60 hours without POWER

Sixty hours and counting....Running the Honda ES 6500 generator is getting a bit old. We have been moving our generator in the neighbourhood running boilers and refrigerators for several houses all weekend.
Take a look at the first pic and see if you can tell why we have no power...?
100 yards away the houses all have had power all weekend.
Also the line we are on has no tree damage.

PC 12

Well,my Aerial Brother....I would say you've got two mainline fused disconnects dropped out and/or blown. I'm not seeing any rat tails showing at the bottom,indicating blown fuses,but they probably are. It comes down to qualified people on the property. Not Laptops,not SmartGrid Technology,but actual people who would get the assignment from their Circuit Control Office/Dispatch to Patrol those lines,probably on foot, to make sure there are no conductors down,limbs resting on conductors,and most importantly,no other crews working on that circuit before refusing and restoring those two circuits. Your pals 100 yards away are on either a different feeder or a surviving part of your feeder that sectionalizing the circuit protected the whole house of cards from de-energizing. Remember,in high wind and/or heavy snow branches can sag,causing a momentary ground on the conductor. That blows the fused disconnect. It sounds like a shotgun going off. The door that the fuse mounts into is spring loaded. When the fuse blows,the door or bayonet drops down providing a tell-a-tale for the Trouble Crew to find the bad story faster. Don't touch a damned thing if you find wires down. I mean even if they're phone or cable. Make sure your neighbors have all called their addresses in to the Trouble Reporting Hotline. Downsizing and Dumbdowns have caused large delays in restoration of power. Make sure your people stay on top of the power company and get your town government people involved. Good Luck and spread the word about staying safe and getting what you and your neighbors have paid for......Hambden Bob...

Nice generator and transfer install BTW.

We survived the Thursday storm front only to be knocked offline early Saturday morning.

Got to test out the little Honda EU2000

Stoker, refrigerator, sump pump, coffeemaker and toaster all ran without a hitch. Ran for 12 hrs and only burned about a gallon and a half of petrol.

Distribution circuit breakers are opened. Get the utility company to come out with one of their pole sticks and close it.

Yanche wrote:Distribution circuit breakers are opened. Get the utility company to come out with one of their pole sticks and close it.

Centeral Maine Power knows about the circuit breakers and one of the Line Crew lives down the road and he knows about this also. Must be that only six houses are on this line and not a high priorty.

That's what happens to us when the power goes out -- we're always the last to get power back. No biggie with the generator though.

Still over 100K out around here. I'm one of the lucky ones, so I loaded up the 10K welder/generator and made some smiles in the back woods and main streets. Refrigeration isn't as big a deal as heat and well water or sump pumps and sewer pumps.
Hand fired wood or coal users just smiled, not so for pellet users. Home Depot brought in a TT load of 7500 and 5500's and sold them in 45 minutes. The trick was to find a town with power so you could get gasoline to run them with.

Lucky not many injuries from tree damage, but sure is a mess. 600 tree crews working from all over from as far away as Michigan.
Might be as bad as the 08 ice storm. I hear you guys about the fuses popped; but I sure don't want to be the one who resets it and gets something cooking or some line worker killed down the line.
We had some standby generators that came unglued Thursday night, and that sure affected PLC's, VFD's even though they are suppose to be protected. No need to overnight parts, can't get the planes in anyway. You guys in Maine are lucky to Central Maine Diesel right there. They have helped me out for 20 years, absolutely no complaints about the good folks there. For members who aren't familiar, look at their website. We have purchased for Towns, Fire, police and DPW's....and every one of their units performs!
http://www.generatorsales.com/about-cen ... iesel.html

Sixty hours and counting.

I'm sure the crews are doing everything they can however....I'd be on the phone reporting outage every few hours so you don't get overlooked.
Give them the address/location where those fuse cutouts are open(first photo) and reporting any other line damage that you know of will help.

Pc-12,Whistlenut...Damned fine of you both to help out around you. Generators aint cheap,but they sure are worth their weight in gold. Hope no stories come out where people tried to CO themselves to death with the thing is running in a garage and what-not. Trouble Crews have got to have permission to re-fuse and try those disconnects. It's a pain in the rear,I know,but it is a system of control that keeps people alive(Like tree crews,linemen,you...etc.) Stay with it it and am glad the Coal is with you.

Line-tramped it for awhile w/ Kohler Elec.--last big job was when Andrew went through Homestead,Fla---Bob is right--alot of stuff goes on out there--be patient--lost a good buddy in Homestead--lack of communication between crews--he was in a bucket w/a leg hanging over the side to reach something--bad move when someone hit the wrong switch

It isn't any fun for the tree or line crews anywhere. One screw-up and someone is no longer with us. I know it sucks to have no heat, no power, no refrigeration, no water, and perhaps a tree branch stuffed through your roof, but in a short time we will all be back to normal again. If you missed the forum I am truly sorry, but the Olympics ended in a fitting manner for the host country.....and all of this will be recorded someplace anyway.
All I hope is no one gets hurt and that the crazy weather will change for the better. 1 to 4" tomorrow all around here....that is NOT a big help, either. I'm refueled and still on the 'power em' up' routine. Love Honda powered equipment!

...or Yamaha!

SMITTY wrote:...or Yamaha!

Yeah Smitty, thats a nice one you got there. I think I'm going to pick one up just like it, lator this year.

THANKS! It's been working great so far. Only have 5 hours on it now. Had a few wiring issues in the barn that I didn't know of -- the GFCI plug discovered them for me. Kept tripping until I went into the breaker panel & separated the neutrals from the grounds. Then for some strange reason, I had to remove the ground from the outlet I backfed into. Works fine now.

Shop around first, as things may have changed ..... but this is where I got it: http://www.dhcsupplies.com/

They were close to 50% cheaper than my local dealer, & about 30% off list price.


Oh....... and HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

88 hours and we now have the power back. The line crew spent about 10 minutes looking up at the circut breakers and then closed the breakers and "BAM" the lights came back on.....

Black_And_Blue wrote:Nice generator and transfer install BTW.

We survived the Thursday storm front only to be knocked offline early Saturday morning.

Got to test out the little Honda EU2000

Stoker, refrigerator, sump pump, coffeemaker and toaster all ran without a hitch. Ran for 12 hrs and only burned about a gallon and a half of petrol.

B&B, the 6.5 kw. is burning just under 1 gal. an hour.

PC 12