Front coming thru today

[RednekF350]

Thanks Bob, that's very nice of you but we are doing okay with mine. I have a 4kw and I run it 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours At night for fridge and freezer. We jumper the well on an as needed basis. Only burned about four gallons of fuel so far. We are now officially out of hot water though. I took a cool/cold shower last night.
Today, there will be shrinkage.

 

[smoke_jumper]

Thanks Bob, that's very nice of you but we are doing okay with mine. I have a 4kw and I run it 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours At night for fridge and freezer. We jumper the well on an as needed basis. Only burned about four gallons of fuel so far. We are now officially out of hot water though. I took a cool/cold shower last night.
Today, there will be shrinkage.

I'm in the same boat. I told my wife that if it was still raining I was going to just wash outside because it would be warmer

 

[bobpbx]

Well, that goes for anybody on this board. If you are out of electricity from the recent storm, you may borrow my generator, just send me a note. I was without power almost 4 days with that big storm 'before' Sandy. It is not a good feeling.

 

[RednekF350]

We are back on the grid as of 07:20 !!

 

[bobpbx]

We are back on the grid as of 07:20 !!

 

[smoke_jumper]

Thanks Bob. I have one and have everything except hot water and air. At least it's not hot out.

 

[Boyd]

I also have electric hot water, and during the 2012 derecho I was able to stretch it out for almost 3 days, taking quick showers. One of these days I might switch over to propane for hot water, although I just replaced the electric tank a couple years ago.

 

[bobpbx]

One of these days I might switch over to propane for hot water,....

I strongly recommend that you don't do that. The propane industry is a bunch of crooks. I have always had trouble with their thieving ways. The last 2 charges below were added about 8 years ago without any consultation from customers. The fuel recovery fee is gas for their trucks, they tagged it on when gas was higher. Now it stays on.

 

[46er]

I also have electric hot water, and during the 2012 derecho I was able to stretch it out for almost 3 days, taking quick showers. One of these days I might switch over to propane for hot water, although I just replaced the electric tank a couple years ago.

When we had the place up north the choices were electric, oil, or propane. Most folks choose oil for heat and electric for hot water and those that had propane switched to electric after the huge ice storm they had. Their logic was reducing the number of suppliers in case of an emergency. A genset is then all that is needed. Not sure if that's valid. Complicates cooking We went with propane for water and cooking, oil for heat. Both with adequate sized tanks.

Here we have NG water heater, used to have electric. The difference in use cost was dramatic.

I bought one of the tri-fuel kits for the generator after sandy, it can now run on either of the 3 fuels; NG, propane or gasoline.

The link is to a pretty good calculator to see the diff in cost between gas and electric. Electric is almost twice as expensive using the default numbers.

http://benhollis.net/experiments/water-heaters/

 

[RednekF350]

Back to hearing nothing but happy birds and tree frogs. Drinking a Dale's Pale Ale on the back porch right now.
So much nicer than the hum of generators.

 

[smoke_jumper]

The best part is that they just ran natural gas down my street 2 months ago and ran the meter to my house 2 weeks ago. The first thing we planned to switch over was the water heater since we don't need heat until at least September. I just didn't do it yet

 

[RednekF350]

We got gas last year and I only did stove and dryer so far. Going to stay with oil for heat for awhile. Last year oil dropped a little and it is a hotter heat than gas.
My plumber buddy dropped gas lines into multiple areas so I can do whatever whenever.

 

[smoke_jumper]

Back to hearing nothing but happy birds and tree frogs. Drinking a Dale's Pale Ale on the back porch right now.
So much nicer than the hum of generators.

I agree. But it's kind of nice not hearing the raceway.

 

[smoke_jumper]

We got gas last year and I only did stove and dryer so far. Going to stay with oil for heat for awhile. Last year oil dropped a little and it is a hotter heat than gas.
My plumber buddy dropped gas lines into multiple areas so I can do whatever whenever.

My oil heater is original to the house. (1979) I need to update it either way. It's just perfect timing to convert. Either way I use little when I have the wood stove going. I ran out of wood this past winter but I think I might be ok this year

 

[MikeBickerson]

I can't believe how many folks I know are still without power! I was very lucky, we never lost power for a minute.

Is this a sign of how bad this front was, a sign of how run down the infrastructure is, of how bad the tree trimming is, or a little bit of everything?

 

[Teegate]

I was just on Little Gloucester Road in the Clementon Blackwood area and a tree took the top portion of one side out. There is a huge U shaped cut into it. They have a tarp over the roof but you can still see right into the house. Might get wet this weekend.

 

[46er]

My oil heater is original to the house. (1979) I need to update it either way. It's just perfect timing to convert. Either way I use little when I have the wood stove going. I ran out of wood this past winter but I think I might be ok this year

Our gas heater dated to 1988. We were going to add a woodstove to the fireplace, but replaced the furnace a couple of years ago with one of the high efficiency units since it was less cost and work for me. Our fireplace is the heatilator type with blowers. The savings in gas use was amazing. It doesn't use the chimney anymore, just 2 pvc pipes, one for air input, the other for exhaust. The first couple of bills were so low I thought they were reading the meter wrong.

 

[Boyd]

Is this a sign of how bad this front was, a sign of how run down the infrastructure is, of how bad the tree trimming is, or a little bit of everything?

I'm sure those are all factors, but my guess is that trees are the big one. After the storms in 2012, they did some really major tree cutting over the past two years down here. They didn't just cut the overhanging branches, they completely cleared the right of way along all the roads, I have never seen such major tree cutting in the past. But I think it paid off, since we haven't had any major outages in my area since then.

 

[Teegate]

There are more trees in NJ than there has ever been and it is because of farms being turned over to developments as far back as right after WW2. Just riding around again today and all of the lines down are from trees.

 

[oceancountynj]

I have been pushing my neighbors to all get generators..Check out harbor freight..I bought a real small one 5 years ago, 900 watts that will run my fridge and 2 freezers/. $99.00 w/coupon right now. The one used for sandy is the big 8750 watt. Works entire house plus electric hot water heater, well pump. Electric range(one burner is all I need) microwave. It is about $549.00 w/coupon. Great website and emails