Florence

[budwom]

Contractor grade ones that are very loud are what you are thinking of. budwom referred to portable generators being ~$1000. These are smaller and quieter and more expensive as a result. Honda 2000 series is the most popular with campers and RV owners for that reason.




Depends on your situation. When I was in Georgia, my power panel was situated in a way that I could quite easily install a junction box on the exterior wall directly behind it. That allowed me to plug the generator in with a custom made 220V cord and power any circuit in the house. You do have to have a main disconnect breaker so you don't try to power up your neighbors house as well. Then you have to watch the neighbors to find out when the power comes back on.

You do need an electrician to do it if you don't have the background to do it yourself.

yeah, several things:
1) depending upon what you want to be running in your house (for us, water pump, furnace, fridge are essentials) you need enough starting amps* to get everything running. I promise you you won't find a decent quality generator to do this for much less than a thousand bucks...there are available charts to show you how your requirements translate into what size generator. Mine is a Sears, pretty basic, rolls out the door.
2) if you don't have an electrician hook it up properly, you'd better have your homeowner's insurance fully paid up, because it's VERY dangerous to hook up to the grid improperly...if the lineman restoring service is down the road and you can't see him, you can fry him...power companies will be happy to discuss the importance of this, it's not trivial and it's a genuine serious consideration.

* I need quite a few starting amps to get stuff up and running, but once running I use a pretty small % of the generator's capacity...

[HereBeforeCoachK]

yeah, several things:
1) depending upon what you want to be running in your house (for us, water pump, furnace, fridge are essentials) you need enough starting amps* to get everything running. ..

Yeah, there's gen sets that handle only the fridge, freezer and a couple fans....and there are systems that run HVAC systems and really the entire house. You can spend 500, or 10 thou.

[rsvman]

Looking a bit better for us, too, here in SE Virginia. Flooding is still a major concern. If it makes that turn to the south, though, that will help us a lot. Norfolk floods all the time, even with an inch or two of rain. My house is only 20 miles from the Atlantic, but we are in flood zone D, so I am hoping we won't take on water (ur side yard will turn into a lake, for sure, but as long as water doesn't come up into the house I'm OK with it).

[budwom]

who says hurricanes aren't smart? Looks like Florence is hanging a looey, might be homing in on Florence, SC?

[PackMan97]

yeah, several things:
1) depending upon what you want to be running in your house (for us, water pump, furnace, fridge are essentials) you need enough starting amps* to get everything running. I promise you you won't find a decent quality generator to do this for much less than a thousand bucks...there are available charts to show you how your requirements translate into what size generator. Mine is a Sears, pretty basic, rolls out the door.

Yup! You need to go around to all your appliances and check out their starting amps and running amps. Both are different and generators are rated for both. You can have enough juice to power everything, but all of a sudden the fridge and AC decide to power on at the same time and you are back in the dark. Oops.

[budwom]

Yup! You need to go around to all your appliances and check out their starting amps and running amps. Both are different and generators are rated for both. You can have enough juice to power everything, but all of a sudden the fridge and AC decide to power on at the same time and you are back in the dark. Oops.

I checked my generator out, it's got 5600 watt power, 8600 starting amps...does not work hard at all when up and running, but as you say, when the water pump and furnace crank up, there's some demand there..

[gus]

I can’t recall if it was Gladwell’s original Freakonomics or SuperFreakonomics ...

neither?

Dubner discussed the "Salter Sink" in SuperFreakonomics.

[Acymetric]

neither?

Dubner discussed the "Salter Sink" in SuperFreakonomics.

I assumed the SuperFreakonomics link was what he was referring to when I found it last night. I get the concept at the individual level, but am unconvinced at their estimates of the kind of deployment scale that would be useful or necessary to actual change hurricane formation. I also saw something similar except that they inject bubbles at the lower depths which carry up cooler water to the surface as they rise. Same skepticism of required deployment scale applies.

[rsvman]

Ii thought we could just drop a nuclear bomb into the center of one of these babies while it's out over the Atlantic. That would disrupt the circular motion, right?

Can't imagine any possible downsides...

[OldPhiKap]

Ii thought we could just drop a nuclear bomb into the center of one of these babies while it's out over the Atlantic. That would disrupt the circular motion, right?

Can't imagine any possible downsides...

Radioactive Sharknado?

[BigWayne]

It's starting...

