[terracore]

I feel the need to second the "cash" recommendation. After Iselle some places were only accepting cash because no telephone for the credit card machine. They had a big sign that said CASH ONLY NO CHECKS. Sure enough the guy in front of me thought he could sweet talk the clerk into accepting his check ("but it's local"). No cash, no carry.

We had to loan a 5 gallon water jug (full of water) to a family who didn't realize how complicated it was to get water out of their catchment tank and make it drinkable without any electricity. And all they had was small bottles. Not so good for fetching clean water. We also butchered one of our chickens for them to eat because their food went bad and the kids were working chain saws all day and needed protein.

I was surprised at how many people were only prepared for a 12 hour (at best) "emergency". 12 hours without anything isn't an emergency, its an inconvenience. Really the mindset should be, how am I going to fare if I have no other access to food/electricity/water/medicine/lighting/etc for the next few weeks? A backup generator is great. But if you are talking long term, the backup generator becomes a generator. Then, do you have a backup generator? I'm not saying that everybody should have two generators, but you should have at least two plans. Help comes quickly only in the best of circumstances.

[Bullwinkle]

And its official ...2015 has been declared a "Substantial El Nino Event" Warmer water allows Hurricanes to move into more northern limits ... Up beyond the traditional 20 S to 20 N degree limits .... hold onto your hats ...(and roofing)

http://www.ibtimes.com/el-nino-2015-be-s...ia-1918989

[terracore]

So... how does a guy go about powering his house with his generator without a) using a suicide plug to backfeed into an outlet or b) having 15 power cords to trip over? Electricity is not my thing. I understand there is a transfer switch etc involved and an electrician, but last I checked into it, "doing it right" cost more than the generator did.

[MarkP]

I put in a transfer switch at my parents' house. The kind we put in was such that you mount it beside the regular power panel. You re-route the circuits that go out to the house over so that they are fed from the transfer switch breakers instead of the original panel breakers. You also route new conductors from the original breakers over to the transfer switch to feed the original circuits, that is when the switches are thrown that way. The new breakers in the transfer switch are three-way breakers that have two inputs each, from the grid side or from the generator. Usually the transfer switch comes with these new conductors on the input side so you can just mount the transfer switch tight against the power panel, connect the two with conduit or fittings, and re-route the wires without having to buy anything additional. You have to decide which circuits are going to be hooked up to the transfer switch since usually with this kind of transfer switch (small, manual) it doesn't carry the whole capacity of the original panel. When the need arises you go out, connect and start the generator, then switch over each circuit manually. There is a sort of reverse receptacle in the transfer switch that accepts the female end of an extension cord.

Someone would definitely say that you should have had an electrician do it but we did it ourselves. Just do it right.

[terracore]

I saw that method used on some youtube videos, but I can't think of any circuits I wouldn't want the capability to use the generator with so I don't understand the need for the second panel. Maybe the electric hot water heater, but that circuit is off 99% of the time anyway. Is there a way to do it at the big switch under the meter?

[MarkP]

http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/...witch.html

Most generators are small enough compared to the house service that it is natural to select only certain circuits. Also most or at least many household power panels have the main breaker integral with the panel. There is no way to de-energize the panel or conductors upstream without pulling the meter, which takes the complexity up a notch, so even if it means putting in a transfer switch that pretty much duplicates your regular panel, the advantage is that you can do the work without involving the power company.

Take this as constructive criticism in the friendliest way: you're being a bit lazy in that running off a generator has got to be limiting in terms of capacity unless you have a honkin' big generator. As such you are going to be making decisions about what to turn on or leave off. I say make some of those decisions up front. Also I would not power an electric hot water heater from a generator. At 4,500 watts that is equal to or greater than the capacity of a generator that would otherwise be adequate to run the entire rest of your house. Lay a garden hose in the sun and shower with that.

[MarkP]

That sounded snotty or know-it-all-ish. Didn't mean it to.

Yes I am sure that there are transfer switches that will do as you wish. I only have experience with the sort I described.

[terracore]

Didn't sound snotty at all. I can't imagine a scenario where I would run the water heater off a generator (especially when we have solar hot water) but our generator is big enough to power the whole house.