Despite having watched years worth of survival shows, including every season of Alone and Life Below Zero, and ABSOLUTELY convincing myself I could easily do that, after 22 hours of no power (it went out last night at 7pm), sleeping without a cpap, and discovering the power could be out until Sunday night, I did what any other rugged individualist with combat training and a can do attitude would do.
I went inside, grabbed my bathrobe, cpap machine, laptop, and toothbrush, and promptly drove to the casino and booked a room for the weekend. Put down plenty of food for the dogs, Breyana is checking on the multiple times a day, and I am lying in a hotel bed in boxers with the heat on 75 watching tv.
It is what it is. I still have this god damned chest cold, and this morning, after spending the whole night gasping for air, I woke up with a wicked sour throat. I’m not staying in a 50 degree house and giving myself pneumonia. Fuck it. I’m soft. I’m an institutional man now, Red, and I am too soft for the outside anymore.
This has lit the final fire under my ass regarding a whole house generator. I don’t have that kind of money lying around but I am damned sure financing one as soon as I can get the god damned thing installed. Fuck this.
Yarrow
Jeez, Cole. Take care of yourself. Hope the critters are okay. Casino doesn’t allow dogs?
I’ve heard good and bad things about whole house generators but they sure sound good during something like this
Edit: Some neighbors have one and it’s LOUD. You can tell when it comes on. Maybe newer ones are quieter.
Nicole
I just watched (on Youtube) a reality show about a group of four men and one woman who set out to the gold fields of the Yukon, doing it the way the would-be prospectors of the 1890s would have had to do it. I took from the show that these people were nuts to put themselves through that. I like being warm and having enough to eat.
Have a good weekend in the casino hotel; I hope your chest cold gets better. Thank you for the Shawshank Redemption reference.
RSA
You are the the very model of a modern libertarian! Except for your political views.
Feel better soon, Cole. Best wishes.
Roger Moore
Instead of a whole-house generator, you should consider getting solar with a battery and an automatic isolating switch. The battery is obvious, but the isolating switch is critical. If you’re going to power your house during a blackout, the house has to be completely isolated from the grid. Otherwise, it could feed power back into the power lines and electrocute some unsuspecting utility worker who assumes they have no voltage. This is true regardless of your power source, BTW, so you’d need something like that with a generator, too.
Cermet
Living in the rural county side and knowing the power outage can be days, I installed my own whole house generator (rather easy and yes, its own shed – no CO for me.) Use to have a portable but between pulling to start and hooking up the power outside in extremely bad weather – snow, cold, wind etc, just too old for that sh*t.
Hope you feel better.
RepubAnon
As a less expensive alternative, perhaps a back-up woodstove plus an uninterruptible power supply (of the type sold in electronics stores for computers) for the CPAP? My CPAP machine runs for quite a bit of time on the uninterruptible power supply – and a friend of mine uses hers for overnight camping.
APC UPS 1500VA UPS Battery Backup and Surge Protector, BX1500M Backup Battery Power Supply, AVR, Dataline Protection sells for around $180.00 …
Chacal Charles Calthrop
Hang in there, John — your dogs need you, and so do we (although the cat only needs someone with a budget for catfood and opposable thumbs).
how many other jackals have lost power?
OzarkHillbilly
My hillbilly system works for me. You do what works best for you.
mmolleur
Gave in and got a whole house generator after the New Hampshire ice storm/4 day power outage of Thanksgiving 2014. Probably used it less than 10 times before moving to Florida in 2018, but each time, I was so glad we’d done it. It definitely added value when we sold and moved to Florida in 2018. Of course, we bought a house with a generator, which we really haven’t used.  Our area lost power for a week after Hurricane Michael, and I’m sure someday that’ll happen again.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yarrow:
Dogs? No problem.
Steve? Another story altogether.
Spanky
Nope. It’s basically a lawn tractor with a generator.
Got one and I’m damn glad we did. Just be sure to have it regularly serviced, and make sure they replace the 12v wet cell battery every two years or so. When that dies so does the generator – aka a design flaw imo. The guy who came to fix ours in the middle of the last outage said he carries lots of batteries on the truck, so it seems to be a common problem.
CaseyL
Hope you feel better soon!
