Power's been out for 32 hours and counting.....

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Monday night we had a very bad wind and rain storm move through my area out here in Idaho. Around 4:30pm local time we lost power due to a downed wire just at the town's south border. The local POCO (Idaho Power) had a crew out to fix it quickly. The poor guy was working just as the worst of the storm started to hit the town. He did get it fixed just in time, and we all thought it'd be all good....

Well, a few minutes after the power came on, it blinked once then went out again, and stayed out. At this point the storm had grown and gotten more severe, and covered a much larger area, downing trees and power poles over the entire region. Over 10,000 people were put in the dark (that's a lot of area out here despite the low numbers compared to a major city). I have a video of the outage map on my You tube channel (linked to this post).

I will have additional videos of the first outage repair uploaded later. I had to run to town (28 miles away) to get gas for my generator, twice so far. We still have city water (I run that system and we have a propane backup generator that has run non-stop since the outage began) and I have hot water thanks to a propane water heater. But I have had to take time off work to tend to both generators and the water system as well as clean up a lot of tree branches and do some (thankfully minor) roof repairs.

As of the time of this post, still waiting for a crew to come get a tree off our lines and restore our power, they are still backlogged and show us as "Unassigned, acknowledged event" (Same status as of 08/07 at 6pm, shortly after the outage started.)

Fun times in rural Idaho....

[Leo Enticknap]

Yikes; that's tough. I bought a 4kW generator about two years ago after rolling blackouts happened during a hot week in August, but never got around to having a connection point installed on the side of the house. So if I have to use it anytime soon, it'll be a case of extension cords through the window from the backyard to power vital stuff (fridge etc.).

Still, we've had some close shaves this year. We're about 10 miles from the infamous "gender reveal fire," and I understand that Pacific Gas and Electric have shut off thousands of households in the north of the state as a CYA measure to avoid causing another Paradise. Some of the 'burbs closer to LA have had one-hour rolling blackouts, but so far and thankfully we've been OK, apart from a few brownouts that tripped out GFCIs.

Hope they manage to get your power back up soon.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

To update this... Power was restored around 2:18 pm on Weds., after a total outage time of 46.6 hours (as recorded by the City water system generator's runtime meter.) The guy from Idaho Power was the same guy who has responded to other outages here (but nit the same guy who did the original repair this time), he had been working over 24 hours without stopping and had just gotten a four hour break. The crews did a really great job all things considered, and they are MILES ahead of Southern Calif. Edison's crews in terms of efficiency and response time.

As shown in my video. the interlock was about $60 and the power inlet IIRC was about $50 (Amazon has both.) The interlock is specific to the panel you have, the inlet box is pretty universal. If you are adept with working some slightly advanced electrical hookups, it is a fairly easy DIY project to add them, and worth every penny. Other than the interlock and inlet, you will need 10/3 with ground NM cable, two cable clamps (Connectors technically), and a 30amp double pole breaker made for the panel you have. Your panel must have two open breaker spaces in it, next to the main breaker. (If those spaces are in use and there are spares at the bottom or other side of the panel, you can move the two closest to the main circuits down.over to the spare spaces. If you panel is full, you will need an electrician to either add a subpanel and move some things over, or add "tandem" breakers in the spaces allowed to open up the spaces needed for the generator breaker.) In most cases it takes longer to run the cable and secure it properly that it does to install the breaker and inlet and connect them. Figure about 2-4 hours total.

The panel shown in my video is the subpanel in the kitchen/laundry area. I routed the master bath and one circuit from the master bedroom to that panel (even though my main panel is closer) to allow me to run my TV and a light from the generator. This was done to make it easier to shut off the non-essential circuits when on generator. My long term plan for this house (if I stay here) is to get a propane whole-house generator installed. Even if I do that, I'll keep this setup as an additional backup.

Leo I hope you guys dodge that fire, I have been following the news on it and all the others, we are under heavy haze here frequently from the smoke which is really traveling. Stay safe and keep us updated please.

[Leo Enticknap]

Thanks Tony.

