Digital power meter

[f6john]

Walked past my electric meter this morning and it was changing so fast I thought it was the National Debt Clock!

[Jess from VA]

Mine too John.

Years ago, my (aerial wire) neighborhood routinely lost power (like every time it rained or even drizzled) (hours to days).

I thank goodness that stopped long ago; loss of power now would be a nightmare, even though I have a big whole house generator all set up to back-feed my power box.  It's something I'm glad to have, but never want to use.  Just like my Remy 870 riot guns.   

[scooperhsd]

Jess - I get you on that - 5KW generator (on propane), house wired to use it, hope I never have to...

[carolinarider09]

They (the small town in which I now live) installed new remote read meters earlier this year.

They also allow remote shutdown of the meter should you not pay your bill on time.  Don't know how it works  but the implication in the letter was that it would just happen, no warning. 

The small town in which I live also has its own power distribution "system".  Power is supplied from Duke Power.  But the power distribution is owned and maintained by the town with their own workers.  And they don't really do a lot of "power line clearing".

So, when we first moved in, we had several power outages each year.  Some just an hour, some four or five hours. 

I had wired the house to allow me to connect an external generator but, given the number of outages, the wife and I decided to install a permanent backup power system.  It's a 20KW Kohler system running on natural gas. 

As of yesterday, the system has over 160 hours of run time. 

The unit ran four days during the hurricane Helene event (we were on the road for three of those days). 

The unit ran this past weekend for 24 hours due to a bad transformer and a tree on the power lines whose access was blocked by a train that was just left there by CSX. 

In the last case, it was cold outside and we would have not been able to stay home (even though we do have a backup heating system, fireplace.  And we would have probably lost all the stuff in our refrigerator. 

So, at least in our case, the backup, permanently installed and connected whole house generator was a very good choice.  I would do it again. 

[Rams]

I had backup generator options with my last home, when the house was "expanded", I had that option wired in.   I chose to use a PTO powered generator, if needed it would take me about five minutes to get that electricity up and running.  

Most folks wouldn't choose that option but I did because the PTO generator was so much cheaper to buy and not all that much more to operate.   My Kubota can easily drive that generator.  But, as I age and all those wearing joints in my body give me more issues, I wouldn't go that route now.

Considering buying and having a backup generator and even though I have natural gas available, I'm pretty sure I'd rather go with Propane.   The reason is, we are on the same power grid and the gas provider so, if the electricity goes out at my home, it's likely to be out at the provider also.   This may be very weak reasoning but, that's the way I'm leaning.   A buried 250 to 500 gallons tank would last a very long time because that propane would only power the generator.   Unlike gas or diesel, propane can be stored for a very long time.

The other reason is due to the cost of having a gas line run either around or through the house is damn expensive.   Upon buying our home, the head cook and bottle washer wanted her gas stove top/electric double oven installed but, the house was only wired for an electric stove.   So, I went out and got quotes for adding that option.   The quoted costs of just getting that line installed was almost as much as the cost of buying a backup generator and that just didn't make sense to me.   Finally found a plumber willing to do it for much less and that has worked out well.   I was reared with all propane homes so, I feel comfortable with propane.

Rams