RepubAnon’s idea is a good one. If overkill is your thing, you can get the portable charger that also jump-starts your car and inflates your tires. That’s the one I got – bigger and heavier, not to mention more expensive (less so than a whole-house generator,though!), but it’s like the Swiss Army knife of portable power stations.
Plus maybe get a 3- or 4-season sleeping bag.
Enjoy your stay – hope the power comes back on soon, and you can go home!
burnspbesq
I wouldnât go for a generator unless I could put it waaaaay away from the house; the risk of CO poisoning is too great. Later this year, we will have rooftop solar and a Tesla Powerwall installed.
Get well soon, Cole.
OzarkHillbilly
@burnspbesq: If the generator is outside, one needn’t worry about CO. If it’s inside… Yeah, you can do the math.
burnspbesq
@OzarkHillbilly:
Or read the paper. Texans can be really stupid.
Josie
Last year when the Texas power grid went out, my son and I were without power and water for a week. We were dressing in layers and collecting water from the downspouts. For this year, I have outfitted us with camping lanterns, a cook stove like the Asian restaurants use and a small solar charger for our phones and computers. We had plenty of sunshine and very little else. I also bought extra blankets, which we had never needed before. I’ve been without power after hurricanes before but never in such frigid temperatures. Pure misery.
Honus
Buy a damn generator John. And like a true West Virginian, save the transfer switch money and hook it up through your dryer plug.
also, youâre in the center of the richest natural gas producing area in North America, so buy a couple wall mounted radiant gas heaters with pilot lights.
OzarkHillbilly
@burnspbesq: The Texans used the paper as tinder for the fire in the fireplace.
The Dangerman
@burnspbesq: Wayyyy away from the house? The Willow laughs.
Get busy warming AND get busy buying.
divF
Without a CPAP, my sleep degrades a lot. When the power went out a couple of weekends ago, by the second night we checked into a hotel in town (the power outage was due to high winds knocking things down, and very localized). I am also looking at a backup battery power supply for my CPAP.
dm
I was checking out solar-powered electric backups at REI the other day and my eye was caught by one battery pack listing CPAP machines among the appliances it could sustain.
(I see everyone else had the same idea.)
dmsilev
@SiubhanDuinne:
He got busted for counting cards at the blackjack table?
raven
Freezin season at the frozen Chosin. . .
raven
I want  to plug a film that we just watched called “The Fallout” about a high school kid and the fallout from a school shooting. It’s on HBO and we have a little investment in the production company. I just emailed our contact and thanked him for an honest portrayal of this plague.
PaulWartenberg
Is there any kind of state or federal funding to help pay for the generator?
Is the house vintage, of a certain age?
Lemme check the housing grants, brb.
well, hell, there’s nothing from HUD or the federal agencies.
may have to check with the Foundation Directory Online for local community aid. Ask your local library or public university about accessing the FDO.
Also, see a doctor about the pneumonia, that could get treated with proper meds.
PaulWartenberg
@Josie:
Sucks to be in Texas with an outdated and broken power grid. :(
Josie
@PaulWartenberg: Yup.
ETA: Add to that a governor who has delusions of grandeur about running for president.
NotMax
That’s what the casino is for, silly.
// :)
lowtechcyclist
Glad you’re taking care of yourself, Cole. No point risking pneumonia in service to some bullshit notion of toughness.
I’ve got a never-used generator sitting in its shipping box in the shed, and you’d be welcome to it. We were without power for four and a half days in Hurricane Isabel (2003), which was pretty horrible, and we’d lost power for an evening or a day frequently before that when we had bad storms. So several months after Isabel, I bought this cheap generator, figuring it would get plenty of use.
But meanwhile, BGE apparently did something right, and other than one recent incident where someone ran a truck into a nearby transformer pole, our power has never done more than flicker off, then back on again.
So I’ve still got this generator. If you know someone who can truck it up to your part of WV from down here in Calvert County, MD, you’re welcome to it while you figure out about whole-house generators. This generator is probably good for keeping your refrigerator, a space heater or two, and some lights running, assuming it still works after sitting in the crate for nearly two decades.
CROAKER
Fuck it. Iâm soft.Â
sab
@Yarrow: We got a whole house generator two years ago, and have used it three times in the last six months: twice for three hours and once for about fifteen hours. We felt smug about having the only lit house on the block, and simply relieved every time we could open the refrigerator. Only problem was we had to reboot the cable.
