About those flashlights

[papaof2]

Our electric co-op is currently showing 2 meters out but Georgia Power has 13,000+ out from storms that came across the northern part of the state overnight and today and are still active in the southern half of the state - and will be for a number of hours as the storm extends back to Mobile, AL and well out into the Gulf. 2500 of the outages are Atlanta and to the north. The other 10,500 are south of Atlanta with several blocks of 1000 or so meters out and a couple of 2000 meter blocks - Augusta has 2200+ meters out. The outage causes that I've checked begin with "Severe weather" but that's obvious from the weather. Some of the Expected Restoration Times are 9PM or later - hope those folks in South Georgia got fresh batteries for their flashlights after last weekend.

Me? I have lots of Duracell alkaline batteries and a good-sized box of rechargeables, plus the under-cabinet LED lights in the kitchen can be powered from the solar backup system. The Fenix E12 pocket flashlights (have several) run 40 hours on one AA cell at their lowest light level (adequate for most things) but there are higher brightness levels, including a battery-burner level that's 16 times as bright as the minimum level and the AA cell lasts an hour and a half. The metal case of the E12 does get warm if you run it at that level ;-)

[papaof2]

Georgia Power still has 4000+ outages across the state and there's a pocket of 1800+ in South Georgia with an ERT of 6PM tomorrow (24 April). The storm is still in progress down there and the damage is extensive in places. weather.com has video of a tornado near Moultrie, which is near those 1800+ outages with a "tomorrow" restoration time. Considering the damage a tornado can do, that time might be optimistic.

weather.com/news/news/2020-04-23-tornado-severe-storms-georgia-mississippi-florida-alabama

We've had 3 or 4 hits on the power (off just long enough for the lights to be off and a UPS to BEEP! once or twice and a couple of the "blips" that just get a squeak from a UPS. With no lightning or thunder, I'm guessing those are from the wind blowing tree limbs against the aerial high voltage distribution lines in the 2 miles from here to the substation. The crews were out trimming limbs in the fall but either they didn't trim enough or there's been more early spring growth than they expected.

Some of the remote-control lighting (switched outlets in the wrong places or no switched outlets in the room) have been turned on by the various hits/blips so there is a lot of electrical noise being generated - either limbs in the lines or the lines hitting together could have caused that. I almost spent $90 on a Voltage Disturbance Analyzer that watches line voltage, frequency, etc and can print out the disturbances. It can monitor AC or DC voltages and in AC mode can monitor across the split 240 coming into the breaker panel and each of the 120 legs separately. Been nice to be able to see exactly what the glitches on power were today but $90 buys a noticeable amount of groceries so that needs some thought. The device can also print limited graphs of what the "glitches" look like and one option is RS-232 serial out so if it has that option I could log it on an old laptop. The device is on Ebay so maybe try the vendor's "Make an offer" button? He can either accept or refuse and if he refuses I'll be no poorer ;-)

If I weren't so curious about nearly everything, I wouldn't have pieces of test equipment stacked on top of each other to have places for all of it...

[papaof2]

Well, Georgia Power had almost all of those outages cleared up by 9PM today (less than a dozen still out from 13,000+ yesterday). Considering the damage, they did very well.

Checking things in the house today (after the multiple hits yesterday), I discovered that one of the lightly loaded UPS units had a nearly dead battery (with the tower PC off, the load is about 5 watts so it should have been OK with that load). I don't have a battery for that unit but I do have a newer and more powerful (500 watt / 1000VA) TrippLite OMNI1000LCD UPS with a good battery - this UPS is one of a pair I found on Craig's List that just needed batteries. 20 minutes later and I've dug through the tangle of wiring under that desk to put the replacement UPS in place and tested that it works with the tower PC and 22" monitor. I usually check the Free section of Craig's List daily and occasionally find something useful within a reasonable driving distance - the 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 counties (depending on whose map you look at) of metro Atlanta cover a lot of territory and it's easily possible to find something on Craig's List that's 50+ miles one way and not worth the trip. I pretty much limit my responses on the freebies to things within this county and less than 20 miles away (depending on value). With the 12 year average gas mileage on my truck being a little over 20mpg (it's in the spreadsheet), it's easy to convert the value of a used item into gallons of gas ;-)

I'll be looking for a replacement battery for the old 250 watt APC UPS but it's not an immediate need as the other OMNI1000LCD (remember that I found two of them) is also ready to be used when needed.

