Posted: 7/1/2012 5:01:35 PM EDT
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No power here in MD, with about 400,000 of my friends.
I have the generator buzzing along with my stabilized gas I had so the fridge was happy but the 100+ degree heat was unbearable. I retreated to the basement where it was about 75ish. I usually like to venture out and see what the folks are buying or scrambling for and make sure I'm stocked up when the panic goes away. I seem to have done fairly well this time except for a window A/C, which I now have after picking one up at lowes. That should make sleeping tonight go way better with the generator. Time to look into a stanby generator. I have the funds, so I think it's a good use. First time I've ever lost power in about 10 years for any duration over a few minutes. Turns out, I don't like being hot. I always had heaters and propane for winter power problems, but never thought about the intense heat. |
a word of adivce, chain up and lock your gen. i remember in Katrina people were stealing them alot. They would walk up with a running lawnmower (since they both sound alike when not paying attn) and drive a car up, and snatch then gen. at least they left ya a mower 
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a word of adivce, chain up and lock your gen. i remember in Katrina people were stealing them alot. They would walk up with a running lawnmower (since they both sound alike when not paying attn) and drive a car up, and snatch then gen. at least they left ya a mower Even here in rural NH there were several attempts to cut the galvanized chain and steal my genset after the 2008 ice storm 
Reliance makes a handy little alarm that beeps when it's power is cut. You can plug it into an extension cord or an outlet that is powered by your genset. When the genset shuts down or is disconnected it goes off. It's not designed as a theft deterrent to a thief, but rather as an audible cue to you when something happens to your backup power. Mine wasn't very loud, so I replaced the beeper with a loud piezo electric buzzer from Radio Shack. There are a few outlets connected to my transfer switch that are always powered, and this little alarm is always plugged into one of them 
I'll try to find a link-I think is was around twenty bucks. ETA-Here's one of them: 
LINK Here's a much better one (we use these at work): 
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Very nice –– thanks for the suggestion. Those are sure to get my attention; the constant buzzing/beeping from a UPS unit after the power goes out drives me nuts. I would imagine that this is just as obnoxious.I would strongly suggest paying the few extra bucks for the second one I listed. The first one won't be loud enough to get your attention unless you mod it like I did. It's consumer grade, and the second one is more commercial grade. The second one will sure as hell get your attention. Expy, is there a particular IR sensor that you suggest-does HF has more than one? I'd love to have more early warning capability. After the 2008 storm it would take several seconds to grab the AR and bolt outside. If the burglars were smarter, they would have defeated my lock/chain first, and THEN shut it down. Instead they shut it down first and then went to work...thank God they were stupid. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Very nice –– thanks for the suggestion. Those are sure to get my attention; the constant buzzing/beeping from a UPS unit after the power goes out drives me nuts. I would imagine that this is just as obnoxious.I would strongly suggest paying the few extra bucks for the second one I listed. The first one won't be loud enough to get your attention unless you mod it like I did. It's consumer grade, and the second one is more commercial grade. The second one will sure as hell get your attention. Expy, is there a particular IR sensor that you suggest-does HF has more than one? I'd love to have more early warning capability. After the 2008 storm it would take several seconds to grab the AR and bolt outside. If the burglars were smarter, they would have defeated my lock/chain first, and THEN shut it down. Instead they shut it down first and then went to work...thank God they were stupid. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Dis one, it has a MULTITUDE of possibilities including hacks to make it trigger other than from the IR sensor. Transmit range is good and it can be improved where legal. 
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a word of adivce, chain up and lock your gen. i remember in Katrina people were stealing them alot. They would walk up with a running lawnmower (since they both sound alike when not paying attn) and drive a car up, and snatch then gen. at least they left ya a mower Same issues back during the '98 eastern seaboard ice storm and wind storm prolonged outtages. |
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a word of adivce, chain up and lock your gen. i remember in Katrina people were stealing them alot. They would walk up with a running lawnmower (since they both sound alike when not paying attn) and drive a car up, and snatch then gen. at least they left ya a mower Did this after Hurricane Charley as well |
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a word of adivce, chain up and lock your gen. i remember in Katrina people were stealing them alot. They would walk up with a running lawnmower (since they both sound alike when not paying attn) and drive a car up, and snatch then gen. at least they left ya a mower Did this really happen or just urban legend? |
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What did you do to "dissuade" the thieves from stealing your genny?