Yarrow
You can always move to the Metaverse and live on an island:
JCJ
A couple of months ago our power went out for a little over 24 hours. The main thing I was worried about was a medicine my daughter takes for lupus (belimumab, a once a week injection) that has to be refrigerated. She had just gotten a one month supply which costs about $5000 (covered by insurance). After about 12 hours I took it to a refrigerator in a lunch room where I work since I had no idea when the power would come back on.
Steeplejack
@raven:
Thanks, will check it out.
NotMax
Sleek rechargeable desk lamp slash emergency light to which I’ve become partial.
lowtechcyclist
The ones that had fireplaces, that is. And still subscribed to a newspaper.
Baud
@Yarrow:
It’s like Dubai but more pathetic.
zhena gogolia
I like our generator
NotMax
@Baud
And no touching!
;)
Sure Lurkalot
@lowtechcyclist: That is such a nice offer!
Suzanne
Oh fuck, you did exactly the right thing. I wouldnât get a generator, Iâd just keep some money on hand for hotel stays.
That rugged individualist shit is primitive.
Also, Mr, Suzanne uses a CPAP and I remember trying to sleep before he had it, and it nearly broke me. And he is a big grump-ass if he gets shitty sleep.
I believe in using money to solve problems.
Baud
@NotMax:
No one has legs?
raven
We’re watching the opening ceremony of the Beijing  Winter Olympics. In 2008 we were at Edisto Island during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer getting ready to watch the ceremony.  We had only had Lil Bit for a short while and, already, she required eye medication. I reached for the bottle and applied it and realized I’d put swimmers ear medication in her eyes by mistake. It was about 4pm on a Friday so I called out vet at home and he said to rinse it with milk and get her to a vet. The closest emergency vet was in Charleston, some 60 miles away. We loaded her and the Bohdi up and raced to the vet. They were able to flush her eyes and everything was ok but we can’t help but think of those pups tonight.
toine
my soul brother…
MagdaInBlack
@Yarrow: Some people have too gd much money.
Honus
@Suzanne: âI wouldnât get a generator, Iâd just keep some money on hand for hotel stays.
That rugged individualist shit is primitive.â
you may be on to something. I just realized the money I spent on my generator and transfer switch would pay for about a month in a nice hotel. Â And the power has been out for maybe a total of ten days since I bought it ten years ago.
NotMax
@Baud
No naughty bits, don’tcha know.
;)
raven
@Honus: So, if you need a generator because of a widespread power outage what makes you think you can count on getting a room?
Honus
@sab: nice, but see my comment below about generator costs versus hotel rates.
NotMax
@raven
FYI. Riled up by torchbearer, India skips China Olympics opening.
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: Yeah, try getting a reservation at the Marriott when everyone in town has lost power.
zhena gogolia
@raven: Exactly. It’s not a workable plan.
Old School
I can’t believe NBC just shrugged about whether their is a genocide of Uyghur Muslims. China is accused of it, but they deny it. Who knows where the truth lies?
raven
@Old School: Yea you can.
raven
ORLANDO, Fla. â Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday gave his strongest defense to date of his sabotage of his ex-bossâs scheme to overturn the 2020 election and remain in power despite losing.
âAnd I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to âoverturn the election.â President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone,â he told an audience of several hundred members of the Federalist Society. âUnder the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election. And Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.â
Honus
@raven: I donât need a generator for a widespread power outage. I need one when the power goes out at my house on a gravel road 15 miles from town. And what makes me think i can get a room is the fact there hasnât been a power outage that closed the hotels here for more than a few hours in the last 50 years.
Also, last month during the last widespread outage the hotels were mostly open but I had to drive 30 miles to find an open gas station to get gas for my generator.
Yarrow
@raven: @zhena gogolia: Yep. Good luck getting a room. Even worse, good luck keeping it. After a natural disaster my neighbor’s son’s family got a room at a local hotel. A couple of days into it the hotel management notified them that FEMA was commandeering all the rooms and kicked them out. They had to figure out somewhere else to go. The hotel thing isn’t something you can count on.
raven
@Honus: Well it ain’t that way in Georgia when there is a hurricane.
raven
@Yarrow: Honus can
Roger Moore
@Honus:
This is a big reason I suggested solar with a battery as an alternative. It might be more expensive upfront, but it will save money in utility bills as well as letting you survive when the power goes out.
