Gary - ComEd

I know a guy with them and the real problem is that they have cut the help to the bone,like our place,and contract work out. The com ed garage in Crystal Lake used to be full,now you see 4 or 5 cars there.Then when something happens there's not enough to go around,and the contractors arn't sitting around waiting for com ed to call! They are out doing storm damage somewhere else.

Most of the towns I work in Pete are known in other garages as "the land of no ladders" the further north you go,more aerial.Don't forget the bigger the company the more bs you have to go thru,our mechanic had his inspection and spent 2 weeks putting up warning signs,putting up spill kits,placing caution stripes on the floor "to keep trucks away" from storage containers.No vehicles were worked on for that time! The spill kit is to keep drain oil from going down the floor drain if the tank leaks.I can't figure out how it works if no one is around when it decides to leak.

I do know Pete that with us and Com Ed you have to pass pole climbing with gafs to be employed

Power is back on when I got up this morning!!! It's amazing how dependent you become. It's also funny how conditioned you get - I found myself walking down to the basement and flipping the light switch!! Now to Sta-bil the generator.

Greg you should carry some disposable cameras with you for your side of the story. After all the ones coming after you are not the ones who wrote up the claim

Gary S wrote: Greg you should carry some disposable cameras with you for your side of the story.

never left the garage without some of these. Very good idea.

john

After the 4 day power outage the week before last and then going out and getting a generator, I decided to take the generator back up a step further. It sure isn't the whole house automatic transfer natural gas I installed up north (the Y2K scare!!!) but it's sure more convenient than having extension cords running all over the place plus having to pull the frig out from between the kitchen cabinets. The one up north, I simply pulled the meter and went to work but down here, a whole house gets very involved with permitting, inspections, licensed electricians (electric) and even a licensed plumber (gas piping). Now, I still need to be home, pull the generator out and plug it into the outside power inlet, start it and then switch each circuit manually but as mentioned, no open windows with extension cords all over.



Gary,
This last Thursday evening, we again had a storm roll through. This time it knocked out one of our buildings at work in Schiller Park. Same scenario as at my house - utility core servicing two streets (one side of each) with no access with a bucket truck. Since it was work related, I did talk at length with our ComEd rep. He told me no one is trained in his area for gaffs anymore!! The last time he saw them used was close to 3 years ago!! Ladders yes but, in this case, ComEd once again took the easy way out and called in an outside contractor. 3 broken cross arms on 3 poles and the cable that went with it were down. This repair needed to be done the old fashioned way - "come-a-longs" getting the lines back up. BTW, ComEd crews just "repaired" ALL the cross arms last fall in the area and had us shut down for a day to do the work!! Nice job ComEd!

Well,
The house is starting to get on the warm side,!! T stat is indicating 78!! I wish the generator I bought had the guts to handle at least one of my AC unit's but doing the math, it just can't handle it. I didn't even bother to wire in the transfer switch to ether of the outside compressor/condensers!! Good old ComEd is still "up in the air" with the repair time!!! What gripes me is they just passed a rate increase under the assumption that that rates will go down after they install the computerized metering system. (up to install and then down when they get rid of all their meter readers - BS!!!!!!) MG, I've had that up north for years!!! Nothing special- the meter (gas and electric) simply transmits a digital signal over the existing power lines!!!

Pete,
let me guess...your not a big fan of Communist Edison?

well, this time we lost power about 6:45 this morning. Com Ed's wonderful customer service line said some customers may not get power back for days. . Sooooo , I got the generator out tonight, and, you guessed it, drop cords all over the place.

How does that transfer switch work? must tie into the bus bar somehow? How does it disconnect the main service coming in?

Close to 900,000 without power so I guess we're lucky to get ours back last might about 9:30. Still 300,000 without this morning. That was a nasty blast that came through here. I have 2 trees down, one just fell around my tow vehicle ungulfing it but didn't put a scratch on it. Neighbors were all out cutting trees last night, I was packing the camper for Green Lake, the chain saw can wait until next week.

Steve,
No connection is needed to the breaker panel buss. The switches on each circuit are SPDT so when flipped, it disconnects you from ComEd and sources the back up. For the 240, you just use two of the switches. They come pre wired with two wires for each circuit. One goes to the selected breaker in the panel and the other is wire nutted to the removed wire. I went with the outside inlet option so I don't have to have a window open for the power cord.

That was the hardest part since we need to hard pipe in our area. I had to refresh my memory on the EMT bender offset!!

Our power was out until about 5AM. I wanted to put a bullet in the gas tank of my neighbor's generator across the street. The blowhard has to advertise to the whole neighborhood that he has a generator- puts it RIGHT in the middle of the (hard, flat, asphalt) driveway, flanked by his house and garage behind it. Runs it ALL NIGHT. It was like a jackhammer in my head all night. All other neighbors had their generators in the back yard or somewhere else and they were all inaudible.

After running an extension cord to my (other, quiet) neighbor's generator for years, it's time for us to get one. No doubt there- finally breaking down and doing it.

62 wood wrote: Pete, So you have to pre-determine which breakers your feeding the new panel into? I am also going to home fire up the generator.. Joel, some people are plain idiots...I only run it every 4 to 5 hours, a couple hours at a time. Just enough to keep the beer cold and the pizzas in feezers fozen.

Yes, the manual transfer isn't like a whole house automatic. I selected both furnaces (no AC), the frig, two kitchen circuits for the micro and stove (gas), a circuit in the garage that feeds my freezer but that also includes the garage door openers, the sump pump (and one light in the basement) and of course the family room where the computer is located.

Gary and John,
Construction must have gotten a gen set hooked up to the VRAD that services my house. This morning (3:30 am) the battery back up had evidently run out but today when I got home around noon I had service again.

Joel,
My generator is in my side yard and I intentionally pointed the exhaust away from any of my neighbors!!

As mentioned, I wasn't able to find the back up generator of choice 2 weeks ago - pickings were slim and I'm sure the same holds true now. I ended up with a Briggs but would have easily spent the extra for a Honda inverter. Here's my question - this thing is going to need an oil change. Are these Briggs OHC's roller's or like the old ones flat tappets? I have plenty of VR1 around!! The manual is useless!!!

Steve,
To fill you in a little bit more on the transfer switch, I did do some online checking/searching/pricing. Being a Northern customer for many years, I was very familiar with them handling them but. I ended up with
Generators Direct.
Their pricing was just slightly better than Northern Tool but what really surprised me is they are in Racine (WS.) and real close to the Reliance OEM. Maybe even the same company?? You never know at times with the internet!! But, I did the online order and had the switch the next day. Not saying you'll get the same service considering you're location way out there in the "sticks"!!

BTW, if you really want to see if Pam will "approve" the purchase, look into the whole house and an automatic transfer switch like I did on the house up north. We can talk at GL because I have some good info on them as well.

Pete,
Power is back on! Mannn, I love Com Ed!

My generator is a 5700 watt unit. Would have to look up surge capacity,etc. I mainly got it for instances like the last few days and overall it worked good. just gotta get rid of the drop cords...

I have also condsidered a double throw main disconnect at the pole where power is split to the house and out buildings. I could control any circuit I want by using the main house breaker box.