Lost Power Last Night

[Douglas Robinson]

Just before I put the kids to bed last night we lost power. Fortunately there was enough light to read to them by. After they were in bed, my choices were limited.

It is amazing how dependent we are on electricity. It was SOOOO HOT that working in the shop without AC was not an option. But even if it had been cool it occured to me that I do not have enough hand tools to work without power. I have files and hand planes, but no hand drill, limited hand saws. This might just be a good enough excuse to buy some new toyls!

Doug

[Mike Davis]

Your shop has air conditioning?!

It was 103 in my shop Sunday afternoon. I worked anyway. Had to drink gallons of water just to keep my skin from drying up and blowing away.

[Travis Porter]

Originally Posted by Mike Davis

Your shop has air conditioning?!

It was 103 in my shop Sunday afternoon. I worked anyway. Had to drink gallons of water just to keep my skin from drying up and blowing away.

Don't all shops have central heat and air?

[Alan in Little Washington]

I was gone all weekend and left the AC off in my second story shop. I went up there yesterday evening and it was close to 100 deg. I turned on the AC, got totally sweated out, and called it quits after 5 min. It took until bed time to cool down.

[Mike Davis]

Originally Posted by Travis Porter

Don't all shops have central heat and air?

Hey, until I built my shop I worked in the barn without electricity or in the kitchen with small tools like a drill or a Dremel. I'm happy to have a place to let saw dust pile up.

But, air conditioning?!!!

[Bas]

Originally Posted by Douglas Robinson

toyls!

Now that's a great word!

[Douglas Robinson]

When we built the wall separating the shop from the rest of the garage, we made an opening of an AC/Heating unit. It is on its own 220V circuit. It cools the 22 x 12 shop down pretty fast. I just have to remember to open the garage side as the heat build up there FAST.

Doug

[Bigdog72]

SWMBO made me buy a window unit on Sunday. I love that woman!!

[scsmith42]

Originally Posted by Douglas Robinson

It is amazing how dependent we are on electricity. This might just be a good enough excuse to buy some new toyls!

Doug

Doug, if I were you the new toyls that I'd buy would be a generator! That way you can use what you already have, and be cool while you're at it (as well as keeping Mom and the little ones cool and happy...)

Scott

[McRabbet]

I must agree with Scott. We have lived in Hendersonville for 4 years and have lost power for 2 - 5 days on three occasions during that time (hurricane Ivan and two subsequent ice storms). I was en route to Grizzly in Muncy, PA with my nephew to buy tools in 2004 when Ivan hit and we didn't have any backup power. My next-door neighbor ran 250 feet of extension cord from his generator to our house to keep our freezer and refrigerator powered during that 2 day blackout (I got back in time to help many others with storm cleanup, but our power was back on). LOML 'suggested' that I buy a generator, which I did that Fall. It is not enough to run our whole house, but at 5500 continuous watts, it allows us to have our well, 2 refrigerators and an upright freezer and essential lights running 24/7. I have a plug-in setup that allows me to use critical circuits easliy and stay isolated from the grid. It ran flawlessly during a 5-day ice storm blackout a few years ago and for 2 days during a second one a years later. Another neighbor installed a full house unit that runs on propane, but it was considerably more expensive than the $600 I plunked down for mine. I get about 15 hours of run time on a 6 gallon tank of gas. IMHO, it has paid for itself twice over.

As a footnote, we had a good thunder-bumper through here last night and had two short powere flickers -- I was hoping they wouldn't last as I don't have much gasoline on hand!