This isn't going to be straightforward, because (a) there is a solar panel system on our roof, and (b) there are no open slots in our breaker panel.

When we bought the genny, I tried to call the contractor that installed our solar system about a year earlier with a view to having them install the interlock switch and 30A twistlock connection point for the genny, only to discover that they'd gone out of business. Then life got in the way and I never got around to finishing the project.

I would prefer to have a licensed electrician do this, because as I'm sure you remember, California gold plates the National Electrical Code with a myriad of its own rules and red tape, and I don't want any problems with potential insurance claims, or a home inspector if and when we eventually sell the place, not liking the fact that this infrastructure was DIY-installed. Paying for 2-4 hours of an electrician's time is well worth it for the peace of mind.

As for Southern California Edison, they remind me of Laurel and Hardy in Hog Wild. About 2,000 homes and businesses in Redlands were blacked out in the spring thanks to a substation operator showing up for work with a hangover and pressing some wrong buttons.

Good to hear that you're back up.

[Steve Guttag]

I definitely went with the whole-house generator plan. We're on well water so no power, no water either. The generator has been the best investment...since the whole-house generator went in, almost no power failures! We figure if everyone in the neighborhood put one in such that one a year...we could protect the entire neighborhood indefinitely! We used to lose power 2-4 times a year...any time the winds picked up or there was a heavy storm (rain or snow), power going out was almost guaranteed.

We have propane for all things that make heat in the house so a propane based generator was a no-brainer. Since this is a new house (2016), we got 400A service (why, I don't know, since it is a new house, we are on LED lights everywhere, the house is tight with higher efficiency most everything). A 20KVA generator covers it all. The transfer switches are automatic too and are tied to the buss bars of the load centers (each load center gets a 200A feed from the city/meter). The generator installation was done as part of the house installation so we have inspection stickers on most everything relating to it for both the propane part and the electric part...even on the generator itself outside. I think we've been on generator power for 6-8 hours total in the past 4 or so years. Most of that happened in one evening where a transformer blew. Hours later...a set of trucks came out...change it...blew the replacement up upon power up...changed it again...that one worked (or they found what took out the first two, more likely).

[Leo Enticknap]

The generator has been the best investment...since the whole-house generator went in, almost no power failures!

Reminds me of a British saying that became popular shortly after smoking was banned on London buses in the '80s. If you're waiting at a bus stop, the guaranteed way to make one come is to light a cigarette (because you'll then have to put it out, immediately, in order to be allowed to get on the bus). Likewise, the best way to protect against power service outages actually happening is to install a backup generator, which you can then be sure of never needing.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

32 hours is nothing. Some friends in Utah which was also hit bu the 100+ MPH winds and lost power to over 200,000 customers last week are going on 5 days without power. And there are still 50,000 customers to get turned back on. Also, if you actually live in Mooreland, then Blackfoot is like 12 miles are the crow flies and they have lots of gas there.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Mark, most of Blackfoot was also out at the same time I was, gas stations were not able to pump. I had to go to another town to get gas. Utah also has a higher population density than Blackfoot/Moreland, et al. spread over a larger area.

Leo, I had the opposite situation, when I first moved out here I did not have a backup generator and never had an outage much over a few hours. Once I bought one, I had more frequent short outages and this was the second long one lol. (If the outage goes beyond a few hours I'll run the generator, but anything under 2-3 hours I don't bother setting it up.)

I now have the generator fully fueled and an extra 5 gallons on standby, which means that just like last winter, I most likely won't need to use it.

[Kenneth Wuepper]

Tony,
Be sure to treat the gasoline in your tanks against loss of octane. You could end up with a couple tanks of bilge water when you really need them.

[Leo Enticknap]

Maybe a better bet would be to put the gasoline in the car and then refill the jerrycans if it isn't needed for the genny after, say, three months. Different people seem to have different ideas about how long gasoline remains usable in long-term storage: I've heard three months to a year. I have read accounts of expensive injector damage being caused by cars that have sat unused for many months being started up, because of chemical decomposition of additives in the gas.