Haoleb
Member
- 197
- 6
- 18
- Location
- Raymond, Maine
So a little over a year ago I picked up an 803A, Since then I only had to use it for one actual outage and that was only for an hour. But now this time it is no rehearsal. This is the real deal. Sunday night into Monday we had a storm come through. Heavy winds and rain. We lost power around 5AM Monday. No problem I roll the set out of the garage and plug it into my inlet. Just a week ago I installed a plug and sleeve receptacle and plug. Before I was wiring each wire into the terminal block and having to leave the connection box open.
Have not fired the set up since I was load banking it back in the spring. Fired right up no problem and we were back in business. The rest of the morning watched local news with the HDTV antenna since our cable,phone.. internet etc is down. I only got the antenna because I cancelled my cable tv service but kept the phone and internet. Well the cable co never came and installed a filter on my feed so I still get basic cable for free. At least until that went out. So that antenna is coming in really handy to get local broadcast in HD.
Ran the generator from 5am to 9pm Monday. Again on Tuesday. This morning I topped my AUX tank back up with my 5 gallon cans and only put 15 gallons in and it is more full than it was previously so I would say I used a little less than 15 gallons in 2 days.
Going on day 3 now. Some roads closed around me due to downed poles and lines down all over the place. But plenty of detours available to get where you need to go. No utility trucks in my area yet. Probably be at least another day or two I would expect. But not a problem.. I have been prepared for an extended outage just like this and it honestly has not even been much of a hassle. The generator has been starting right up in the morning no problem. I hit the preheat for 15 seconds or so since it is getting down into the 30's. My biggest problem is I am turning on as many things as possible to keep at least a light load on the set. I can get it to about 25% with every light going..small electric heater. dehumidifier.. etc. Up to 75% with the dryer running. No problems with the dryer running and my well pump kicking in. It bumps to 125%+ for a second then comes right back down.
At one point over 400,000 without power. The most outages from one storm in Maine history. I would hate to see it if the trees had not already shed most of their foliage or if we had an actual hurricane. Lost 3 pine trees that I can see just out back on my property. They just snapped right over. Luckily nothing near the house or vehicles. Some were not as fortunate.
Moral of the story. Be prepared! Lots of people do not even have a basic generator. Some people I work with have no power. no water (most folks are on well's) and I can imagine it really sucks. Very happy I made the investment to my backup power setup. I was not sure I would ever see an outage this long but here it is. Everyone else around me who has a generator has a little gasser screamer. One neighbor who is probably 250 yards away drowns out the 803 when they are running their little screamer. One other neighbor installed a built in setup running propane. I hear it running 24/7 when I shut mine down. I am sure that is going to get expensive real quick and very wasteful.
And of course.. worthless without pics right? Parked one of the vehicles sideways in front of the set so it cannot easily be seen from the road.. And blocks it in so it cannot be easily towed off when I am not home.
Have not fired the set up since I was load banking it back in the spring. Fired right up no problem and we were back in business. The rest of the morning watched local news with the HDTV antenna since our cable,phone.. internet etc is down. I only got the antenna because I cancelled my cable tv service but kept the phone and internet. Well the cable co never came and installed a filter on my feed so I still get basic cable for free. At least until that went out. So that antenna is coming in really handy to get local broadcast in HD.
Ran the generator from 5am to 9pm Monday. Again on Tuesday. This morning I topped my AUX tank back up with my 5 gallon cans and only put 15 gallons in and it is more full than it was previously so I would say I used a little less than 15 gallons in 2 days.
Going on day 3 now. Some roads closed around me due to downed poles and lines down all over the place. But plenty of detours available to get where you need to go. No utility trucks in my area yet. Probably be at least another day or two I would expect. But not a problem.. I have been prepared for an extended outage just like this and it honestly has not even been much of a hassle. The generator has been starting right up in the morning no problem. I hit the preheat for 15 seconds or so since it is getting down into the 30's. My biggest problem is I am turning on as many things as possible to keep at least a light load on the set. I can get it to about 25% with every light going..small electric heater. dehumidifier.. etc. Up to 75% with the dryer running. No problems with the dryer running and my well pump kicking in. It bumps to 125%+ for a second then comes right back down.
At one point over 400,000 without power. The most outages from one storm in Maine history. I would hate to see it if the trees had not already shed most of their foliage or if we had an actual hurricane. Lost 3 pine trees that I can see just out back on my property. They just snapped right over. Luckily nothing near the house or vehicles. Some were not as fortunate.
Moral of the story. Be prepared! Lots of people do not even have a basic generator. Some people I work with have no power. no water (most folks are on well's) and I can imagine it really sucks. Very happy I made the investment to my backup power setup. I was not sure I would ever see an outage this long but here it is. Everyone else around me who has a generator has a little gasser screamer. One neighbor who is probably 250 yards away drowns out the 803 when they are running their little screamer. One other neighbor installed a built in setup running propane. I hear it running 24/7 when I shut mine down. I am sure that is going to get expensive real quick and very wasteful.
And of course.. worthless without pics right? Parked one of the vehicles sideways in front of the set so it cannot easily be seen from the road.. And blocks it in so it cannot be easily towed off when I am not home.
