Ha! Ha! I wood charcoal too. Heating 60% with made in place Douglas Fir wood charcoal.
This computer camera does not like charcoal glow. Virtually burning with no open flaming. See the side walls red glowing.
(the porcelain doors loss is from an old Tom-cat peeing on the hot stove. His way to posses his bones heat-soaker. Thermal shocking. killed the porcelain. )
Full max heating now at 11 pounds an hour trying to roof melt off the now 18 inches of snow accumulation. Before the to-rain, transition adds even more weight.
OrCarl is down in the 250,000 without power heavy freezing rain area.
I am sending him best wishes for his outcomes.
Steve unruh
Didnât mean to rile you Gary. My statement was meant to be tongue in cheek. I guess it didnât come off that way. Here is the original post I saw. I donât use those little face things. I guess I should.
Due to the polar vortex and the cold staying for so long the local power utility has asked for conservation and has put their rolling black out option on the table. Edit regional reliability coordinator says demand exceeds supply. So how big is the region part of a state or multiple states? I think I will plan for the later. Was -16 with-36f chill factor this morning. Close to the 40 - 40 crossover. Stay warm all of you. Whereâs the emoji thatâs freezing his ass off?
Car being run daily for short period with out moving . It is rather cold . I noticed some kind of frozen build up on garage floor . I think it could be related to DEF diesel exhaust fluid . That I am rather messy with filling . S. U. said something about DEF . Not trying to prove anything Tom .
What is your point Henry? I see you reference different things but do you have any original experiences??? You may be smarter than me but that doesnât take much. So prove yourself and come down to my level of understanding and show me what you have built. Not what you have invested in/// just what you have built. Yourself.
Well an interesting last day here. First 18" of snow in 24 hours. Then freezing rain. Then make-heavy snow regular rain. Not so much the cold, but the heavy weight damaging messes.
13 hours without Grid power this time.
Not a problem with an always in-use wood stove.
Florescent battery lanterns.
Proven systems to step into. Think of it . . . insulated rubber boots. Wool socks. Snow pants. Gloves.
Those maintained gasoline cans. Propane for the cooking burners.
Summer outages are actually harder. Then having to run a generator for the foods freezers half the day.
Ha! Two days of shoveling snow and I sure stink! Beard itches.
Hot luxury shower and a shave almost compensates for the noisy return of all of the electronics noise.
Although I did pull out the battery AM/FM cassette radio for the girls here. Plus weather reports.
Soâs . . . how about you all? Nature pulls your plug, and how proven are your fall-back systems.
I heard a lot of gasoline generators running to power up pellet stoves and forced air propane furnaces. Then they were running out of gasoline. The three area service stations not pumping with no Grid power.
You know how to underhood disconnect a EFI pressure line. Have a workable extension line/hose. And jumper bypass at a fuel pump relay, right? Right.
Practice, set-up before the need.
Hole punching vehicle gas tanks is dangerous, fuel-cold wet skin irritating, and stinkinâ splashy.
Ha! And on your own; then a hard hole to do a permanent patch!
I did have one system failure. The engine on the wood splitter. 20 foot driven sideways snow had gotten into the engine out-of-crankcase governor arm. Wetted it and froze it in the minimum RPM shut down position.
Lesson? Shutting down the engine; after it stops; pullback out the speed lever. Leave it in full RPM position for the next starting up.
S.U.
How we are doing when the grid is off? Would be a big mess, I think. The grid is never off. We are not ready, that is for sure. Working on it, but life /work wouldnt go on. Interesting how you cope with off grid. In time people will even die when internet is off. Everything is getting connected.
We had one week of snow, rain started yesterday, scating is over, spring is on its way. Temp changed from -5C to plus 15C in one week. No winters anymore.
The northern hemisphere Polar Vortex is very unfair JoepK.
Historic colds, and freezing rains here in much of the U.S.
Millions without power now for days. All normal deliveries interrupted and stopped.
How to do Grid-losses? For many just fall back to the old-ways.
You DID ice skate, so have the useable winter clothing. IF you combustion heat favor much the natural fabrics of wool, linens and cottons over synthetics for burn/melting safety.
For us the burns-almost-all bulk wood stove in-house is the life saver. Heat. Some light. All of the hot water you would care to make.
Good lighting is proven rechargeable Florescent lanterns. After 2-3 days I would have to start up the little Honda inverter-generator to recharge, run the in house refrigerator. The clothes washing machine.
Ha! And then re-power the entertainment electronics. Internet included.
We do not for short No-Grid times to give this Life experiences to the two little foster girls.
Jigsaw puzzles, manual card games. Paper book schooling.
Regards
Steve Unruh
Power is seldom off here, but weâd be OK I think. Wood stove heat. Loaded the stove last night, this morning woke up to 70 F inside and 15 F outside. Electric fans to distribute heat are very nice, but heat moves naturally too.
Cistern water with 12v pump on a deep cycle battery, normally with 110v charging but can run for a few days off battery - vehicle charging after that.
Lighting in the house is entirely LED on a couple of circuits, one of them is set up with a UPS battery backup for short term use. Flashlights and propane lantern after that. But really, weâd just go to bed when itâs dark.
The main issue would be hot water, we have an electric water heater. Weâd be wood-stove heating water in pots for showers, dishes etc. Definitely something to work on.
Have grid power . Have generator cord connected tucked inside upside down trash can under snow .
Not sure how well generator would work in this cold . Glad S.U. able by .
Henry one of my side-jobs I do for my Home-visting Nurse wife is generator maintenance and training for folks who are medically electricity dependent. Skin saving blown air medical beds. Ventilators. Electric wheel chairs. None are dedicated circuits. Extension power corded in.
Once a week I will go start up, run their generators for 1/2 hours to oil and fuel refresh. Sometimes relocate and cover for exhaust safety. Most are older generators. Fuel dose modify and oil change seasonally to get 1-2 pull starting ups.
Ha! My wife as the âChargeâ Nurse makes family and paid care givers go through my you-proof generator operator training. Mandatory.
We see as giving them an important Life-Skill.
S.U.
-31c feels like-39c now in one of the southwest power poolâs mandatory rolling black outs. SPP covers 14 states there will be people that wonât handle this as well as us having no experience with the cold.
We hit a low this year today It was 19 degrees F when I woke up this morning it went up to about 22 F when the sun came out. They have predicted about 1/2 inch of snow. Everything was pretty white this morning but it is disappearing a little bit.
Sounds like you got my weather down there. It is about 30F here this morning and freezing rain and sleet in NH we should be down about 10 degrees or more and getting snow you can just plow out of the way not this ice messâŚ
