Hurricane Milton Thread

In reply to David S. Wallens :

We used to use one of those for the band and it would power a PA, a bass amp and a guitar amp pretty easily. 

It was a small PA since it was in a neighborhood for a huge race but the generator was never loud enough to be a bother from 20 feet away

Chris Tropea said:

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

My friends have a natural gas line into there house and had gas the entire time, he is thinking about getting a new generator that will run on natural gas so they can tap into the line and have unlimited fuel for when they loose power. 

That's my plan. 

Actually, here's real world proof of it's quietness. The generator is on the whole time here, you get a long walk up with us playing starting at 1:15

Aldo as a side note I can't believe that it was 16 years ago, berkeley

aw614 said:

I've been wondering if the Honda EU2200i would be sufficient for maybe refrigerator or just internet use....I don't want one of the larger generators and prefer quiet after seeing how loud everyone else that ran them in the neighborhood. 

Another vote for the Honda EU2200i. They are large enough to power a small window AC unit, but also quiet, which makes sleeping in FL after a hurricane both possible and enjoyable. I think you could run the refrigerator and Ac system at the same time, but if both compressors started at the same moment I think it would trip the breaker on the generator.

They're a really well-supported platform so there are a dozen hacks/tweaks/mods you can do as well. It's the Honda Civic of generators.

We looked at a whole-house generator after Irma, but it felt silly to have all that money tied up in something we'd only use for a week at most every other year.

How often do you start them up and let them run thru the year ?

Does the fuel go bad ?

californiamilleghia said:

How often do you start them up and let them run thru the year ?

Does the fuel go bad ?

I drain mine and keep it on the shelf along with two spare spark plugs, a spark plug wrench, a quart of oil, and a heavy duty 25' extension cord.

I keep the small window AC unit next to it, but those are always available at Home Depot/Lowes after the storm.

I keep my tank full, plus about 40+ gallons in storage. All of the gas is ethanol free and stabilized. 
I start the motor every 3-4 months,  and run it for about 15 minutes. When the gas is over a year old, I run it in a vehicle and replace it. 

Finally got the pictures to upload. Here's my trauma from Milton. I want to schedule a work day to help get this removed.

Here's where the trees clipped our house. Lil crunchy crunchy, but survivable.

In reply to hobiercr :

Let me know, I have an 8yd dump trailer.

In reply to hobiercr :

Lemme know.  I should be available this weekend.

I finally reached the point of cutting drywall, and wow is there a lot of water in these walls. Hooray....

For the generator folks, Lawyer Buddy got the Hybrid V6 F150 earlier this year. 

 Circuit A is running two main refrigerators, entertainment system, internet. Circuit B is running portable AC up in the bedroom. I need more to boost!!

He is insanely happy with it.  Said if he hadnt had the kids the bedrooms being at 72 might've gotten him some.

So, a little more about Milton’s timing: We had the December issue of GRM scheduled to ship this past Monday–and with part of our crew out of state hosting one of our Classic Motorsports Road Tours!

So that basically meant preparing for final approach while relying upon cell phones and generator power. We had ads to coordinate, files to proof and some details to wrap up.

And the issue shipped yesterday as planned.

Whew. 

Milton update from our tiny corner of the world.

The arborist and his crew were here Tuesday–as promised–to deal with our broken trees. No boom truck, either, as he climbs up there and does it old-school, chainsaw hanging at the ready. (No idea how old Dave is, but he has to be well into his 60s.)

Technically we didn’t lose any trees, but four are now now a little smaller. We have some big oaks, and it always hurts to see them hit like that. 

Added bonus: The tree crew also picked up our storm debris–like, all of it and clean a gutter that’s too high for me. (Free plug for Dave’s Tree Service.)

On a related note, I just heard the deep-bass thud of a debris truck dumping a load into its hopper. 

hobiercr said:

Finally got the pictures to upload. Here's my trauma from Milton. I want to schedule a work day to help get this removed.

We got everything cleared up.  Ate burgers.  Talked cars and other BS.

Eveyone will be happy to know that, other than a few new dents and creases, the Toyota and Volvo made it through remarkably well.

Chris Tropea said:

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

My friends have a natural gas line into there house and had gas the entire time, he is thinking about getting a new generator that will run on natural gas so they can tap into the line and have unlimited fuel for when they loose power. 

After that huge outage back 2006 (?) I bought an 8200W John Deere gas generator and had a plug put in the garage. It was wired to a transfer switch and auxiliary panel. We could run most of the house (not the AC) including well and furnace. Last year I finally coughed up the money for a 22KW Generac,running on natural gas. No more worries about having gasoline on site , or having to haul the JD out into the driveway every time the power fails. My realestate agent neighbour says more buyers ask for whole house generators these days, so we should recoup the cost when we eventually sell this place.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) and Chris Tropea...  I agree the convenience of a whole house natural gas system is the way to go..   And yes, the natural gas continues to flow when the power is out.

50% of the homes on my street (3 of 6) have Generac natural gas powered systems.  I'm a holdout with my Champion gas generator and Generlink....    Our whole house is natural gas powered (furnace, stove, hot water, fireplace, pool) so my only excuse is I'm cheap.   5 years ago I was quoted $10k to install a 10KW Generac system and I balked, and went with the Generlink...   Maybe I should revisit the situation...

Cheers

Gordon 

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Yay, glad to see everyone helping out John. :) 

Dang, Mr Asa caught both my brother and I in one picture. That is a rare occurrence. 

In my clean up at the apartments I found that construction guys from 1971 liked a hydraulic lunch as much as the current generation. 

We found a few of these stashed under a bathtub like the boss showed up unexpectedly. 

Falstaff!

David S. Wallens said:

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Yay, glad to see everyone helping out John. :) 

Enough people showed that I don't think it took us an hour to clean up the carport.  Was a good day.