# ICE!



## woodgeek (Feb 5, 2014)

Looks like at least a quarter million folks without power in the Philly 'burbs! Including yours truly. 

When you can see 4 downed trees from your house.....you know you have problems !!

POS wood stove on 11 and HF genny purring


----------



## Warm_in_NH (Feb 5, 2014)

Good luck. Maybe you can score some of the storm debris for future BTU's? ???


----------



## Delta-T (Feb 5, 2014)

why didn't you just make 10 louder?
be safe around ice, especially icicles...they've been know to kill people you know.


----------



## woodgeek (Feb 5, 2014)

Glad I put a new blower on the old stove.....we're going to test its BTU output. Forecast is a low of of 18*F tonight.


----------



## velvetfoot (Feb 5, 2014)

Don't go outside.


----------



## jharkin (Feb 5, 2014)

Stay warm geek... So far for us its just snow but its coming down hard looks like 6-8 inches already.  And its the dense wet heart attack snow.

We have another one on the way Sunday that they are saying will be even larger.  Will be a 1-2-3 punch snow week. At least our temps are staying quite mild with daytimes in the 30s and nights only in the high teens/20s.


----------



## woodgeek (Feb 5, 2014)

I'm not going to!


----------



## woodgeek (Feb 5, 2014)

jharkin said:


> Stay warm geek... So far for us its just snow but its coming down hard looks like 6-8 inches already.  And its the dense wet heart attack snow.
> 
> We have another one on the way Sunday that they are saying will be even larger.  Will be a 1-2-3 punch snow week. At least our temps are staying quite mild with daytimes in the 30s and nights only in the high teens/20s.



I'll be happy if I have power back by then.


----------



## firebroad (Feb 5, 2014)

It looked like a war zone in my yard.
My neighbor has a long row of 200 ft pines that are about 80 years old.  One by one, huge limbs began to crash down--covering my wood stacks, and pulling the Electric line from my house.  Phone line, too.  Still had power until a couple of transformers blew up across the corn field.  Lit up the sky, then no power.  That was a little before 6 this morning.  I loaded up the stove, patted the cat and finally left for work about 7:30.
Earlier I was standing at the window watching helplessly as the broken branches came crashing down.  I could hear other trees give in with loud booms and cracks all over the valley, and the sky was flashing with blue and red from transformers blowing up and catching on fire.  It was like the Fourth of July with Ice.
I hope I have power when I get home, otherwise the cat and I will go find a warming center in Westminster.  Amazingly, all of my trees remained intact--that I know of.
Hope everyone remains safe and warm.


----------



## Seasoned Oak (Feb 5, 2014)

We dodged a bullet  AGAIN. forecast was ice ,but none showed up. All over now.


----------



## Seasoned Oak (Feb 5, 2014)

We got the warmer version of ice, SLUSH


----------



## Warm_in_NH (Feb 5, 2014)

Snow, plenty of it here. Maybe 6" so far and 6" more forecasted for "round two" 
Good garage puttering day except my propane Dyna Glo heater just snapped and no longer works so it's the noisy kerosene torpedo which drowns out the tunes and stinks. 
But hey, if that's my biggest problem today I'd have to say things are pretty good.


----------



## Badfish740 (Feb 5, 2014)

Seasoned Oak said:


> We dodged a bullet  AGAIN. forecast was ice ,but none showed up. All over now.



Us too-by a hair-the county just to the south of us (Mercer) sounds like it got slammed-lots of folks out of power and lots of downed trees on roadways according to the news.


----------



## woodgeek (Feb 5, 2014)

Revised stats are >600,000 customers in the Philly metro, mostly W and N burbs, are without power, roughly 1.5M people.

The local utility says it is their largest winter outage ever, and second only to Sandy otherwise.  The good news....a lot of our buds have got power back now.  Us not so much.


----------



## Bobbin (Feb 5, 2014)

Ice is the pits.  Expensive and time consuming to repair and really inconvenient for those who don't have generators and rely on electricity to power boilers, furnaces, well pumps.

Just snow for us... upwards of 8" would be my guess (cats flatly refuse to cross the threshold to the great outdoors).

Update:  snow blower has been fired up.


