Please stay safe when using portable generators

[billb]

We got hammered with snow but all is well because this time we did not lose power,,although others close by did,Some households use generators that use gasoline to power up their homes,but a common mistake is they are placed on a porch or close to the house because of short cords,I personally know a family that had theirs running close by their house and the wind blew the exhaust up into the eves and into the house where they sustained serious carbon monoxide poisoning,,please stay safe

 

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[Megalodon]

Good timely warning. Add "check batteries in carbon monoxide alarms". Many of the smoke alarms combine a carbon monoxide alarm. The one a few feet away from me is by Kidde, a common and inexpensive hardware store model.

 

[billb]

Megalodon,,thanks for your reply and also for the privilege of your time,,Well said,,yes it’s easy with all the crisis we are facing today to forget to change batteries,we changed all the other day and also tested,take care and HH

 

[Gare]

Do not forget to disconnect from the main outside to your home power line. You do not want to feed the outside lines you could really injure a line worker

 

[billb]

Gare hi thanks for your reply and also for the privilege of your time,,in my little town here where we have no red lights or schools we used to lose power often,,but improvements were done to remedy that,,but with all the improvements Mother Nature always has the power to knock down trees which knock down power lines,,now since hearing of my friends experience with generators I am just afraid of getting one,Yes for those who want or have a generator have it professionally installed and operate it with caution,,,I love the picture of the horse for some reason it reminds of the LoneRanger and Tonto

 

[Irishgoldhound]

billb: You guys down in NY sure got dumped on. I watched a few vids on YouTube and some places down there got over 3 feet. It reminded me of our snow storm here in Manitoba of 1986. We had snowmobiles driving down our freeways to grocery stores and shuttling nurses to work on them. I guess NY will have their white Christmas.

 

[billb]

Irishgoldhound,,thanks again for stopping and sharing the major major snow storm in Manitoba back in 1986,I will surely look for it ,,this holiday season so far is a very tough one for me as my brother passed away a couple days ago,,
Take care and hope your new scoop is in the mail,

 

[bartholomewroberts]

Do not forget to disconnect from the main outside to your home power line. You do not want to feed the outside lines you could really injure a line worker

That is why we have a transfer switch on our generator.. Makes it pretty much impossible to backfeed

Micheal

 

[billb]

Bartholomewroberts hi thank you for stopping and also for the privilege of your time,,Yes indeed having that switch seems to be very important,I don’t have a generator mainly do what happened to my friends and there were numerous times where when we lost power I had to throw out everything In the fridge and freezer after losing power for a week,,Please continue to use caution when it’s running because in a few months we can continue to search for that elusive pot of gold. Stay safe

 

[fistfulladirt]

We got hammered with snow but all is well because this time we did not lose power,,although others close by did,Some households use generators that use gasoline to power up their homes,but a common mistake is they are placed on a porch or close to the house because of short cords,I personally know a family that had theirs running close by their house and the wind blew the exhaust up into the eves and into the house where they sustained serious carbon monoxide poisoning,,please stay safe

I understand a porch is also a bad spot because you want a portable to have a good ground thru the frame. I know some that think it’s a wise choice to hit the shut off switch with a fiberglass rod just in case.

 

[billb]

fistfulladirt,,,hi thank you for stopping and also for the privilege of your time,,Very good point well said on the generators should be grounded,For me it’s a double edge sword,one side of me says I should get one as most people around me have,and the other side of me reminds me of my friends bad experience,Take care

 

[SD51]

Wanted to add that smoke detectors have a useful life of about 10 years, so change them out if yours are that old.

 

[Megalodon]

Wanted to add that smoke detectors have a useful life of about 10 years, so change them out if yours are that old.

That's also a good opportunity to replace the old ones with new dual smoke + carbon monoxide alarms.

 

[fistfulladirt]

That's also a good opportunity to replace the old ones with new dual smoke + carbon monoxide alarms.

Good idea, although not all homes will need the dual type.

 

[billb]

SD51..wow great catch,I better get ready for the annual Stripe bass spawning run up here,,the last time out I had spent a lot of money on a new rod and reel placed a live herring on made a nice cast and without tying the rod to a tree I heard a noise and watched it fly thru the air so fast and when it hit the water the eyes in the rod produced bubbles,Yes so true changing batteries or getting new kits are so so important,one day the time to replace battery in the detector started chirping the local hardware store was closed so I called the owner at his house and he drove down to open the store for me and he gave me the batteries and told me no charge

 

[billb]

To all who stopped here thanks again, Its very easy to forget about the things like not changing batteries etc.as we always read about what should have been done,For me on the side of caution I replace batteries every time change,,take care

 

[RustyGold]

Great post Bill and a timely tip. Thanks for the positive effort. Good luck!

 

[boogeyman]

I understand a porch is also a bad spot because you want a portable to have a good ground thru the frame. I know some that think it’s a wise choice to hit the shut off switch with a fiberglass rod just in case.

I have a 25' length of 8 gauge wire that stays with the generator attached to the provided lug. the ground rod is only 4', but it's better than nothing. It's always there so my feeble mind doesn't forget to take it with. Something a couple friends didn't think about, you're handling 110v xxx amps, it ain't no car battery.

 

[billb]

boogeyman,,Hi thanks for your reply and for the privilege of your time,,Yes this is super dangerous and has to be handled with extreme caution,,I’ve have seen Mother Nature at its worst here and I’m still afraid to get one after what happened to that family, please take care and get ready for big gold coming your way

 

[pepperj]

Not all generators and homes are created equal.
There's a few things that just scream safety, the fact the generator and the proximity of the house is one.
If the carbon dioxide was sucked up into the attic section of the home, then contaminating the living space-then there's something wrong.
The attic should have 1sq.ft of vent for every 150sq.ft of area. The ceilings of the house should be sealed for many reasons the big ones are as stated carbon dioxide, moisture escaping into the attic creates mold and usually it's black molds.
Bathroom vents that leak ventilate the moisture straight into the attic, then the insulation, and plywood get contaminated.

So basic common sense comes into play when using a fossil fuel device near a home.
1st. Is the home air tight-this includes windows and doors.
2nd. Is the back up power source fused, the right connection device as a Generlink on the mast or at the meter base (as we do).
3rd. When using a generator is the supply line big enough to supply a continual supply of power. High load of power using an undersized cord creates heat-under the right conditions it can cause a fire.
4th. Consult a knowledgable person that can provide the answers that one is concerned about.
5th. It comes down to money-and that is the deciding factor for many people.

Back up stand alone generator with properly installed switches are totally safe-up to code. (that is if the #1 is)
Now these can run the home owner a fare chunk of $$$ our last quote was nearing $14K plus/plus.
So I have opted for a 12kw diesel on a trailer to run my shop-then if there's a major outage I can bring it over to the house and place it a 100ft away. (power cord #6/4 Cabtire cord).
this will hook into the Generlink on the meter base-which is approved by the electrical authority.

Just because a person did this or that and got hurt-doesn't mean you will. One should look at all the factors in why they got hurt and it usually comes down to human error in most cases.

Electricity is invisible and many for get that it can kill you-so can many other things. But totally safe when handled properly.
Though money does decide on the level of safety as many will use the "Can't afford to do that"
But in the meantime there is money to do all sorts of things that is wasted basically-it just comes down what is one's priorities in life-simple as that.