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Very nice –– thanks for the suggestion. Those are sure to get my attention; the constant buzzing/beeping from a UPS unit after the power goes out drives me nuts. I would imagine that this is just as obnoxious.I would strongly suggest paying the few extra bucks for the second one I listed. The first one won't be loud enough to get your attention unless you mod it like I did. It's consumer grade, and the second one is more commercial grade. The second one will sure as hell get your attention. Expy, is there a particular IR sensor that you suggest-does HF has more than one? I'd love to have more early warning capability. After the 2008 storm it would take several seconds to grab the AR and bolt outside. If the burglars were smarter, they would have defeated my lock/chain first, and THEN shut it down. Instead they shut it down first and then went to work...thank God they were stupid. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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EXPY37, Could you enlighten us as to some other ideas and uses for those HF driveway alarms? I know I would certainly be interested if you had some unique uses. What do you need to do? Nothing in particular. I have one of those alarms and am always intrigued by "outside the box" ideas for use. It sounded like you eluded to having other modifications or uses, so I thought I would inquire. |
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a word of adivce, chain up and lock your gen. i remember in Katrina people were stealing them alot. They would walk up with a running lawnmower (since they both sound alike when not paying attn) and drive a car up, and snatch then gen. at least they left ya a mower Did this really happen or just urban legend? I can't say if that actually happened up here, but I do remember the story during the outage. There were reports of a number of generators being stolen during the aftermath, including a couple of Verizon portable units brought out to power substations. Mine was big a$$ chained around the axle of our 3rd auto. You should have seen the line at Home Depot after it was all over returning their generators. I was almost as long as the line during the storm for people buying units. For some reason they were not what the folks needed or didn't work properly.  What a bunch a tools.
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You should have seen the line at Home Depot after it was all over returning their generators. I was almost as long as the line during the storm for people buying units. For some reason they were not what the folks needed or didn't work properly. What a bunch a tools.That would be "fools" |
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You should have seen the line at Home Depot after it was all over returning their generators. I was almost as long as the line during the storm for people buying units. For some reason they were not what the folks needed or didn't work properly. What a bunch a tools.That would be "fools" No I stand by Tools, "richards". They came and snapped up generators used them for a week and then returned them for a refund after the event was over. I will say HD went out of their way to get generators up here to the Northeast from all over the country at considerable expense. They didn't jack up the price like some of the other stores did. A friend of mine bought a Honda from a small dealer and was told the price was +$1000 over what ever was marked on the unit when he arrived. I was very disappointed in my Fellow Mainers. |
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You should have seen the line at Home Depot after it was all over returning their generators. I was almost as long as the line during the storm for people buying units. For some reason they were not what the folks needed or didn't work properly. What a bunch a tools.That would be "fools" No I stand by Tools, "richards". They came and snapped up generators used them for a week and then returned them for a refund after the event was over. I will say HD went out of their way to get generators up here to the Northeast from all over the country at considerable expense. They didn't jack up the price like some of the other stores did. A friend of mine bought a Honda from a small dealer and was told the price was +$1000 over what ever was marked on the unit when he arrived. I was very disappointed in my Fellow Mainers. I have a colleague whose husband works at a local Home Depot. He said that after the 2008 ice storm, over 50% of the gensets they sold during the outage were returned shortly after power was restored
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a word of adivce, chain up and lock your gen. i remember in Katrina people were stealing them alot. They would walk up with a running lawnmower (since they both sound alike when not paying attn) and drive a car up, and snatch then gen. at least they left ya a mower Did this really happen or just urban legend? Didn't see it for myself but it was told to me by a couple LEOs. Wouldn't surprise me at all. I was living down there at the time and the LEOs were a mix of local and state folks, so either it was a very wide spread rumor very early on, or a memo went out. Whether the memo was true or not is another story. Edit to add: The policy now for HD is that generator sales are final, once you buy a genny from them it's yours. If it doesn't work they'll swap it out or credit it toward a different model. Since the storm models are often not the same ones the store always carries the exchanges might find you getting a free upgrade but only if they can't fix it, and let's face it, they're pretty easily fixed most of the time when you have access to the company's supply chain for parts. |