BRKG Rolling power outages underway in TX...

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ShadowMan

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Just talked to my buddy in Katy, Texas. He said they had a freeze warning in EVERY SINGLE COUNTY of Texas. He sent me pic's and looks like they got about an inch or so of actual snow (a good dusting) where he is. His dogs are going nuts trying to figure out what that white stuff is. His Labs are loving it....his Peks not so much. Their power went out last night around 10:30 and is still out this morning. Roads are a mess and slick as elephant snot. I've never seen elephant snot but I've heard it's pretty slick. :groucho: He's staying the hell off the roads as it's pretty much just a giant demolition derby right now, but other than that he's just chilling. Literally and figuratively.....and considering getting a whole house genny.

I went through two big snow storms without a back up generator my first winter on the mountain, no thank you.....we now have a whole house Generac, and a backup multi-fuel portable generator (not very portable, heavy as hell, but it does have wheels) and a small portable Honda for the travel trailer.

Our next step is solar panels. I don't trust Edison. They will shut off power out here on the Left Coast at the drop of a hat due to a slight breeze.
 
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Tristan

Tristan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Henry Bowman said:
Yeah good idea to shut everything down from your main breaker and switch over to generators ( if you have them, if not this is a good reason to have one ) otherwise you are going to get spikes and heat pump/furnace/boilers/water heaters are going to get zapped along with other electronics .
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That requires foresight and planning, so you see the issue.
 
Tex88

Tex88

Veteran Member
Ah and there goes the internet.
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Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Wow, thanks for all the updates - my FIL tried to call us last night from Dallas but we had our own power failure (freezing weather, rain, kitchen flooded, etc) and my phone was low on charge so we only talked for a second.

An electrician came out on emergency and got us up and running again (for now) about an hour ago, and now I have a feeling my in-law's power is probably out because they didn't respond to my e-mail (usually they do).

They are in their 80s and have in-home care coming in, I hope they are warm enough, if this keeps up very long they are going to lose people, especially the elderly - that one care home sounds like an all-electric nightmare.
 
The Snack Artist

The Snack Artist

Membership Revoked
Dennis Olson said:
Let me help you with that. On Amazon these days are things called “battery packs.” Get one that’s about 20,000 mAh. Charge that up. Keep it charged by recharging about once a month even if not being used. Then you can recharge your small devices even in an outage situation.
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I have a product made by Battery Tender that is a palm sized jumper pack for your car. It's a lithium battery and will jump a stone cold dead battery. My wife used one to jump off a dead car in Fla after a long time away. I mean stone dead. No lights working, not even in the car. I bought one for every car and the offsprings cars as well. Cost? A hundred bucks per?

Point being made by Dennis about the battery packs. These jumper packs from Battery Tender have a port to charge your phone on it and a flashlight to boot. Great product. Charge it (A/C) and throw it in the trunk. The charge is good for at least 18 months. That's as far as I had to go with one of mine so it's actually longer than that.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Dennis Olson said:
Let me help you with that. On Amazon these days are things called “battery packs.” Get one that’s about 20,000 mAh. Charge that up. Keep it charged by recharging about once a month even if not being used. Then you can recharge your small devices even in an outage situation.
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Yes, and it was powering my housemate's phone and mine was next on the list (today) and it even managed part of my Amazon Kindle before it ran out of juice.

The ones they sell over here don't pack that much punch, not to mention it took hours to charge what we did manage to charge.

I've got the thing plugged into my computer now (recharging) while I write this - oh and we don't use Amazon for electronics right now - there's this problem called BREXIT and nearly all electronics were coming in from the UK.

So until Amazon finishes their Irish warehouse, getting any small electronics here in Ireland is iffy, most shipping isn't happening, and food kind of takes priority in terms of what is coming directly by sea from Europe.

I'm sure all this will sort out over the next few months, but right now, well most people are pretty much stuck with what we already have.

Meanwhile, I'm much more concerned about my in-laws - we live in a 200 plus-year-old Farm House with fires places (which we were using) they don't.
 
