Scotty - Switch In The Auxilliary Power!
Thursday, 23 August 2007 13:48A Night Of Storms
Big thunderstorms ripped through West Michigan last night. Nothing like the hurricanes ripping through Mexico or the worst of the hurricane remnants torturing those from Oklahoma to Ohio in the last few days. But Big Bad Storms and lots of wild lightning.
And it is hot and humid.
Which brings us to...
8:30pm
Power flickers. Once, twice. Down.
... two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine...
Lights back on. The Kohler 12kW 12RES generator comes on automatically. First Real World test with flying colors. AC, dehumidifier downstairs, refrigerator, freezer, lights, fans, TV -- all restored. Cable is still working, so we go back to watching Keith Olbermann's Countdown on MSNBC, then some Mythbusters and then Top Chef 3 on Bravo. All while the entire region is quite dark outside. Except for our little oasis of lights and our neighbor, who has a small portable generator.
Cats don't even know that anything is going on. Mrs. Dr. Phil able to go to sleep in a comfortable, cool, dry bedroom.
At 1:14am, I am sitting at the main computer, typing under the light of my Tensor work light with some World Poker Tour on low on the TV -- and it's a perfectly ordinary night for me. Except we've got this new toy outside happily purring away. Very cool.
2:40am
Heading to bed. One last check in the garage to look at the transfer switch panel. Oh. Two greens instead of two reds. The power is back on in the neighborhood. The transfer switch switched us over six minutes after determining the power was really going to stay up. The generator ran for another six minutes to cool down, then shut itself off. All automatically. All without me even knowing that it'd happened.
I said the other day that this can't solve all problems, but you cannot imagine how happy I am.
I suppose tomorrow I'll write the check and pay for the bill for the generator, which just arrived in the mail. (double-entry-grin)
Dr. Phil
Big thunderstorms ripped through West Michigan last night. Nothing like the hurricanes ripping through Mexico or the worst of the hurricane remnants torturing those from Oklahoma to Ohio in the last few days. But Big Bad Storms and lots of wild lightning.
And it is hot and humid.
Which brings us to...
8:30pm
Power flickers. Once, twice. Down.
... two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine...
Lights back on. The Kohler 12kW 12RES generator comes on automatically. First Real World test with flying colors. AC, dehumidifier downstairs, refrigerator, freezer, lights, fans, TV -- all restored. Cable is still working, so we go back to watching Keith Olbermann's Countdown on MSNBC, then some Mythbusters and then Top Chef 3 on Bravo. All while the entire region is quite dark outside. Except for our little oasis of lights and our neighbor, who has a small portable generator.
Cats don't even know that anything is going on. Mrs. Dr. Phil able to go to sleep in a comfortable, cool, dry bedroom.
At 1:14am, I am sitting at the main computer, typing under the light of my Tensor work light with some World Poker Tour on low on the TV -- and it's a perfectly ordinary night for me. Except we've got this new toy outside happily purring away. Very cool.
2:40am
Heading to bed. One last check in the garage to look at the transfer switch panel. Oh. Two greens instead of two reds. The power is back on in the neighborhood. The transfer switch switched us over six minutes after determining the power was really going to stay up. The generator ran for another six minutes to cool down, then shut itself off. All automatically. All without me even knowing that it'd happened.
I said the other day that this can't solve all problems, but you cannot imagine how happy I am.
I suppose tomorrow I'll write the check and pay for the bill for the generator, which just arrived in the mail. (double-entry-grin)
Dr. Phil