Buy a Generator #2
I did get a comment or two from people who didn’t think the investment for a generator was valid. Well, if you go without power for more than 24 hours I bet you will change your mind. Walking through the house by candlelight was cool, different, and mellow, and a welcomed change. However, finding my fish and other frozen goods thawed and ruined was a big bummer. And not being able to work from home, charge my phone, go in the spa, play my guitar, and keep the beer cold was the last straw.
Our situation began on Tuesday August 7th, 2007 when Via Lorado started experiencing a brown out – this means that there was about half power and some lights would work. Other appliances that required more power wouldn’t, for example, some TV’s, microwave, spa equipment, router and computer. Tuesday night our block went to black out – no power!
Our block Via Lorado and Via Marie Celeste had no power all day Wednesday and I am not sure if other blocks were affected too. On Thursday August 9th a total of 7 generators were delivered to our neighborhood. I was told that each generator can power about 10 homes. Surrounding streets Via Victoria and parts of Via Rivera were affected too. The generator can successfully distribute power to the block and all appliances and equipment can run normally. However, they are pretty loud, you can smell the diesel fumes, and it gives me an uneasy feeling that our block is running off a generator, furthermore, I expect another outage. And sure enough, Saturday morning, August 11th our power was off again. This time it was only about 10 homes as our local generator oil pump failed and the unit needed to be replaced. It was a bummer that the replacement was about twice as loud as the last one, I can hear it all night, but we do have power :)
I did get a comment or two from people who didn’t think the investment for a generator was valid. Well, if you go without power for more than 24 hours I bet you will change your mind. Walking through the house by candlelight was cool, different, and mellow, and a welcomed change. However, finding my fish and other frozen goods thawed and ruined was a big bummer. And not being able to work from home, charge my phone, go in the spa, play my guitar, and keep the beer cold was the last straw.
Our situation began on Tuesday August 7th, 2007 when Via Lorado started experiencing a brown out – this means that there was about half power and some lights would work. Other appliances that required more power wouldn’t, for example, some TV’s, microwave, spa equipment, router and computer. Tuesday night our block went to black out – no power!
Our block Via Lorado and Via Marie Celeste had no power all day Wednesday and I am not sure if other blocks were affected too. On Thursday August 9th a total of 7 generators were delivered to our neighborhood. I was told that each generator can power about 10 homes. Surrounding streets Via Victoria and parts of Via Rivera were affected too. The generator can successfully distribute power to the block and all appliances and equipment can run normally. However, they are pretty loud, you can smell the diesel fumes, and it gives me an uneasy feeling that our block is running off a generator, furthermore, I expect another outage. And sure enough, Saturday morning, August 11th our power was off again. This time it was only about 10 homes as our local generator oil pump failed and the unit needed to be replaced. It was a bummer that the replacement was about twice as loud as the last one, I can hear it all night, but we do have power :)
I did go to home depot and buy a 5000 watt generator for $599. It runs on gas and can supply power for almost 11 hours if running at 50%. A standard refrigerator runs on about 500 watts, so I can run several appliances and still be under 50%. I told my neighbor who had lost a bunch of food in the last outage that I have an extension cord that would reach their house to at least save the frozen items.
What bothers me is the lack of attention from our local power company. Why haven’t they told us the problem or when it will be fixed. With today’s technology you would think they would set up some sort of information system to help the neighborhood understand what is going on. Well, I did..
http://palosverdeslife.blogspot.com/
or go to http://www.thepvlife.com/
I hope that my neighbors can come to this site to gather current information, share information, and also grieve or advocate their feelings on this issue. I have heard that these generators will be our power source for the next four weeks – and that the power company does not know what the problem is. Maybe we can gain enough attention to be properly notified.
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