The official weather thread

[Bo Diddley]

Hang in there, Moliere. Glad you have things well in hand.

[LiveCoug]

Similar situations here in San Antonio. Half without power. Water has been spotty. Our pipes froze early monday morning and we just got some flow back this afternoon (like, very low flow). We are now under boil order. We had one pipe burst outside our house, but thankfully it was an easy fix and nothing bursting inside at this point.

Our chapel (the stake center) had a pipe burst causing major flooding. Apparently 4 chapels in the area experienced the same thing.

Thankfully, we have had power the whole time, probably because we are on the same grid as the hospital down the street. Lots of rolling outages all over the city. My patients (I'm a home health peds PT) have all had major issues with power and water. One of my patients is on a ventilator and due to the outages, her batteries were running dangerously low. The hospital wouldn't take her as they said it wasn't a true emergency, so they had to pack her up and take her to a hotel.

Tomorrow supposed to be below freezing again, but relief is coming this weekend.

[Moliere]

Hang in there, Moliere. Glad you have things well in hand.

Thanks. I’m just exhausted from not knowing anything like where to buy gas or when the power is going to be shut off again. I’m lying in bed with power now but there’s a good chance it’ll go off again in the middle of the night and il then go start the generator.

Good thing I had an electrician put in a transfer switch that allows me to plug the generator into my panel. When I ran it like that today I cranked the heat up high since it was my gas I was burning so no need to conserve right

[Bo Diddley]

Thanks. I’m just exhausted from not knowing anything like where to buy gas or when the power is going to be shut off again. I’m lying in bed with power now but there’s a good chance it’ll go off again in the middle of the night and il then go start the generator.

Good thing I had an electrician put in a transfer switch that allows me to plug the generator into my panel. When I ran it like that today I cranked the heat up high since it was my gas I was burning so no need to conserve right

That's sweet. I should put one of those in myself.

[Uncle Ted]

I hope you turned off the water to your house

I left my wife at home to take care of it. (But I am back now.)

[Uncle Ted]

As an update, the situation is awful for most. Less than half of homes in Houston have power. We lost power last night at 10pm. We moved all the food to coolers outside and cranked the fireplace up. It only got to 30 degrees so I’m glad it was our turn without power when it was relatively warmer compared to the 10 degree night on Monday night.

Power returned to our house at 2:22am. I know that because I had just finished checking faucets and outdoor equipment when our furnaces turned on. I hadn’t slept to that point but after about another hour of restlessness I finally got about three hours of sleep.

Power went back off at noon. We had prepared for this since we figured it’s our new normal until moderate temperatures resume on Saturday. I had pulled out the generator and gathered ten gallons of fuel. After this years horrible hurricane season (which alll missed Houston) I had an electrician out in a switch to allow me to plug my generator directly to my panel. That decision has paid off as we have been without power on this turn for almost four hours but both furnaces are running, the fridges are cold and wifi is working.

I have no idea when we’ll get power back. The utility is supposedly doing rolling blackouts but there’s no rhyme or reason to it all. My real concern is frozen pipes which hasn’t happened yet to us but seems to have hit half the ward. Thankfully the next two nights are relatively mild (high twenties) so we should be fine even without power even though we’ll use the generator. Friday night is sketchy in the low 20s and maybe teens but if more power isn’t in the grid by then I’ll personally start the Lincoln Project equivalent to go against Abbott and the ERCOT board.

Oh, and thank heavens for all those prepper-type lessons at church all these years. We were ready in terms of food and supplies. We expect to use our stash for hurricanes but obviously it’s been incredibly helpful now. I’m surprised how many people know nothing about homes or plumbing and had nothing in preparation for a disastrous event like this.

I got home just in time for the power to come back on from being off from the rolling backout. It's been on all night. It took me a while to get some gas for the generator last night. There was a wait because the pumps were going super slow. I wished they told me it was going to be on all night so I could have waited until this morning to get gas.

