OT: - Winter Storm Fern | The Boneyard

OT: Winter Storm Fern

Cornell Lt said:
Winter storm Fern will be dumping a large amount of snow on millions of people Sunday into Monday. Here's hoping everyone remains safe and sound.
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I don't know why they gave this storm two names?

They have been calling it Winter Storm Benjamin for a week now. Now it's also called Winter Storm Fern too...

Either way, I hear it's the size if all New England. That's huge.
 
Winter storms may go by more than one name because names are often assigned by the Weather Channel or by local tv stations. I believe that the US Weather Service assigns the official names of hurricanes. They do not name winter storms. The weather channel names winter storms but they are naming large winter storms that occur in various regions across the US. So they will further along in the alphabet than local tv stations that have decided to name local winter storms. Channel 3 in CT names larger winter storms in their viewing area. This is the second winter storm they have named, so the storm begins with a B. It is a little confusing until you realize that winter storms do not have official names
 
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Not going to be that huge in CT. 8-12 on the shore, 10-14 inland. We can deal.
 
fomalhaut said:
They're forecasting 10-15 inches in Westminster, MD, which for us may be a big deal. As long as we have power and internet, I can stay inside for several days, though.
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I’m a little south of you. Some forecasts have us getting up to 12 hours of freezing rain. And my generator won’t start, so I’m really really hoping for all snow.
 
Living in San Diego, I don't worry about the weather...until others are put in harm's way. Mother Nature is a formidable foe but, like the Huskies, you Boneyarders know how to play good defense. Stay safe.
 
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Only got 14.5 inches, so definitely not a storm of the century. Couple hours of snow blowing the driveway and shoveling the decks and all is good. Thankfully we did not have any power outages
 
IMG_6253.jpeg
 
Cornell Lt said:
Only got 14.5 inches, so definitely not a storm of the century. Couple hours of snow blowing the driveway and shoveling the decks and all is good. Thankfully we did not have any power outages
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We bought a small battery powered snowblower for the decks this year. Had my doubts, but it performed like a champ. We use a big gas model for the driveway.
 
I’m on the fence about getting a generator- they seem so expensive. Our house is 2500 sf. I don’t want to spend 15-20k or more to get & bury a propane tank, get the generator, and connect everything up. Our power is reliable & gets reconnected fast if it goes out. Still, I would love to have one because you never know when a mobster storm will come that will really knock out power for days.
 
Conndog said:
I’m on the fence about getting a generator- they seem so expensive. Our house is 2500 sf. I don’t want to spend 15-20k or more to get & bury a propane tank, get the generator, and connect everything up. Our power is reliable & gets reconnected fast if it goes out. Still, I would love to have one because you never know when a mobster storm will come that will really knock out power for days.
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We have an intermediate option…we have a gas generator with a meter collar (Generlink). Less than $1K installed, although probably more these days. It can run everything except for the oven and the dryer. You have to hook it up when you need it, but it’s perfect for us.
 
Conndog said:
I’m on the fence about getting a generator- they seem so expensive. Our house is 2500 sf. I don’t want to spend 15-20k or more to get & bury a propane tank, get the generator, and connect everything up. Our power is reliable & gets reconnected fast if it goes out. Still, I would love to have one because you never know when a mobster storm will come that will really knock out power for days.
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I'm of the opinion that"better to have and not need" is the way to go, although I will admit to a bit of overkill and redundancy.
I'm in NW Conn and have been without power for up to 11 days due to heavy, wet snow bringing down a lot of trees and power lines.
If ya don't live where the grid gets restored on a priority basis it makes sense, to me. to have a plan.

One of the first things I had done when I bought my current house was to install a generator plug and transfer switch. I have a decent size gas generator (8500 watt) and not a permanent, automatic standby system. All installed according to code by a licensed electrician.
Granted - I need to keep gas cans on hand and would need to manually get set up in order to power the house, but I can power the panel and then pick and choose which items I need to. Can't run everything at once, but by being a bit selective, I can manage quite well.

I also went the extra step and purchased a smaller Honda generator (2000 watt) that will run my furnace if it looks like I'm facing a long term problem and getting gas might be an issue. I have my furnace wired with a switch and external plug so I can at least keep the house warm and keep the pipes from freezing.

So far I haven't needed to use any of it ...knock wood.
 