Backups for my backups? Certainly ;-)

[papaof2]

With all the power glitches we've had recently, I finally broke down and bought a used Powerline Disturbance Analyzer ($50 on ebay). It's an older model but fully functional for what I want to monitor as it can use a three wire cord to a 220 outlet and monitor across the 220 line and each of the 110 lines separately. It can also be configured to monitor DC voltages such as the 12 volt battery bank for my solar backup system if I have that need. The AC monitoring includes voltage (with settable upper/lower limits), spikes, frequency (with settable variation limits, such as 0.5Hz), etc. The unit includes a printer (paper tape) that can give provide reports and do limited graphing of the glitches. If it has the RS232 option, the data could be logged to a laptop.

It's coming from Chapel Hill, TX and the initial delivery estimate was Wednesday of the coming week. This is basic FedEx so nothing really fast. Then I checked with the FedEx tracking site and it said Saturday. I'm thinking "Did they find aircraft space?" because there's no way way a truck will get it to the metro Atlanta main hub then to the secondary and tertiary hubs that eventually get things to me out here in an unincorporated area of this county as the tracking had the package near Dallas. Sunset comes on Saturday but no package and the tracking site now had "Pending" - no surprise when the package got to the metro Atlanta hub at 7:37PM. A few hours later and the tracking site says "Sunday by end of day". Again I'm thinking "not on basic delivery". Mid-day Sunday and the tracking says "Monday by end of day" and the current package location is the tertiary distribution hub that's just a few miles from us. That delivery they might actually accomplish ;-)

When it gets here, I'll plan on a trip to Lowe's to get the piece parts to add a 220 outlet in the basement (there is space for a narrow breaker in a subpanel and a dual 20 amp breaker is more than adequate).

Next time there are hits or glitches or an actual outage, I'll know all about it - I even have a spare UPS to ensure the analyzer keeps running when the power gets flakey.

[9idrr]

Let us know if your FedEx guy is in gloves, mask, goggles and Tyvek.

[papaof2]

If they do the usual "toss and run", I won't know unless I hear the truck stop out front. FedEx has typically been better than the others about ringing the doorbell when they leave something on the porch and usually sticking a delivery notice to one of the sidelights by the front door so it's visible without opening the door but no guarantees with the delivery timing seemingly planned by a totally ignorant and/or incompetent person/computer - but computers usually know which days what type of delivery service is running.

We'll see how they deliver this one.

With all the de-liver-y services running, you'd think there might be a surplus of certain meats - such as liver ;-)

$5.49/lb for ground round (85% lean) makes me think we should raise rabbits - they're mostly silent so the neighbors would never know ;-)

[9idrr]

Hell, if'n he's gonna be stoppin' by anyway, might as well order more batteries. Let the poor guy really earn his money by handtruckin' as many as you can get delivered.
My darlin' bride checks most of the flashlights and batteries every couple of weeks. Mostly AAA & AA, with several that take C & D. Even have a model of the CC Radio that'll recharge several at a time.

[papaof2]

I have no idea what the FedEx driver looks like - or the truck. Checked tracking after 5PM and it had "Delivered to front door at 1:25PM". No delivery ticket on the sidelight of the door, no knock or doorbell, no package on the porch. Noted their Customer Service phone number for later. I tried to muster the energy to run down both batteries on the 40 volt Ryobi string trimmer - the second one only had one bar on the battery meter when I stopped for the day so I almost succeeded.

Put my very green work clothes in the washer after beating the legs of the (originally blue) jeans against the brick out back a few times to get most of the grass off them. Then I ate a late supper. Then I checked the porch - one last time before calling FedEx. Package was there but not the delivery tag they stick to a door or window so the package apparently wound up at a neighbor's - don't know who as they neither knocked nor rang the doorbell when they dropped the box off. The address was correct so maybe FedEx is hiring raw recruits as the experienced drivers are calling in sick? The house number is up over the doorway in 6 inch black letters against a light background so it's readable from the road. Not sure how the driver got that delivery wrong...

Now for a shower to get the green bits out of my hair and beard and then maybe some time to play with my new "toy". It needs printer paper (the images from Ebay had one showing a printout and "PAPER LOW" is visible in that image). That will require a trip down to the basement to check my stock of thermal printer paper - this one uses 2 1/4" wide paper. If nothing else, I was given a box of 8 1/2" wide thermal paper rolls a year or two ago and I can cut those to length with a razor saw (for a reasonably clean edge). Different models of this instrument use different roll lengths (depending on the space available in the case) but typical thermal printer rolls start at 50 feet and go up from there: 50 ft, 65 ft, 85 ft, 135 ft, 150 ft, etc). I think the 8 1/2" rolls I have are 100 ft or less but I can always re-spool 2 1/4" paper as needed - just chuck a round wooden pencil in a variable speed drill and start the paper winding on it.