My wife is a pretty good prepper. She keep the house and my son warm while I was gone. Parts of Dallas need to boil their water and other are completely without. We are fortunately to have good, clean water.

Many folks around here have sprinkler (fire suppression) systems in their homes which are now frozen and leaking in their attics.

As for the ERCOT board apparently those dumbasses don't even live in our state. We need to hunt them down and stake them out naked in the snow.

[Uncle Ted]

That's sweet. I should put one of those in myself.

I put a transfer switch and generator plug in myself... it wasn't too bad.

[Uncle Ted]

Thanks. I’m just exhausted from not knowing anything like where to buy gas or when the power is going to be shut off again. I’m lying in bed with power now but there’s a good chance it’ll go off again in the middle of the night and il then go start the generator.

Good thing I had an electrician put in a transfer switch that allows me to plug the generator into my panel. When I ran it like that today I cranked the heat up high since it was my gas I was burning so no need to conserve right

So did you have the electrician split your load into a separate panel for the loads to be on when running on the generator? I didn't really do this but just turn off the breakers I don't need on when running on generator power.

[Bo Diddley]

I put a transfer switch and generator plug in myself... it wasn't too bad.

I am Army trained as an electrician, though I am color-blind. Is that wire red or green?

[Uncle Ted]

I am Army trained as an electrician, though I am color-blind. Is that wire red or green?

I only use black, white, and bare wires... unless I am wiring a three-way switch.

[Bo Diddley]

I only use black, white, and bare wires... unless I am wiring a three-way switch.

[LiveCoug]

It's snowing again today. Gonna get another few inches today. Thankfully, our water pressure is up to about 30% and we are now getting some hot water! No burst pipes inside. What a relief

Tomorrow is forecast for a high of 45 and then the weekend is bringing mid 60's. Glory be!

[Moliere]

So did you have the electrician split your load into a separate panel for the loads to be on when running on the generator? I didn't really do this but just turn off the breakers I don't need on when running on generator power.

No, mine is setup like yours. I wanted it that way and I'm glad I did since I doubt I"d have put the furnaces on the generator load since I put it in thinking I'd use it more for hurricanes when you don't want heat.

The plug connects to a breaker at the top of the panel. YOu can only flip the breaker on when the main line is turned off. I guess that's so you don't send power out on the grid when power is out and shock a lineman working on a downed line.

So I basically start up the generator and plug it in. Flip off the main power switch and flip off all breakers. Flip on the breaker to the plug/generator and then flip on the breakers that I want to use. It's forced me to label my panel box better so I now know which ones turn on for my fridges/freezer and furnaces as well as the wifi

We had no city power yesterday from noon to 7pm but we had power in the house and were 72 degrees while watching Disney+ on the main tv in the family room. I paid $500 for an electician to put it in and it's been well worth the money. Being able to keep your fridges running and lights on without running cords all over the house is seriously unbelievably awesome. I almost got a whole house standby generator but balked at the $9,500 price point on those.

[Bo Diddley]

No, mine is setup like yours. I wanted it that way and I'm glad I did since I doubt I"d have put the furnaces on the generator load since I put it in thinking I'd use it more for hurricanes when you don't want heat.

The plug connects to a breaker at the top of the panel. YOu can only flip the breaker on when the main line is turned off. I guess that's so you don't send power out on the grid when power is out and shock a lineman working on a downed line.

So I basically start up the generator and plug it in. Flip off the main power switch and flip off all breakers. Flip on the breaker to the plug/generator and then flip on the breakers that I want to use. It's forced me to label my panel box better so I now know which ones turn on for my fridges/freezer and furnaces as well as the wifi

We had no city power yesterday from noon to 7pm but we had power in the house and were 72 degrees while watching Disney+ on the main tv in the family room. I paid $500 for an electician to put it in and it's been well worth the money. Being able to keep your fridges running and lights on without running cords all over the house is seriously unbelievably awesome. I almost got a whole house standby generator but balked at the $9,500 price point on those.

How big of a generator did you go with? And how often do you need to refuel?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Man, I need to do that. Nice setup.