I'm fine here near the stadium.
Looks like it's just the northside, but a big chunk of it. Everything north of Plymouth road up to M-14.
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RenCen employees were sent home early due to a planned power "slowdown". They put the building on the low power setting and turned off most lights and elevators. They told us to plan on the same kind of event Tuesday afternoon. No explanation for the issue though.
was this guy seen in the vicinity?
Who do you think you are, Payton Manning?
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30 minutes? I remember being on campus and not having power for three days. Great excuse to drink all your beer and grill all your steaks before it went bad.
You had steak in college? Lucky.
I was working in NYC at the time, commuting from CT... but I was fortunately on vacation in VT during the blackout. I knew many people from my town who had to find random places to sleep for the night, or walk out of Manhattan and try to find a bus/ride heading north.
Timing, as they say, is everything...
Get the whole house generator. And if you want to save some money, get a unit that will power say 50% - 60% of you house and work with your electrician and figure out which circuits/parts of the house you would really need to have power for - Furnace, kitchen, sump pump, well (if you are in the sticks), kitchen, key bedrooms, etc. A/C units I was told suck up a lot of power when they kick in, so keep that in mind.
poured the concrete, set the generator, had a buddy of mine wire it up to a separate 60 amp box and to the propane tank. uncounted times it has breezed us through no power here in the boonies this last decade +
and he's right re: HVAC, well, main kitchen outlets, and everything else is gravy - might try to get the laundry in their if you buy a big enough jenny.
will do the trick on most houses with gas and city hook ups. That will allow you to keep all your circuits on. Just maybe don't have every light, TV, and computer on in the house and you should be able to run your A/C too. That's a real affordable fix.
If you have the money you can get a natural gas or propane powered whole house auto start generator installed for starting around $10,000, depending on the house layout.
And it never occurred to me to get one just powerful enough to run the essentials. HVAC, kitchen, and living room would really be enough. I have a portable that can power the fridge and a television to keep the kids from losing their minds, but it's not strong enough to power the AC or anything more than a space heater.
We've been lucky the past couple of years though. Only one outage in the last 12 months IIRC (although that one was in Feb and it was pretty damn cold).
I plan on moving in the next year or two, so I'm not making the investment in this house, but maybe the next one.
and would tell you to get into a minimum of a 12 KW jenny, and better yet a 15-20 KW one. that is what we have done. the extra expense is minimal, and at those modestly increased sizes you really can run the whole house off of a separate swith/panel.
Go Generac 17K (depending on the size of your home) and make your home glow when everyone else is in the dark.
It is wonderful to hear it kick on 2 seconds after the power goes out and even better to walk outside and see your home lit up in a dark neighborhood.
It is the best $6K insurance policy we hold.
If I can get something for that price that powers everything, I'm sold.
years ago, and it was a lot less than $6K, all in. a quick google at lowe's or home despot gets you a price for a 16 KW generac at about $3300. it won't cost you that much to pour the concrete - you might be able to bribe me down to your place to do it, and then have an electrician do the rest.
I may work in an office, but I'm still a man FFS. I don't mess with anything electrical or plumbing related though, too much can go wrong if you don't know exactly what you're doing.
I may buy a cow from you next year though.
and broilers (meat birds) and lamb, and turkeys, and eggs. you let me know when you think you want some.
/endthread
Here's what I know - we lost one bus at Phoenix substation, so three circuits look flat at the moment. There is probably some scattered stuff throughout the north and central parts of the city too because of the load loss and the resultant attempt by some circuits to pick up the slack (not all of them are equipped to do that though). Assuming for the moment it is only the breaker and the trunk into the sub and all that checks out (they'll patrol it for safety - that fire can be ugly otherwise and let's just avoid that if we can) - maybe and hour or two. If there is some problem on either the subtransmission or distribution side, probably longer. Depends on what triggered the breaker.
....I found your lost bus....
Waaaaaay more info than I ever expected.
#MGoDifference
I miss having a Sub in my Trunk. The days of cruising through my two-stoplight town with the music so loud it shook everything... Memories.
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That was a crazy time. If I recall correctly, the beer stores were trying to unload their stock before it went warm. And we were trying to drink it quickly for the same reason. Had to drive to Saline, or maybe Brighton, to find an open Taco Bell (I was 20 - seemed like a priority).
Ha, yes. We did have a DD for that trip. It was a long one. Now that I think about it, I haven't hit a Taco Bell a few months. Probably time to fire to up the tacomobile this weekend.
Also, I seem to remember we all dressed up like the Blues Brothers for the evening. Seemed appropriate for some reason.
and other things... It was kind of a game changer for me.
Oh well, off to Disney. I will be donning my Michigan Gear
everywhere we go, cause you know... ' crutin'... :)
some idiot in a power station in ohio didn't see that a switch needed to be thrown, and down went 1/3 rd of the nation's grid?
had just stepped off of a plane at metro and declined the invitation to get on the tube/shuttle and walk to the next gate instead. good move as i would've been trapped in that shuttle for hours...
getting home was a bit 'thunder dome' like, but made it up north where the power was fine and left ohio's mistake behind...
I had a small generator (fridge, etc) & more flashlights than any human has a right to.
What was really nice though was that all the neighbors came out & hung out on their front porches, on thier lawns, and in the street.
People chatted, caught up on news, lives, etc. kids played, people shared food, water, other necessities. My neighborhood of mostly strangers felt a lot more close during that time.
I could appreciate the occasional unplanned outage just for the community service it provides.
Some awesome comments below that Scientific American story. They sure put the author in his place two years later.
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