Yarrow
@raven:Â Good luck to them making it work when they need it.
Honus
@raven: I donât live in Georgia. So you go on ahead and buy a generator.
zhena gogolia
@Honus: I donât live in Georgia either but you canât count on hotels
Ohio Mom
@lowtechcyclist: That is a lovely and generous offer but Cole often foregoes reading the comments. Chances are, he wonât see your comment.
You might want to email him â on the front page right top, there is a menu that includes a tab titled How to Contact us.
Now I am wondering whatâs in my basement and garage I could possibly pawn off on a fellow Juicer. Anybody want a really old upright piano?
Gin & Tonic
Swiss guy in curling has a beer belly. Reminds me of John Kruk: âLady, Iâm not an athlete, Iâm a baseball player.â
rikyrah
Went to the Casino???
Go Cole????
Get that rest
Honus
@zhena gogolia: and you have a lot of experience counting on the reliability of generators?
Ohio Mom
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Total scam
Lyrebird
Knock wood we have power.
I like hotels, and GO YOU John!
We might get a generator for situations when we can’t get out… Inches of packed down ice pellets was not something my snow blower was designed for. It’s a rechargeable, pretty good one, but this storm was a mess. And it took more than an hour to get my car to where we could go anywhere.
nclurker
i find a kerosene heater a functional and affordable back up.
and my power here in the mountains goes out fairly often.
a camp stove and lantern round out my cold weather alternatives.
during the big snow storm here three weeks ago,power went out for six hours.
stayed warm.
as i couldn’t drive out(even with four-wheel drive),a hotel wasn’t an option.
sab
@Honus: Who the fuck wants to go rent a room (bye for now, cats and dogs) when they have a perfectly good house at home with all their stuff.
And who knows whether the power is out for half an hour or a week? We just lose power for about 5 seconds, then the generator kicks in and everything is back to normal except for rebooting the cable box.
zhena gogolia
@Honus: yes
Reverse tool order
@Honus:
As written (emphasis on that) your generator hookup instructions will create a couple problems. 1) backfeeding enough power, stepped up to â„ 12 kilovolts, to potentially kill someone working at some distance away to fix the failure. 2) backfeeding out-of-phase AC power into a suddenly reenergized utility service. You don’t know for a fact what is going on upstream.
It would physically work to first open the main service breaker or disconnect, and prudent to verify discontinuity across the device. That is considered inadequate for good reasons, people and equipment can and do eff up. The transfer switch is a positive device that connects either utility power or local power, incapable of both at the same time. A transfer switch is the way to build in some redundancy for a small fraction of the total system cost and eliminate serious downside risk.
Ramalama
Spanky
Around here hotels fill fast.
Hotels will not take our pets.
I don’t like the idea of coming home to a refrigerator and freezer filled with spoiled food.
Steeplejack
@Honus:
The only question is whether you can get a hotel room if the power goes out for a lot of people.
ETA: And everybody else got there ahead of me.
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia: Cole just did. I mean, it might not be workable if hotel rooms are scarce in your area, but Iâd be willing to bet that most places have enough to meet demand.
raven
@Steeplejack: The only question is why are we having this stupid fucking conversation? If you don’t want a goddamn generator don’t get one, if you do, get one. jesus
Another Scott
Keep warm and get well, JC.
There are natural gas powered generators in our neighborhood. Having power whenever is good, but it’s vital if you have health issues (e.g. need oxygen via delivery or concentrator). The advantage is, they don’t run out of juice (if they don’t have maintenance issues as pointed out above). They are noisy though. :-(
Batteries are quiet, but they’re slowly dying all the time whether they’re used or not, and if you have enough for a 2 day outage then you’re overpaying if your outage is rarely more than a few hours. And if they battery runs down, then you’re in the same boat as not having it. And what battery type? Lithium ion? Lithium Iron Phosphate? …
Decisions, decisions!
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
John Harrold
I live in California. PG&E started shutting our power off because of wind and the fire hazard. After 4 days without power I did what any rugged individualist who lived with a father dependent on an oxygen concentrator would do. I bought a generator for the whole house.
StringOnAStick
Last March we had a huge wind storm that knocked out our power for 18 hours. As it started getting dark, I remembered that I had bought a huge glass cylinder with a 3 wick candle in it at the Restore, thinking I wanted to make it into a terrarium. It provided such nice light that we have kept it as a candle lantern ever since.