If I could manage the batteries and had the $$, I'd consider getting 8 or 10 200AH batteries for the backup system - well over 100lbs each battery. Even better would be a gallon can of junk silver - that much silver is heavy and probably worth somewhere in six figures. Maybe start a GoFundMe page? ;-)

[papaof2]

The power monitor almost worked - the power light turned on when I turned the switch - but nothing else. I'm now in email discussion with the vendor who did not reply to my original email about the unit not working but did reply to a negative review on Ebay. We'll see where this goes eventually...

[papaof2]

It's another flashlight event for some Georgia Power customers.

I find the power outage reports sometimes amusing and sometimes scary. An outage near Augusta (closest city most will recognize, as you probably haven't heard of Louisville or Aldreds, GA - about 45 miles SSW from Augusta) occured around 6PM. A tree took out 1098 meters and restoration time is 2AM tomorrow.

Just how big was that tree and what did it hit to cause that many outages and need 8 hours for repair?

I also find interesting little places for possible future stories. Canoochee, GA, (population 71 in 2010) is on Georgia 192 but otherwise "in the middle of nowhere" because you've probably never heard of any of the nearby towns. Nearest is Garfield (about 5 miles) with a 2010 population of 201. The area looks to be a good candidate for everyone having wells and septic tanks. Good place when SHTF? What do they grow there? In likely range of hurricane-related damage during that season (June - November)? Do they all have tornado shelters?

And you just saw how my mind (maybe my muse's mind?) sometimes works. Here's a good place for a story so what's the story? She hasn't told me yet but then there are three or four unfinished stories that the girls need to provide inspiration for me to finish with...

After 4 emails and 2 phone calls, selling the old riding mower is still all no-shows. A neighbor called to ask directions for making a desk out of plywood but I had to tell her to go look at plans on the NFPA (National Fir Plywood Association) web site because her idea wouldn't hold up - literally - as leaning against that design would have collapsed it. She asked about the old mower and I told her to have her significant other call me and I'd explain the problems and only have to explain once. He does have some nearby rental property that he does most of the maintenance on so we'll see if that goes anywhere...

[9idrr]

As much fun as your co-ops are havin', I bet generator sales in the area will increase. Unless, of course, most folks have aleady bought 'em.

[papaof2]

I have no idea what the generator sales are like but all the home centers have them and at least one of the weekly emails probably has generators listed. Maybe that's a hint about the number of gens they sell?

With the number of "solar generator" or "power box" devices available for under $300, I wonder how many people use one of those during short outages:
"Yeah, Sally, the power's out again but the little yellow box can charge my Kindle, Bobby's Gameboy, Kimmie's and my phones and run a fan so we're OK for a couple of hours. Tom said he'd stop by the barbecue place for takeout if we can't cook. If it gets up to 95 again today, Tom said we'd all go there to eat - or some other place with cool air."

As long as you remember to charge that box after every use - and don't let the kids play with it - you might be OK doing that in the short term. When it's 95 and the heat index is 104, that fan might not be adequate after a couple of hours.

[papaof2]

With this week's forecast, you might need more than one power box ;-)

Thu 94°/75° Scattered Thunderstorms 60%
Fri 93°/76° Mostly Sunny 20%
Sat 94°/76° PM Thunderstorms 40%
Sun 94°/76° Isolated Thunderstorms 30%
Mon 95°/76° Partly Cloudy 20%
Tue 95°/76° PM Thunderstorms 40%

[papaof2]

A long, damaging line of thunderstorms went across the state after 1PM and the 9:30PM status reports from Georgia Power include:

1200+ meters from a tree down in NE corner of the state

1200+ West side near stste line

450+ just South of us

1880+ just outside I-285 on the East side

A scattering of "small" outages (under 50 meters)

Most of those have no estimated restoral time. Not a good day for power in Georgia

Our co-op is showing exactly one outage. Pretty obvious from the remaining outages that some areas had much more wind and lightning than others.

