Actually sine wave output of generator measured with old Navy Oscope looks pretty good and clean. Small changes in freq with varying loads but nothing serious.
Now if you want to see bad, look at the output of an old harbor freight inverter with a modified sine wave output... Nothing but a series of varying amplitude square waves that approximate a sinewave by varying the amplitude of the square wave.
On another note, still no power restored in the area.
Note to self: next time buy several window AC units instead of the portable roll around unit.
Roll around unit is 10,000 BTU but a PITA to hook up with the warm air exhaust hose and condensate hose. Window units are quicker and easier to temporarily install wherever you need them.
Interesting fact if anyone uses tricare and express scripts for prescriptions.
Express Scripts is supposed to check the weather forecast for the destination before shipping temperature sensitive medications ie Insulin.
Got a Styrofoam box with melted icepacks inside and insulin that was literally hot to the touch after over 5 days in route due to Irma.
No problems, just made sure I was doing low carb and blood sugars stayed in normal range. A type I diabetic would have been in serious trouble though.
Most stores are open, but ironically the local Home Depot is still on emergency generator that barely powers the lights leaving the store dark and damp.
A few fast food joints are only accepting cash.
Gas lines are now pretty short and most places have no lines at all.
It's entertaining listening to the radio and hearing all the people bitch and complain about why they aren't first in line getting power restored and how it's all a conspiracy depending on your political connections.
Went to Walmart yesterday and all the produce and freezer stuff was gone, as in probably spoiled and thrown away. In the fruit and veggie area they had lemons and peaches, with the peaches rapidly getting softer. Weird seeing all the empty space.
Interesting observation is that a lot of people end up sleeping on their back porch or
in their cars if they don't have AC or don't run their generator all night.
Concrete houses heat up during the day with temps in the 90s and heat indexes around a hundred or more. Even when the outside temp drops down into the upper 70s at night, the houses still act like an oven with all the stored heat. Many people complaining their houses never cool down to outside temperatures and it's too hot to sleep. They go in their cars after taking a cold shower and run the car and AC for 10 minutes, turn everything off, and sleep comfortably the rest of the night at a cool 77 degrees or so.
No crime to speak of in my area. Many people have their generators in their driveway in front of their homes with no security chains etc and no one seems to bother them. But then our subdivision has only one entrance/exit and is walled, but with no gate.
The fly by night out of state contractors have already started making appearances with roof repair offers. (no cost to you and they work with your insurance company)
We also had people pay to have someone haul away debris when the county will be hauling it away for free as long as you pile it curbside.
We've had more deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning from generators than any other problem here in central Florida.
Couple of families and in one case a 7 year old girl killed by CO. One idiot even operated a small generator in their house
The others were in their garages with the door open or under a covered porch.
Put you damn generator at least 20 feet from your house!
Water pressure is about 2/3 normal and a few places had boil water notices, but water never was much of problem during or immediately after Irma. However I did just get a call from the county automated notice system to conserve water because their pumping system was not fully up yet.
Some people in low lying areas are also having sewage issues because of pumping stations with no power. Lot of people don't understand that when one person flushes their toilet and the pumping station isn't working, the extra sewer stuff backs up in the lowest lying homes.
I have no worries there because we aren't in a low lying area, and I have a septic tank instead of a sewer connection.
Anyway that's the status from Irma land in the Orlando area.
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