Getting Old over Christmas (1 Viewer)

[cruiserpilot]

Well, today is day 5 without power. On the 14th we lost power cause of that first wind storm, from 9 am until 1:13 am. I know, cause I woke up when the fridge / freezer kicked in. Was in the living room queuing up the PVR for the 4:30 am Man City game from England. At precisely 1:29 a drunk a****** smashes into the power pole in front of my house, transformer smashed down with a huge explosion. No power. So I’m up most of that night dealing with cops and phoning emergency repair people cause the weight of the pole is tearing the mast out of my roof. The one pic is a favourite, roof lights as a****** goes to jail.

 

[cruiserpilot]

He even had the audacity to pound back another LuckyX in the 4 minutes it took the cops to show up. Dumbass thinks he can beat the impaired. Also has to tell me he was worried cause he had a bag of pot in the truck. HaHa, not after he left! He tried to hide it while I’m standing there by throwing his backpack and all the other empty beer cans under the bushes across the road.

 

[cruiserpilot]

So takes a couple of days to get sorted out. Start thinking seriously about a generator and have a couple of sales guys getting back to me about the Kubota LowBoy 7Kw Or 11Kw diesel generators. Thinking I should be ready for worse than just two days.

Crap, then this second wave hits. We’ve now been without power for 5 days straight. Not expecting power until Thursday or Friday earliest. Did manage to sang one of the last Yamaha 2000 generators at Spunky’s. They had a contact on their website so I sent a message asking if they had anything.
I get an answer from the owner of Spunky’s @ 7:25 am on Saturday. Said they had 6 left and he’d put my name to one. Talk about impressive business sense.

 

[cruiserpilot]

The bottom pic is the number of still out of power areas in just this part of the island from BCHydro Outage Map. I hope the hydro boys don’t run out of energy before they get to our road.
I hope others are doing okay. We have wood heat and a well so with the generator we saved the fridge and freezer. I suspect others aren’t so lucky.
Anyhow, just thought I’d share.

 

[seapotato]

Yeah that's a long time.

ours came back on on Saturday evening .

I was down at the chemainus hospital for the "generator watch" gravy ot, lights came back on Sunday evening.

Lines are still down past our place so I'm guessing we're the last house with power.

 

[cruiserpilot]

So got tired of juggling cords and deciding whether I wanted to see in the dark or keep the food in the fridge fresh. Found a identical generator from a guy in cedar who bought his an hour after I bought mine. But the lucky bugger got his power back within an hour of getting home so I grabbed it. Still had 3/4 of a tank of fuel from Spunky’s. So duelling banjo generators now. Got to say, really glad I bought these three 10/3 extension cords at the swap meet over the years. Never know when you might need power.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Thanks to Hydro, utility trucks were zipping all over last night and damn, right at 9:00 pm just after I’d topped up the generators the power came on!!
Shower time!!

 

[PeeZed]

Wow. That was a long time!

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Some holidays you'll never forget. That was a long haul without power Jon! Glad you have power back now.

I know who to talk to if I need to borrow a generator now....haha.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Sometime in the night Shaw fixed everything up so all back to normal 7 days later.

It has occurred to me, the thing a person misses the most --- indoor plumbing. Yup.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Sometime in the night Shaw fixed everything up so all back to normal 7 days later.

It has occurred to me, the thing a person misses the most --- indoor plumbing. Yup.

My 6 year old hot water tank had a geiser shooting out the side on Christmas morning. Just got a new one today. Doing dishes with a kettle was getting old. So was an 8.5 degree Celsius shower....yes...colder than the ocean here in winter. So I have some appreciation for what you were going through.

 

[cruiserpilot]

My 6 year old hot water tank had a geiser shooting out the side on Christmas morning. Just got a new one today. Doing dishes with a kettle was getting old. So was an 8.5 degree Celsius shower....yes...colder than the ocean here in winter. So I have some appreciation for what you were going through.

That is most unfortunate. I am scared every time I'm away something like that will happen. I have to admit, between the drunk driver
fiasco, and followed by this storm I'm really glad I was home. I don't do cold showers, since was essentially 'Glamping' here for us.
But having to carry buckets to fill the toilet cistern got tiresome. Got through it all okay actually. I've got two very cool Yamaha generators for now. Talking about trading in for single bigger diesel unit though, makes a person think. Earthquake or really bad storm.
Lose all that food in the machines and it's gonna be a big cost, not to mention inconvenience.

 

[wombat]

If they don't give you squat for the 2 Yammies you should try and sell them here as they are guys like Wombat who might buy them.

 

[cruiserpilot]

If they don't give you squat for the 2 Yammies you should try and sell them here as they are guys like Wombat who might buy them.

I actually paid exactly what the guy paid when I bought the second one which had been used for less than 90 minutes by him.
They are $1500 after taxes. I am currently looking at Yamaha 11Kw diesel unit. Identical to a Kubota LowBoy 11Kw. Made in
same factory. Once I've got this all sorted out then I will send wombat a PM and see if he is still interested - how does that sound?
Based on essentially trade in value towards larger unit. My own irony was after a 30 hr power out the previous weekend, I was already
looking and deciding when the second power out took us by surprise. There were none of the 11Kw units within delivery range
on Christmas Eve, unfortunately.

 

[cruisedeisel]

I just emptied the fridge into coolers and put them outside. Good ol Canadian winters. We really don't need a fridge for 9 months of the year anyways. Its just convenient. As for the showers, our tiny home our back is equipped with propane on demand. Plus its solar powered.

Happy New Years.

 

[asutherland]

Wow! Glad to see at least the cops got that ****er. Is that his bumper that says Drive safely little Princess on route?

I've been thinking about the genset idea for our house for a while. We get winds in Kamloops too. How did you get the power into your house? Just leave the door cracked open? I was thinking of something like a basic dedicated plug on the outside that leads to the inside... an isolated circuit only meant for gen.

Also, check this out: Costco Wholesale

Most of our heat stuff is natural gas, but I'd want to keep the following powered up:
- Main furnace (natural gas, but needs power for the blower)
- (or) two fire places, one up one down, they are also natural gas but need small power for the blowers otherwise they don't heat the room well
- Main deep freeze in garage, it's a smaller sized one.
- Two fridges, one up and one down
- A couple small power requirements, like a charger or 2 for phones and a couple lights

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Purdy:

https://www.usedvictoria.com/classified-ad/135-KVA-115-230-V-Diesel-Genset-New_32100062

 

[Rigpig]

Do yourself a favour and get something with 230/240V to run a well pump, hot water tank, furnace etc...
That little unit GTS posted is pretty nice!

 

[cruiserpilot]

Do yourself a favour and get something with 230/240V to run a well pump, hot water tank, furnace etc...
That little unit GTS posted is pretty nice!

I don't need all that. Well pump yes, but don't need the rest. I can get 11Kw for half that price. I don't know where that
particular genset came from, but that guy paid too much to offer something up with no specs.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

I don't need all that. Well pump yes, but don't need the rest. I can get 11Kw for half that price. I don't know where that
particular genset came from, but that guy paid too much to offer something up with no specs.

I think it's pricey because it's for marine application. I just thought the red was nice....haha.