Bud in Fla

Bud in Fla

Veteran Member
With all the power outages going on now, it might be a good time to point out that under OhBummer's plan the taxes & new regulations on the old dirt burner power plants made them not worth keeping. About 10 or so years ago, most of the old fossil/coal burners were dismantled. in some cases they actually had to pay someone to take the scrap.
I worked in the Progress Energy plants for 37 years and in SC & NC there are only 2 of those plants left and they already have decommission dates set. The whole fleet of emergency reserve power units no longer exists.
 
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Lilbitsnana

Lilbitsnana

On TB every waking moment
Melodi said:
Wow, thanks for all the updates - my FIL tried to call us last night from Dallas but we had our own power failure (freezing weather, rain, kitchen flooded, etc) and my phone was low on charge so we only talked for a second.

An electrician came out on emergency and got us up and running again (for now) about an hour ago, and now I have a feeling my in-law's power is probably out because they didn't respond to my e-mail (usually they do).

They are in their 80s and have in-home care coming in, I hope they are warm enough, if this keeps up very long they are going to tt.
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My brother lives a little North of Dallas.

His power went off around 2:30 AM; still not back on.

I just told him it might not be back on until tomorrow (or Wed the way it is going).
 
bw

bw

Fringe Ranger
Dennis Olson said:
On Amazon these days are things called “battery packs.” Get one that’s about 20,000 mAh. Charge that up. Keep it charged by recharging about once a month even if not being used. Then you can recharge your small devices even in an outage situation.
Click to expand...

I built my own, and there are plans on the web, and leave it plugged in on its charger. I can run circuits of LED lights, and I pipe my modem power through the battery pack. If we lose power we have at least a week's worth of internet on the small devices.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
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Dennis Olson said:
Let me help you with that. On Amazon these days are things called “battery packs.” Get one that’s about 20,000 mAh. Charge that up. Keep it charged by recharging about once a month even if not being used. Then you can recharge your small devices even in an outage situation.
Click to expand...
Yes, these are wonderful! Get one made by RAVPower... their quality and customer service are fantastic. Their packs hold a charge a LONG time... I once decided to charge all of them when we had storm warnings, because it had been over 6 months since I had used any except the one I carry in my purse, and it turned out they were all still fully charged.

Summerthyme
 
Millwright

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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ron341 said:
Public Service Co. of Oklahoma ”PSO” just announced that they will be starting rolling blackouts in northeast Oklahoma.
Currently 2 degrees and feels like -17 degree.
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There's about 100 people out of power in the whole NE quarter of the state.
 
Valann

Valann

Contributing Member
Milkweed Host

Milkweed Host

Veteran Member
bw said:
I built my own, and there are plans on the web, and leave it plugged in on its charger. I can run circuits of LED lights, and I pipe my modem power through the battery pack. If we lose power we have at least a week's worth of internet on the small devices.
Click to expand...
Ref battery packs, I really like this four battery bank with removable 18650 batteries. This way a better quality
battery can be purchased. And the batteries can be removed for other uses.
I've had poor luck with the sealed battery banks.

I put together twelve of the gift packages for kids from church. It centers around the 18650 battery. I built
a battery holder from PVC tubing for safety. When the caps are moved from the PVC tubing, the tubing along
with the 18650 battery can replace the 25650 battery. (These kids previously received a flashlight that uses the
26650 battery). The fans use a single 18650 battery. The battery bank can be plugged into the fan.
The solar panel is a 5 watt, 2 amp, 10 watt. I left the diode out because the battery bank has an auto shut off on it.
The gift package also has adapters and a rapid charger.

The last photo is of a different type of battery, light weight and 12 volts.
 

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20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
Dennis Olson said:
I still haven’t lost power. I turned up the heat and the house is at 72, so I could make it several hours without electric if need be. No frozen pipes either (thank god)
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As one of our plans, we insulated very well. We can go almost 24 hours once the power goes out before it gets too hot or too cold. After that power is needed.

We still haven't solved that issue.
 
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