----------



## wenger7446 (Feb 5, 2014)

15 year old Coleman genset powering our place (mostly the well pump) and the Nap 1400 keeping us warm here Pottstown (Coventry, St Pete's Area) I don't expect the power back until Friday or Saturday with the amount of downed trees.


----------



## woodgeek (Feb 5, 2014)

Word here is: line down....your power is on now;  transformer shot.....think weekend.  The latter category include me and three neighbors, in a sea of power.  The folks across the street have power....their line comes from the pole in my front yard.  Must be all that bad karma I racked up!


----------



## wenger7446 (Feb 5, 2014)

Everyone here seems to be without power. stay warm!


----------



## firefighterjake (Feb 5, 2014)

Hate the ice . . . love the snow. Getting all snow from this storm.

For you folks further south in the ice . . . stay safe.


----------



## firebroad (Feb 7, 2014)

It is Friday at 11:30, day 3.  WE FINALLY HAVE IGNITION!
The  contractors just got my severed connection back up, I just reset everything.  Kept upstairs fridge/freezer contents outside, downstairs freezer topped out at 29 degrees(whew!)
I really found out what my insert was capable of without the blower.  It kept the main room 65-71 degrees, and I could heat water on top in mugs and a metal pitcher.
It sounds kind of silly, but for the most part I regarded it as an adventure.  It was like living with the Amish, only without a cooking stove and water pump.  And of course, I could charge my phone in my car.
I am really looking forward to my first hot meal in three days and having a good wash.
Next storm--tommorow.  Film at 11.


----------



## begreen (Feb 7, 2014)

Hot showers are what I missed the most.


----------



## woodgeek (Feb 7, 2014)

Power restored after 2.4 days.  Considering the massive damage visible driving around (about one down tree across the street on every other block) across 4 counties, I think that is pretty reasonable progress.

My town logged 1/2" of solid ice.  On top of wet snow clinging to everything from Monday.

Edit: about 1/3rd of those who lost power still are out.


----------



## begreen (Feb 7, 2014)

Welcome back to the land of light and hot water showers.


----------



## wenger7446 (Feb 7, 2014)

Still no power here in the Coventry area, a little south of Pottstown.


----------



## begreen (Feb 8, 2014)

Hope they get to you soon. Have some donuts or muffins, hot coffee and cocoa ready for the crews. They really appreciate it.


----------



## Bobbin (Feb 8, 2014)

Our longest stint with no juice was (if I remember correctly) about 3 days (we've had a couple in that time range over the years).  We have a small pond and were able to fill buckets to flush the commode and take care of kitchen/human clean up.  Kitchen range is propane, so we could manually light the burners and boil collected water as required before transferring to the Fireview (no oven, though).  Aladdin oil lamps in good working order and plenty of lamp oil provided steady and easy lighting.  We kept a large stockpot of pond water warm on the Fireview (after it was boiled on the range top).  It was cold enough to keep food from spoiling.  But I missed a shower, too!

We have to replace the boiler this spring and I will insist that the system be filled with "anti-freeze"!  After '98 and the near catastrophe in Mum's home (now my brother's and mine) I will never again have a forced "hot water" system filled with anything but "anti-freeze".  You can easily drain domestic water, but why mess with the heating system if you don't have to?!


----------



## firebroad (Feb 8, 2014)

I think I am going to have to call the insurance company.  The "head" of the electrical connection attached to the house is cracked, and my electrician says it will cost a couple of hundred to replace and cleat the supply back to the house properly.  the huge limbs of the neighbors pines are not only all over the place, but many of them with girths of ten inches or more are hanging precariously about 30 - 40 ft up.  I don't have the strength, know how or proper tools to take care of that.
I was elated when power was restore, but after that initial high, I am getting depressed.  I guess I will have to call the Ins. Co. first, then start shopping around for a tree service.  
I hope you folks with no power get restored real soon, and with minimal damage.  I'm pulling for ya.


----------



## Seasoned Oak (Feb 8, 2014)

firebroad said:


> I think I am going to have to call the insurance company.  The "head" of the electrical connection attached to the house is cracked, and my electrician says it will cost a couple of hundred to replace and cleat the supply back to the house properly.


