Power Failure in Glendale, CA

rlhess

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Joined
Apr 27, 2002
Messages
864
Location
Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Well, I've got my generator going--actually a new one as the old one wouldn't start and the freezer was starting to unfreeze.

So far we've been without power for about 19 hours--some of my neighbors for six more than that.

So far the boys are using their Septor headlamps and their Arc LEs.

My wife keeps her 3C 10LED Streamlight close to her.

We ran a turquoise Arc AAA in the kid's bathroom all last night.

We're using the U-tube fluorescent lanterns in the bathroom and kitchen (we have two plus the energizer folding lantern).

When the thing first hit, I grabbed my AAA UKE penlight with RED LED and my G2/CPF.

My room is illuminated by the UKE D8 in "candle" mode while typing--the computers are on the generator.

This is forecast for up to three days before power will be restored. Apparenly, last night, the wind took out "a lot of stuff" according to one of the local linesmen I spoke with.

Cheers,

Richard
 

Nerd

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Joined
Jun 19, 2002
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2,271
Location
Singapore
Cheers! MAybe you could include a pic or 2 to let us see how life goes on at nite?
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vcal

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Joined
Dec 16, 2000
Messages
3,074
Location
San Gabriel Valley
You should see Arcadia, Richard.
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Phone poles on Live Oak ave look like broken matchstix --for 8 blocks.

We had no power for 8 hours last night, and the small heroes were: Arc-AAA, LED Lantern from Wally's.
-Just as I got my old generator fired up, our Edison came back on...
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Tater Rocket

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Joined
Jun 25, 2001
Messages
574
Location
Close to St. Louis, MO, school at Rolla
I wish we'd have a good couple day power outage in the winter...my teach my parents a thing or two about preparedness....I'd be set, got 4 sets of NiMH's charged for the opalec, plus plenty of alky's, my nice warm sleeping bag a laptop with inverter, etc. Might even be willing to leave the inverter in the car and run an extension cable to my room
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THat or steal the cars batt to give it back every few hours to drive around and charge. Hehe. I honestly wouldn't mind a winter power outage. It WOULD get quite chilly, we have a fireplace, but it doesn't work. The flue is broke in the off position I believe, and we don't have fire.

In the house we USED to live in it had an AWESOME fireplace. In the bricks were ductworks. You could flip a switch and a blower would blow hot air into the living room, and it would also heat the ductowrks to all the bedrooms, there was the heat pump in the floor, and the ducts in the ceiling were the fireplace. Beside the fireplace was a cabinet with the wall cut out of one of them. That led to the garage where a large stack of firewood was maintained (and even larger stack in the fenced in area of the yard). You pulled off a plywood and 2X4 door (about 2 feet by 2 feet), loaded up the wood, closed the door. Very little wood mess as the wood only traveled about 3 feet to the fireplace. I want something like that in my future house. It was VERRRY nice.

Spud
 

InTheDark

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Joined
Sep 13, 2001
Messages
570
Location
USA
dang, that power failure skipped right over me. I was driving around late last night on the 134, I had trouble keeping my car in the lane because of the wind gusts.
 

V8TOYTRUCK

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Joined
Jul 31, 2001
Messages
1,793
Location
San Gabriel Valley + Burbank
My GF left my my house around 11:30 last night, and as she drove home to Eagle Rock she told she couldn't keep her lowered Accord on the road. Then she went home and about 30mins later, there was a power failure. She called me on her cell phone and told me what happened, and said she was ok because she had an ARC turquoise and an E2e with extra 123s. Ahh yes, power outages are fun when you are well equipped.
 

Marty Weiner

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 31, 2002
Messages
1,038
Location
Same Area Code As Death Valley
I am envious! I live in Sylmar and the power has gone out over 20 times tonight but only for a split second - no chance to use any of my expensive flashlights.

To add to this insult, my satellite dish is acting up again (signal = 52) and when the picture does come back, I have another power outage. Thank god for the radio.

Marty
 

Gone Jeepin

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Joined
Nov 4, 2002
Messages
357
Location
Michigan, USA
I was watching the Weather Channel this morning and was really suprised by the Santa Anna winds
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. Those wind speeds were like Mount Washington in the spring. Have fun in the dark out there but stay safe.
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
Richard, do you power your computer directly from the generator? Or does the power go through a conditioner or inverter first? What kind/brand of generator?
thanks..
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rlhess

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Joined
Apr 27, 2002
Messages
864
Location
Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Well, I was optimistic, the power was off again for another two hours or more, back on, off and back on...winds seem calmer now at 2:30AM

Ted,

I had a Coleman 1875W generator (that wouldn't start) so I bought a 3000W Craftsman for 3-400 (I forget) today at OSH. The Coleman used to make the UPSes unhappy. The UPSes were happy on the Craftsman. I have APC UPSes.

However, the UPSes became unhappy when the load went much above the refrigerator and a few other things. There's something to be said for oversizing a genset.

I'd love to have a NG/Propane Onan or something like that--enough to run my Air Conditioning--but I'll keep dreaming. NG works in Santa Anas and probably terrorist attacks--doesn't work in an earthquake.

I think we had the NG/Propane discussion on this board at one point.

I'd also like it with auto start, auto changeover.

Oh and the Craftsman comes with two lawnmower tires to make moving more fun.

Cheers,

Richard
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
mm wonder what the Craftsman has that the others don't. How would the UPS's get unhappy? Get hot? Not work at all? Break?
I ask because though a have a 6Kw genset, all it's power goes through the 2500 watt Trace inverter, so there is 'extra' power to be had directly from the gen. that the Trace won't 'pass through' --
So I was contemplating plugging the trailer directly into the genset when firing up the 1300 watt espresso machine..if those generators you mentioned work ok with your computer, then I guess my Giotto will be ok...thanks..
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