[willc453]

Flashlights? Yeah, got some along with rechargeable batteries and charger. I've picked up a dozen or so from Walmart which uses 4 AAA batteries for $1 each and not only do they work, they last a long time. They also have a piece of plastic between the end of the flashlight and the metal part where the batteries go, so the flashlight isn't turned on by accident while on display. Got a couple in each of my vehicles. But also got 6 of those handcranked ones, with option of recharging your phone. But from what I've read about that part is good luck Chuck. Last year saw a flashlight that I thought I'd give a try, so I bought 2. Figured if they were crap, I wouldn't out that much money, but if they were good ones, at least I'd have a couple because who'd know how long they'd be in stock? This is the listing/price for 'em: 10000Lumen 5Mode LED Flashlight Zoomable Focus Torch Lamp $5.29 each w/free shipping. I've also got a couple of oil lamps, those that I got when Mom died and some from Walmart, along with a few bottles of lamp oil AND wicks. Lost power a couple of years ago, so no problem getting the oil lamp lit. Brother comes over to see why I had light and he didn't. He was happy to take one of the Walmart oil lamps with him. And yes, it was filled and ready to go. Power outages rarely occur in the Reno area and if they do, think the longest one has been was maybe 4 hours? Brother got in a panic a few years ago when he found out we had no water. I'd talked with the water guy a few hours earlier, but didn't say anything to brother. Yeah, like Red Skelton said more than once, I'm a mean, liddle kid at heart. He's panicking about this and did NOT like it when I told him I had LOTS of water stashed in preparation for something like this happening. Him: uuuhhh...do you think and I said yeah, you can have some. Go to the small shed and take 6 jugs so if you have to flush your toilet, you can refill it and still have a gallon of water for whatever. I'd been taking my 1 gallon jugs of Arizona ice tea and rising them out once they were empty and refilling them with water. Got about 100 gallons stashed and that's not counting those small, individual bottles of which I have 4 cases? And candles...the tea type and 8" long dinner ones from Dollar Tree. If we ever lose gas, say due to a broken pipe, got 6 of the Coleman double gas burners. And I use regular gas instead of Colemans canned fuel stuff. We used REAL regular gas on ours during Dads vacation time from the Air Force. Also 2, single burner stoves using Colemans green propane tanks and 4 of those Chinese knock offs that are a bit smaller and uses the smaller propane tanks. Keep looking at a portable generator and have watched several Youtube videos on them and also reviews on them by people at Home Depots website.

[papaof2]

I have a 1600/2000 watt Wen inverter geneartor that was just under $400. I would have posted that deal here but I saw it just before midnight and it was gone by the time my order was confirmed :-( It was advertised as running 4-6 hours on a gallon at half load (800 watts) and it's much quieter than any of the other gens (3000 watt Champion 120 volt, 5000 watt Generac 120/240 volt) but the loud and thirsty Generac has no problem running the 10" table saw.

From a lot of measuring, I know that our average hourly load (24 hour average) in "Power's out" mode is well under 800 watts (about 260 watts with the freezer) so a gallon of gas might last more than 6 hours. After all our forecast rain this week, I might run that test just to have real numbers. I should include the freezer in the gen's load. With the freezer on a Kill-A-Watt, I'll know how much power it used versus the fridge and other things on that day. I have one Kill-A-Watt type power meter with battery backup so I could see how much power the freezer has used when the gen runs out of gas and be able to compute how long the fridge and other things would have run without the freezer.

Having computed numbers in a spreadsheet is useful but having actual "running on the generator" times is even better. The spreadsheet numbers basically tell me that a gallon of gas a day would keep minimum things running and recharge the battery bank to have silent poower overnight if we had an extended period of no sun.

In two of the longer weather-related outages (12 and 16 hours) I did hear chainsaws running for downed limbs and trees but I never heard another generator running so I'd prefer to only run mine during the day with it in a place I can watch.

[papaof2]

Some background - the other electric co-op in the county almost always starts with an estimated restoration time that's 4 hours after an outage was reported: 8AM report gets noon estimated restoration.

Today they have a single outage which was reported at 7AM but the estimated restoration was 2PM. It's now 2:30PM and the estimated restoration time has moved to 10PM. There must be a story to go with that outage but I doubt that it's worth driving to the far end of the county (about 50 miles one way) to see what it is...

[papaof2]

Had three significant hits on power tonight (long beep from the UPS in that room each time) but the lights never flickered so it was a hit on the "other" side of the split 240 volt feed from the side the UPS is on. The first two were back-to-back but the second was more than a minute later. Co-op's outage page shows zero outages. I always wonder what type of problem the not-quite-an-outage is associated with... and whether it might be a story idea.

[9idrr]

Take the idea and run with it. We're always happy to have another.

[papaof2]

I've filed that idea away for future use as I have four stories in progress. My muse(s) have been prolific the last few days as I added 5700 words in just over two days (my hands still hurt) and even got some ideas while I brushed my teeth that were worthy of paper notes. I'll add the paper notes to the timeline when I get back to the story.