Station 41002 (LLNR 830) - SOUTH HATTERAS - 225 NM South of Cape Hatteras

[weezie]

Whatever happened to sunshine, crisp air and pretty blue skies?

[OldPhiKap]

Whatever happened to sunshine, crisp air and pretty blue skies?

Go back to Woodstock, damn hippie!


(obviously, j/k)

[elvis14]

Go back to Woodstock, damn hippie!


(obviously, j/k)

LOL, someone might need to get weezie off of OPK's lawn!!!

[Devilwin]

If you live at the coast and are expecting a package from Fedex Ground, we will begin staging your stuff at our facility in Kernersville. We will get it to you as soon as humanly possible...

[OZZIE4DUKE]

yeah, several things:
1) depending upon what you want to be running in your house (for us, water pump, furnace, fridge are essentials) you need enough starting amps* to get everything running. I promise you you won't find a decent quality generator to do this for much less than a thousand bucks...there are available charts to show you how your requirements translate into what size generator. Mine is a Sears, pretty basic, rolls out the door.
2) if you don't have an electrician hook it up properly, you'd better have your homeowner's insurance fully paid up, because it's VERY dangerous to hook up to the grid improperly...if the lineman restoring service is down the road and you can't see him, you can fry him...power companies will be happy to discuss the importance of this, it's not trivial and it's a genuine serious consideration.

* I need quite a few starting amps to get stuff up and running, but once running I use a pretty small % of the generator's capacity...

Two things:
1. Hire a licensed electrician to install your home generator and hook it up with a properly rated Transfer Switch, whether manual or automatic (as supplied on larger home generators).
2. Hire a licensed electrician as recommended in #1. It's money well spent. It's much cheaper than fighting your insurance company trying to collect after you burned down your house or killed someone.

I have experience sizing and selling home generators (from a previous life). Bigger is better. And power quality also matters. Cheap generators will fry your microprocessor based electronics (and appliances!) with bad power - bad voltage control, bad frequency control, bad harmonics. Oh, you don't know what harmonics are? Better hire an electrician!

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Two things:
Hire a licensed electrician as recommended in #1. It's money well spent. It's much cheaper than fighting your insurance company trying to collect after you burned down your house or killed someone.

Cheap generators will fry your microprocessor based electronics (and appliances!) with bad power - bad voltage control, bad frequency control, bad harmonics.

Hah, good advice, although unless you have financial motives to torch your own house, you would collect on an unintentional fire (I was in insurance in a previous life).

As for the microprocessor based devices, would their surge protection boxes help this problem?

[BigWayne]

Hah, good advice, although unless you have financial motives to torch your own house, you would collect on an unintentional fire (I was in insurance in a previous life).

As for the microprocessor based devices, would their surge protection boxes help this problem?

Short answer is, no.

Surge protector is looking to prevent voltages much higher than 110V coming through.

All microprocessor chips run on DC voltage of 5V or lower. All equipment containing these circuits require a AC to DC converter to be in place. These are designed based on the expected characteristics of normal AC power as you normally get it. The power out of generators can be significantly less consistent and reliable than what you get from the power company. A lot of your equipment can still use it OK, but depending on the quality of the DC to AC converters, you could have problems.

Here's an image showing the most common difference.

[-jk]

Short answer is, no.

Surge protector is looking to prevent voltages much higher than 110V coming through.

All microprocessor chips run on DC voltage of 5V or lower. All equipment containing these circuits require a AC to DC converter to be in place. These are designed based on the expected characteristics of normal AC power as you normally get it. The power out of generators can be significantly less consistent and reliable than what you get from the power company. A lot of your equipment can still use it OK, but depending on the quality of the DC to AC converters, you could have problems.

Here's an image showing the most common difference.

I just ordered a new receiver. Was that a mistake?

-jk

[Bostondevil]

I came down to Durham in October 2016 to go to my high school reunion and to go to a Duke football game with my dad. We planned to stop by the DBR tailgate tent too. The reunion was cancelled due to Hurricane Matthew and although the football game went on, Dad and I opted not to attend.

I have plans to come down to Durham next weekend to attend Duke's Homecoming on the 22nd with my dad. I have told them that if everything is flooded and they have no power, I'm not coming. I know that I'm no Zaphod Beeblebrox, but I can't help feeling that it's all my fault. I apologize to all the residents of both North and South Carolina. I should probably stop trying to attend Duke football games.