Florida hurricane

[mandrix]

Oh. We're good here. Milton did nothing to us beyond a little wind and rain.
Helene was the (last) one that tore us up and damaged the house. We left and went East for that one.
Milton cut in across the state so far down it was a non event here. It did impact my Daughter in Bradenton, but they were only without power two days, and she only lost a wood fence in back. She has solar on the roof but I guess it's set up to feed the grid only. Don't understand all I know about that....

Idalia last year, Debbie and Helene this year, hit us pretty hard though, and cleanup continues.

A fellow forum member that does not live in Florida now, has family down in the general Brooksville area on the Withlacoochie River where the rising water and downed trees gave them major problems and his parents had to bail from their home.

 

[DuncanS]

And in the meantime, there are a few select individuals threatening FEMA workers in the mountains of North Carolina. 😞

https://apnews.com/article/fema-thr...rmed-militia-dbb6b5727eaa12e79f307bf38a4b6256

Sadly shows that there are some real morons in this world

 

[ar surround]

She has solar on the roof but I guess it's set up to feed the grid only. Don't understand all I know about that....

Most home solar installations are set up such that if the grid is down, the solar system is down. They are rigged this way to prevent the solar installation from back-feeding power into the grid and electrocuting linemen.

Some more sophisticated systems have a grid isolation switch which allows the homeowner to get power from the solar system without backfeeding power into the grid.

I don't know why all solar installations typically do not come with this isolation switch. My brother in law's system has one and whole house generators have them.

 

[mandrix]

Most home solar installations are set up such that if the grid is down, the solar system is down. They are rigged this way to prevent the solar installation from back-feeding power into the grid and electrocuting linemen.

Some more sophisticated systems have a grid isolation switch which allows the homeowner to get power from the solar system without backfeeding power into the grid.

I don't know why all solar installations typically do not come with this isolation switch. My brother in law's system has one and whole house generators have them.

Yes. Transfer switch.
I have a 30A plug connected to my power that I use a 10 gauge extension cord I made between the generator and the plug. I don't have a transfer switch, I just throw the main breaker so it doesn't backfeed.

I think next year I'm going to try and upgrade my generator, mine will only push 5kW steady draw, and get one that will at least do a 50A circuit so that means I'll have to get the plug/receptacle for 50A. Would love to have one to push 200A and connected to a transfer switch but that's out of my price range.

 

[mandrix]

Just texting with my kid and she said the battery installation for the solar and all attendant controllers, etc would have cost another 50K. Yikes.

 

[Sal1950]

Oh. We're good here. Milton did nothing to us beyond a little wind and rain.
Helene was the (last) one that tore us up and damaged the house. We left and went East for that one.

Glad to hear you didn't get your property tore up like Helene. I know you were still working hard to cut up all the downed trees and such.
It's been one crazy year down here.
Cheers

 

[The Bright Side]

I'm so terribly shocked and sorry about those two horrific hurricanes hitting you lovely folks in Florida.

I love you guys and I love this community, been here for over 14 years now and still check in every day. I've only ever met one of you guys in person, Simon who used to live in Montreal while I was there. But still, I feel close to you folks and coming in here feels like checking in on my homeys.

It's from that place of love that I implore the US citizens here, please, this November, vote for the party that at least recognizes climate change and does something about it. We're talking about two heavy hurricanes here and I truly wish you nothing but the best for dealing with the situation at hand. At the same time, please, let's acknowledge the overarching reality in which this is happening. Science has warned us about this for decades, and now the planet is already beyond the conditions in which the human species has been able to come into existence and thrive. Here's a fairly decent summary of where we are.

I'm really sorry to preach and I'm sure some of you will be angry at me. But we've abused and exploited the planet's resources and now they're pretty much broken. I don't know what else to say except, please, let's try to fix and preserve what we still can. And "drill baby drill" is a recipe for complete and utter global catastrophe.

Okay, I'm getting off my high horse now. Again, sorry for this, but if we keep dancing around the elephant in the room, it'll crush us.

 

[gvl_guy]

Not Florida, but North Carolina. A wonderful audio and vinyl record store was destroyed from Helene, Ken's HiFi. It was in Hendersonville NC, about a 30 minute drive for me. This is what was posted by the owner of Cherry Vintage Audio here in Greenville SC:

"After almost 40 years in business, Ken's shop was directly hit by a massive wall of water and mud. He said the water level rose to 80 inches before it subsided into two feet of mud. Thousands of records, dozens of vintage amps, receivers, turntables and speakers were destroyed. Sadly, no flood insurance either. He said he's finished, no way to continue. This was a terrible event for one of the very few vintage HiFi shops still alive in the Carolinas."

😭