There are more than 600,000 people in New England still without power, though that number is pretty far down from where it was.
We are one of those households, though after first saying in 2011 that I was going to get a generator, I actually/finally got one this summer, so we do have power as long as I keep the beast fed.
Anyone else caught up in this? It does seem to be more Maine than the other states.
Anyway. The dull background roar of a generator provides a unmusical counterpoint to everything I do, including typing this. But it’s better than the alternative.
Here in suburban Boston we lost power for 2 hours or so. Lots of nasty road and electric grid reports from friends up north. And of course, the ski areas are up shit’s creek.
Power was out for us from 8am ish Monday to 11pm Tuesday. We have a portable generator that didn’t quite work. It kept the furnace going and lights in one room but not the circuit the fridge is on nor the internet router one. They’d come on for a few seconds and go out again.
Will need to get an electrician in.
Tuesday morning was a wild adventure to buy gas. With all the road closures and gas stations being closed took an hour and a half. Cell service was very spotty as well and internet was down.
Much better than the last two storms where we were out for over 72 hours.
Sorry to hear about the problems, glad you’re at least up and running again. Also, if not everything is going to work, the furnace is probably a good option to have running.
Is the problem the generator, or the electrical panel?
Please, please, please be careful with the generator. I had a friend who had a generator running during an ice storm and I happened to drop in on him (long story – I didn’t expect to be stuck out there in an ice storm, and was luckily close enough to walk over there). The problem is, he had it running in his basement. This is not a good idea, because the carbon monoxide levels will rapidly rise and can kill you in your sleep.
Working together, we got the generator out to his garage. Still not a great idea, but we left the door open, because we didn’t want to leave it unprotected out in the storm. They still woke up the next day with headaches. But they woke up.
We’re lucky down where we are, within 10 miles of Boston. And the place I’m working at has suffered no outages, either.
No, while I’m a big DIY-er on many things, I had a professional come run the port to my electrical box and figure out where to best put the generator (which is under the breezeway between my house and garage…plenty of venting there). But every year you read a news story about someone who did something dangerous like that.
We had the generator ten feet (at least, it’s a 15 foot cord) from the house just outside the overhang of the deck. Our CO alarm still went off and got up to 55 ppm in the basement (and 32 on the main level) before we realized it was the generator, not the furnace that was the cause.
The fire department had to come out and put in fans to clear the air in the house.
The problem apparently was that the wind blowing at 40 to 55 mph winds consistently from the south from the generator under the deck and into the sliders of the walkout basement. We had outdoor readings under the deck of over 200 ppm even after turning off the generator.
The fire department had over 100 carbon monoxide calls in a town with <4000 households and businesses. 90+% were without power on Monday night, so maybe a 1000+ houses running portable gasoline generators.
In previous storms the number of carbon monoxide calls has been much much lower for some reason, even though the number of people losing power is depressingly consistent.
My generator is in a little metal shed on a raised platform over 15 feet from the house (25 ft. cord). I cut extra windows in it to open when the generator is running. I think it’s safe enough, but I would like a CO monitor to keep track of levels inside the house and not just wait for an alarm to go off.