I'm back online!

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 2:44 pm

Multiple tornadoes tore through our area and knocked out power for 2 days and internet for closer to 2-2/3 days. Internet just came back on moments ago.

Lots of downed trees. ~4 miles from here a tree smashed the house right behind my oldest daughters house and they carried a guy out of the house with crushed legs. My daughter and son in law had 4 large pine trees snapped off in their back yard. We had loads of limbs and branches down at our place.

The tornadoes hit at about midnight on the 7th/8th and my wife and I slept right through the sirens and the tornadoes. One of our neighbors heard the siren and was tired and went back to bed instead of heading for the basement. The neighbors on the other side of our house got tornado alarms on their smart phones and made it to the basement.

Post by **Rob R.** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 2:51 pm

Glad you pulled through. Did you use your hand fed stove?

johnjoseph · Post by **johnjoseph** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:00 pm

WOW! Glad you and your family are well. I guess I will take the 15 inches of snow that we've gotten since 6pm last night.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:01 pm

Rob R. wrote: ↑
Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 2:51 pm
Glad you pulled through. Did you use your hand fed stove?

Actually it wasn't starting to get seriously cold until they got the electricity back on. By the time our boiler got fired up it was 63 degrees in the house and falling. We were about 1 hour away from starting a fire when the power was restored.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:03 pm

johnjoseph wrote: ↑
Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:00 pm
WOW! Glad you and your family are well. I guess I will take the 15 inches of snow that we've gotten since 6pm last night.

Thanks JJ!

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:11 pm

We fared better than many around here due to having a hand pump in our well and the solar panels on batteries. For 2 days we cooked, made coffee, toasted toast, and had lights due to the solar panels. Plus we had our deep freezer and refrigerator running on battery/solar power the whole time. Now that I have the NG boiler I need to get that and the circulator and zone valve controller onto our solar. If I had that set up we wouldn't even have gotten chilled.

johnjoseph · Post by **johnjoseph** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:14 pm

Just viewed some images from Troy and Portsmouth online...what a darn mess to deal with and recover from.

coalnewbie · Post by **coalnewbie** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:16 pm

LS, happy you are OK.

warminmn · Post by **warminmn** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:16 pm

I was just going to ask how your backup power worked. There is no better test than when you actually need it. Glad that part worked out.

Post by **Rob R.** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:26 pm

Larry, did you use your induction stove via solar & batteries ?

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:41 pm

Rob R. wrote: ↑
Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 3:26 pm
Larry, did you use your induction stove via solar & batteries ?

That is 240 VAC, but we also have a small and portable 120 VAC single induction burner unit which we have used several times on the inverter now. It is fine up to power level #3. Power level #4 is touchy, and level 5 kicks out the 1,500 Watt inverter. With cast iron pots and pans there is no need to take it beyond #3, as it burns things on levels 4 and 5. Our coffee pot and toaster never kick out the inverter and both work well with it.

We've also ran our clothes washer and vacuum cleaner off the inverter.

If I had it all to do over I would go with a 2,000 Watt inverter, as it would work with our microwave, and also likely handle power levels 4 and 5 on our 120 VAC induction burner.

We were lucky to get runs of sunshine on both days with no grid power, as our 10,000 Watts of batteries (5,000 Watts available) are only good for 1 day without any sunlight to recharge them. When the grid came back on the first thing my wife said was "We need more solar panels".

theo · Post by **theo** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 4:37 pm

Glad your back and all are ok

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 4:55 pm

We used about 3,650 Watts each of the two days we were running on solar (of the 5,000 Watts available to us). Normally our deep freezer (which is the only thing permanently running on our solar/battery system) requires that we make ~1,400 - 1,600 Watts per day (winter - summer) with our solar panels. The deep freezer alone could go ~3-1/2 days on our batteries alone in the winter, with no sunshine to recharge them.

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 7:06 pm

Outstanding to you & Momma Larry. Sorry about anyone injured--stuff can always be replaced--no tornadoes, but my commuter is all screwed up--everyone is home & using them & FRONTIER just keeps putting more people on lines that were NOT made for the traffic--hopefully it will be a learning experience for them!! REAL DOUBTFUL--at least not out this way!

Sunny Boy · Post by **Sunny Boy** » Fri. Apr. 10, 2020 9:44 pm

Glad you and the family are OK, Larry,

Paul