Your talking about a $20 part that would take about 15 minutes to change. Couple hundred sounds like a lot. Hardest part is settin up the ladder. If this is the part your talking about.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...EU+4/0+Weather+Head+Cap+200+Amp+Cable+Wire+SE


----------



## firebroad (Feb 8, 2014)

Seasoned Oak said:


> Your talking about a $20 part that would take about 15 minutes to change. Couple hundred sounds like a lot. Hardest part is settin up the ladder. If this is the part your talking about.
> http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=See-All-Categories&_nkw=New Service Entrance Weatherhead SEU 4/0 Weather Head Cap 200 Amp Cable Wire SE


I think the cost is for the licensed electrician.  The power company has to disconnect service on their end before the job can be done.


----------



## wenger7446 (Feb 8, 2014)

Power and internet is back on. I was more distraught over lack of Internet than lack of power.


----------



## Seasoned Oak (Feb 8, 2014)

firebroad said:


> I think the cost is for the licensed electrician.  The power company has to disconnect service on their end before the job can be done.


These (the ones pictured) can be changed out with out disconnecting power,unless the line is damaged. I do my own, as i install new services on my own properties ,but yes its not something someone who dont know what they are doing should tackle.


----------



## WiscWoody (Feb 8, 2014)

We lose power here often but not for days yet. I have a UPS for the router and modem that will keep the net up and running for10 hours or longer if used sparingly. At least I can pass the time using the tablet then.


----------



## woodgeek (Feb 8, 2014)

wenger7446 said:


> Power and internet is back on. I was more distraught over lack of Internet than lack of power.



Agreed. I run my cable modem and wifi on my little HF genny.  My wifi was down (cable out) for maybe 4 hours.


----------



## woodgeek (Feb 9, 2014)

Have some old friends over in Drescher, PA whose cul-de-sac is still without power, 3.5 days in.  They have been ok staying with some folks with power, but their house was getting too cold, low 40s, and they have hydronic gas heat.  They are spooked by the single digit temps forecast for Monday.

I dropped by with the little blue HF genny and we had that boiler going in 20 minutes.


----------



## Madcodger (Feb 9, 2014)

We're entering day 5 today at our place in Chester county, and PECO has gone from saying Friday night, to Sunday night, to "sometime next week".  But the gennie, pellet stoves and big battery bank have kept us warm, connected, and showered.  In fact, we've become "shower central" for our friends.  Personally, if I could get the county to cut down some trees behind he house (we border a park) I would go solar and off grid (of course the two trees I wanted to see fall are just fine!).  In fact, we're considering solar for the retirement house.  I haven't even turned on the gennie yet as I figured out that the coffee maker works just fine on the battery bank, which we haven't even taxed hard thus far.  Stove is cranking away on battery as well, and I'm determined to make it to 9:00 before I start burning liquid dinosaur.


----------



## Dave A. (Feb 9, 2014)

Liquid dinosaur-- I like that -- Sinclair oil co's logo, haven't seen it in many years.


----------



## WiscWoody (Feb 9, 2014)

Madcodger said:


> We're entering day 5 today at our place in Chester county, and PECO has gone from saying Friday night, to Sunday night, to "sometime next week".  But the gennie, pellet stoves and big battery bank have kept us warm, connected, and showered.  In fact, we've become "shower central" for our friends.  Personally, if I could get the county to cut down some trees behind he house (we border a park) I would go solar and off grid (of course the two trees I wanted to see fall are just fine!).  In fact, we're considering solar for the retirement house.  I haven't even turned on the gennie yet as I figured out that the coffee maker works just fine on the battery bank, which we haven't even taxed hard thus far.  Stove is cranking away on battery as well, and I'm determined to make it to 9:00 before I start burning liquid dinosaur.


Is the battery bank just for these occasions? Inside? It must be quite a few batteries?


----------



## Madcodger (Feb 10, 2014)

Yep, just for the 2-3 times/year we lose power.  In garage.  110 AH at 48V.  MT Vernon AE pellet stove on its own battery (110 AH at 12V).  Recharge them during day as gen puts out more than we can use, and same gas usage up to ~ 50% load.  Float charge when not in use.


----------

