Had a strong thunderstorm followed by a freak windstorm on Friday. Guess that's the price to pay for several days of 70+ degree temps in late Feb/early March. I think the jury is still out on max recorded wind speed (I heard 70mph+), but it was enough to split healthy trees apart that lined my driveway.
Power went out around 2:30pm Friday, didn't get it back until early Monday morning.
Hooked my Westinghouse 2500W inverter generator up with extension cords for the first night. Lots of strung cords, not ideal, but not unsafe either. With the kitchen fridge and two chest freezers running, I didn't see over 800W sustained load at any time. Plugged my computer, internet router, stuff to get Wi-Fi working, and also the entertainment center in the living room (TV, sound system, etc.) Saw about 1000W sustained loan with all those things, of course higher momentary peak load when the fridge or a freezer kicked on. Didn't miss a beat and ran through a little less than two gallons of gas with that unit in about 24 hours.
After making a trip through the neighborhood the following morning it was clear we'd be without power for a while and house was getting cold. I hooked my Westinghouse 9500DF to the manual transfer switch and ran the whole house and shop off that. Was good for a single 30A 240V appliance (water heater, heat pump, clothes dryer, etc.) while leaving all 120V circuits on. Ate through two 20# BBQ grill sized propane tanks and about 15 gallons of gas the last two days using the bigger generator. But all in all I'm pretty pleased with the performance and glad I have these things around, even though they don't get used much. Saved me several hundred dollars in food at the very least.
Power went out around 2:30pm Friday, didn't get it back until early Monday morning.
Hooked my Westinghouse 2500W inverter generator up with extension cords for the first night. Lots of strung cords, not ideal, but not unsafe either. With the kitchen fridge and two chest freezers running, I didn't see over 800W sustained load at any time. Plugged my computer, internet router, stuff to get Wi-Fi working, and also the entertainment center in the living room (TV, sound system, etc.) Saw about 1000W sustained loan with all those things, of course higher momentary peak load when the fridge or a freezer kicked on. Didn't miss a beat and ran through a little less than two gallons of gas with that unit in about 24 hours.
After making a trip through the neighborhood the following morning it was clear we'd be without power for a while and house was getting cold. I hooked my Westinghouse 9500DF to the manual transfer switch and ran the whole house and shop off that. Was good for a single 30A 240V appliance (water heater, heat pump, clothes dryer, etc.) while leaving all 120V circuits on. Ate through two 20# BBQ grill sized propane tanks and about 15 gallons of gas the last two days using the bigger generator. But all in all I'm pretty pleased with the performance and glad I have these things around, even though they don't get used much. Saved me several hundred dollars in food at the very least.