Suzanne
I am watching the Opening Ceremonies and it sounds like a goddamn Baby Einstein classical CD.
Kattails
Meh. Get a nice small woodstove, the new ones are much more efficient and have windows for a cozy effect. You could use it at other times but keep at least one room toasty & the rest from freezing. Gas cook stove. Plenty of nifty lighting options instead of the old kerosene lamps. Battery/solar backup for the other basics.
Gravenstone
@Yarrow: Didn’t they used to call that Second Life back in the day?
debbie
@raven:
Just listened. This was at the Federalist Society. Iâm surprised he didnât get any boos.
trollhattan
Here’s a thing that happened {“Oregon Man”]
Have a passing familiarity with Camptonville, and this TBH just sounds like a day ending in “y” so the MFr must really, really be off-kilter to attract any attention. Feel free to make your own Weeds Point jokes.
Jay
@Another Scott:
2 volt single cell AGMs, arrayed into a 24 volt battery, as used in many off grid applications. We got 20 years out of our unsealed ones, but they required a distilled water top up about once a week, 3 gallons in total in the winter, 4 gallons in the summer, and they were only down to 22.5volts when we moved to Vancouver.
word was when we bought them, was they would be good for 15 years, (AGMâs wernât affordable at the time). Word is AGMs are good for 25 years, maintenance free, and last time I looked, less than the price I paid 20years ago for the lead/acids.
trollhattan
@Jay: My car has a 2012 build date and the factory AGM still works.
Do need to replace it, soon, and they’re co$ty but I’ll only need to do it once. Having had cars that burn through a battery in three years it’s pretty amazing.
trollhattan
@Suzanne: I’ll watch competitions but the less I see and hear about the hosts the better. I understand Xi and Vlad are having their bro moment.
Last winter Olympics I found myself riveted to curling at 2:00 a.m. and don’t know what that says about me, but what the hey?
Suzanne
@trollhattan: I like the curling, for sure.
Seriously, the athletes are all walking in and they keep replaying the same five or so piecesâŠ.including Pomp and Circumstance. NO ONE IS GRADUATING.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: My daughter is a music teacher, and she says her music teacher friends are flipping out.
Suzanne
@Gin & Tonic: We had to turn it off. It sucks.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: The key to the selections seems to be “royalty-free”
Jay
@trollhattan:
most electrically started generators use the same small lead acid or sealed agms use in motorcycles, ride on lawn mowers, emergency lighting, etc.
They often sit outside in the full heat/freeze cycle, and I have found they have maybe 6-8 starting cycles in them. They get worked hard and put away wet.
our battery bank, inverter/charger, wind controller, generator, all sat in a semi-underground building, the generator exhausting to the outside, Temps ran from 56F in the winter to 59F in the heat of summer, when it was -45F in the winter and 115F in the summer.
Reverse tool order
Here is what I did a couple years ago for CPAP battery backup. It will run for 3-4 nights without getting too far into capacity and losing long term battery life. The stored energy per dollar ratio of lithiums didn’t seem good enough.
At least a couple of the most popular CPAPs actually run on 12 or 24 volt DC power from their external AC power supply. It’s more efficient to go directly from DC battery to CPAP than battery > inverter > power supply > CPAP. So, I bought two 12 volt Group 24 (largish automotive size) batteries with these features: sealed cells (no fumes or spills), deep cycle/marine (ok to draw down to â 60-50% of power) AGM design (“absorbed glass mat” is best/longer life type of lead-acid). Convenient but optional are threaded terminals. Group 27, group 31, or whatever size meets your needs is fine. Deka made batteries, including most from NAPA, have a slightly higher reputation.
Next, my CPAP maker has a high quality two-part battery to machine input plug kit in place of the SC power supply, though it’s expensive. Hook the batteries up in series for 24 VDC or in parallel for 12 VDC, #12 stranded copper wire is plenty for the jumper(s) between batteries. Finish with a couple plastic battery boxes to protect from shorts and a small “float” charger. Add a 12 volt to USB charger for your cell phone, recharge flashlight, etc.
Another Scott
@Jay: I’m thinking more in terms of something like this BYD Battery Box (2 page .pdf):
lithium iron phosphate
4 modules, 10.24 kW, 409V, 171 kg (377 pounds), 10 year warranty, $7030 + $200+ shipping.