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64Zcode said:
I'm of the opinion that"better to have and not need" is the way to go, although I will admit to a bit of overkill and redundancy.
I'm in NW Conn and have been without power for up to 11 days due to heavy, wet snow bringing down a lot of trees and power lines.
If ya don't live where the grid gets restored on a priority basis it makes sense, to me. to have a plan.

One of the first things I had done when I bought my current house was to install a generator plug and transfer switch. I have a decent size gas generator (8500 watt) and not a permanent, automatic standby system. All installed according to code by a licensed electrician.
Granted - I need to keep gas cans on hand and would need to manually get set up in order to power the house, but I can power the panel and then pick and choose which items I need to. Can't run everything at once, but by being a bit selective, I can manage quite well.

I also went the extra step and purchased a smaller Honda generator (2000 watt) that will run my furnace if it looks like I'm facing a long term problem and getting gas might be an issue. I have my furnace wired with a switch and external plug so I can at least keep the house warm and keep the pipes from freezing.

So far I haven't needed to use any of it ...knock wood.
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I’m curious… was the separate set up for the furnace a failsafe only if you couldn’t get gas? We run our furnace off of our generator collar with no issues. Our hot water is off the furnace, so only a minimal electric component. We happen to have a 3000 watt Honda that we bought for camping (in addition to our big generator). We are considering replacing our furnace this year and I’m wondering if separate wiring is something we should think about.
 
64Zcode said:
I'm of the opinion that"better to have and not need" is the way to go, although I will admit to a bit of overkill and redundancy.
I'm in NW Conn and have been without power for up to 11 days due to heavy, wet snow bringing down a lot of trees and power lines.
If ya don't live where the grid gets restored on a priority basis it makes sense, to me. to have a plan.

One of the first things I had done when I bought my current house was to install a generator plug and transfer switch. I have a decent size gas generator (8500 watt) and not a permanent, automatic standby system. All installed according to code by a licensed electrician.
Granted - I need to keep gas cans on hand and would need to manually get set up in order to power the house, but I can power the panel and then pick and choose which items I need to. Can't run everything at once, but by being a bit selective, I can manage quite well.

I also went the extra step and purchased a smaller Honda generator (2000 watt) that will run my furnace if it looks like I'm facing a long term problem and getting gas might be an issue. I have my furnace wired with a switch and external plug so I can at least keep the house warm and keep the pipes from freezing.

So far I haven't needed to use any of it ...knock wood.
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You have been without power for 11 days? Have you ever considered Solar with a battery backup?

I work for a Solar installation company here in CT. Lol.
 
Rather than operate a larger generator with the associated gas consumption, a small Honda used only as needed to keep the house up to temp would stretch whatever gas I might have on hand. I sometimes (ok, often) worry about worst-case problems.
The 2011 Halloween storm also took out electricity to a lot of gas stations for quite a while and when power was restored the gas stations emptied out fairly quickly. I was living in Avon at the time.

I had a pigtail tied into the red safety switch mounted to the furnace so I can run an extension cord to it.
Again, licensed electrician and I have a main line disconnect switch.
Your 3000 Honda would probably do the same thing, depending on the furnace size.

Probably overkill but it wasn't expensive, and you are correct, not really needed with the whole house system I have.
 
1974yankees said:
You have been without power for 11 days? Have you ever considered Solar with a battery backup?

I work for a Solar installation company here in CT. Lol.
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Not really.
1) Quite possible that I may relocate in the not too distant future,
2) I only know a couple folks that have solar and neither is happy with the cost or the contract.
I have a lot more research to do before solar is an option for me, sorry.
 
Conndog said:
I’m on the fence about getting a generator- they seem so expensive. Our house is 2500 sf. I don’t want to spend 15-20k or more to get & bury a propane tank, get the generator, and connect everything up. Our power is reliable & gets reconnected fast if it goes out. Still, I would love to have one because you never know when a mobster storm will come that will really knock out power for days.
Expand ...
I have a small (2000 W) generator, but also I put together a battery-backup type thing. It's a deep-cycle marine battery with a true sine-wave inverter and a charger. I draw a little juice out of the battery and recharge it every few months, and fully charge it before any weather. It will run the fan on our wood-stove insert and/or our fridges for a couple of days without recharging. If it looks like the power might be out for awhile, I recharge with the generator once or twice a day.

Thanks 64Z for the info about getting a pigtail/switch for your furnace. We'll probably be replacing our boiler this year and have talked about that, glad to know it can be done.
 
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