Supposedly the average US home uses about 30 kWh/day. So, one would probably want to have several of those things… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Chris T.
We (spouse and I) bought a couple of battery packs that power our CPAPs. They were kind of expensive ($200-300 range I think) but they seem very good, they can go for multiple days if needed.
NotMax
In case the temps do plummet, might consider throwing a blanket or two as insulation over the jars of the fruits of your canning in the basement.
Cermet
@sab: You do do realize that very cheap battery standby power systems for computers work even better for the cable box and router? I use one not just for black outs but brown outs or light flickering events. Keeps those systems running and protected from surges as well. Can’t believe I never installed one before through I thought about it a number of times.
Cermet
@Reverse tool order: I turn off the master breaker for the house BEFORE starting the generator (also, have a separate power lever for the generator input next to the breaker box as a further safety feature – turning on the generator does not give the house power. I’m all too well aware of the danger for workers if my outside line is hot.) Besides, trying to power the entire neighborhood isn’t easy for the generator … ;)
Cermet
@Jay: I keep my car sized battery in the garage and run a beefy cable from it to the generator shed (all hardwired.) Works in all weather conditions because the battery is always at house temps.
Ascap_scab
I can’t believe nobody has said it yet.
CANCUN COLE!
Somboby call Snowflake Cruz, Lily needs a website.
Reverse tool order
@Cermet:
My first comment was not directed at you; you’re clear on the concept. Also, good additional point about sending power out to the neighborhood, and probably not succeeding (to understate).
With electric power in particular, and elsewhere too, I just like to see some margin and redundancy. Too often I see ignorance and inexperience and Dunning-Kruger in action instead. With results that can be predicted but aren’t.
I’m still learning the hard way sometimes, even when I’m trying to minimize my ignorance. Doesn’t seem to be a universal attitude.
Nancy
John Cole,
I admire your survival skills. You made use of available resources to enable survival.
Hope you feel better.
HeartlandLiberal
Bonus points for the Shawshank redemption reference.
TCS
Ford F 150 Lightning. EV plus backup home power.
w3ski
I live where generators are almost required and have found out one interesting thing about them. They use a massive quantity of fuel in a short amount of time. I’ve seen people use a full 250 gallons of propane for less than 2 weeks of power. Refilling with gas or diesel is no better and you get to pour that stuff every couple of hours. Beware, your own power plant is very pricey, sure save up to buy and install it, but plan on a fuel bill too.
just a saying
w3ski
J R in WV
Out west our house there is off grid with a big solar array and battery bank. There was also a very sweet Honda generator in case of a sustained cloudy spell or battery failure. You literally can’t hear it run out back from inside the house.
So I went looking for a similar generator back here in WV — we had inexpensive generators that were incredibly noisy, hard to start, etc. Yamaha also makes quiet running generators. Expensive but sweet. But like others, I got tired of the gasoline supply issue, noise, extension cords, etc. So after a next door neighbor had a Generac installed, we also went for it.
The company comes every year to pull maintenance on the equipment, oil change, set the valves, etc. The generator powers everything but the A/C when needed, and the deep well pump, which is several hundred feet away from the house and has it’s own power drop from ApCo. I do have a 300 gal. tank of water for flushing in the basement with a tiny pump, haven’t fired it up yet.
The Generac is noisy compared to the Honda or Yamaha, but doesn’t keep us awake at night, it’s out front of the house and the bedroom is in back. The other night the power went off as the ice storm began, but only for 5 or 10 minutes. The Yamaha now lives next door, up on the ridge. Where it powers the local Ethernet and sat dishes. And their household up there. IIRC it was $3k or so? Don’t recall how much the Generac was, but it fires up 15 seconds after the grid fails, so far every time for the past 12 years or so. Sweet.
Recommended, Cole. Generac. Professional install, continued maintenance. You won’t regret it. Steve will like it too.
way2blue
Can I urge you to price a solar system for your house with SunPower panels & PowerWall batteries? Â WV may not offer subsidies, but unless I’m mistaken, the federal gov’t still does. Â We installed this combo in early 2019 and don’t even notice PG&E’s preemptive blackouts during windstorms. Â Except that our neighbors houses are dark… Â (p.s. Tesla has an option to allow home PowerWalls to connect to a ‘virtual’ battery storage system and put energy into the grid if needed.)