how many generator deaths during this storm?

buickanddeere · Dec 21, 2008

I wonder how many people will kill themselves with tinkerer connected generators during this storm?
Instead of a proper transfer switch and locating the generator down wind and away from the building.
They will either locate the generator in the garage, carport or basement and run extension cords through open doors or windows.Or in order to get the cords to reach, locate the generator on the upwind side of the house close to the door or window.
Now the wind or a shift in wind direction lets carbon monoxide into the house.
Re-fueling hot or running generators is a popular hazardous pastime as well. POOOOOF and the fire department can't get there for lack of visibility, blocked roads and lack of water/frozen equipment.

T_Bone · Dec 21, 2008

Hi B&D,

I just read a story Friday about a fish company in Seattle that had 26 people overtaken by CO.

They shut there overhead doors and still used there forklifts inside too move product around.

So it's not only the homeowners that take the stupid pill during the winter.

T_Bone

buickanddeere · Dec 21, 2008

Lets add deaths from tinkered alternate home heating too.

John730D · Dec 21, 2008

Got mine outside the garage with cord running under door. Hooked up to a transfer switch up to code. Genset is about 10 feet from door and we have winds of 15 mph. Think we will be OK.

Donnie Baker · Dec 21, 2008

I wonder how many people here get sick and tired of your holier than thou attitude? Apparently you have never had to struggle to get by, did your Mommy and Daddy give you everything on a silver platter? It would sure seem that someone that has the world by the nuts would have a better attitude than you exhibit. For what is worth if you were on fire I wouldn't even whiz on you to put it out

Fancy Farm · Dec 21, 2008

I bet there will be a lot less deths from generators than there will be from wood stoves.

ericlb · Dec 21, 2008

well i guess i won't kill myself with this, i dont even fool with the house electric system, i run the cord into the house from the generator, it has multi plug ins on it, and then plug in only essentials directly to it, the frige, a heater, and 1 or 2 lites, we get by fine, the few times ive had to use it, i should mention before i get chewed on by self apointed safety police that the mulit end cord came with the generator and is specificly designed for this use it also came with the instruction manuel on how to use it as well as my generator has a digital amp usage gauge so its easy to monitor how much draw im puting on it,with the above, we've never even come close to maxing it out, if we need to plug in more its a trade off with the fridge

buickanddeere · Dec 21, 2008

One of those came with my Generac. Handy item. Can't trip or damage the generator by plugging one of anything 15A rated into the four 15A U-Ground receptacles.

buickanddeere · Dec 21, 2008

Actually grew up on a small mixed farm. Always had lots to eat that's to the garden and livestock. Hand me down and rumage sale clothes. No pop in the fridge, no motorcycle, no snowmobile. Rare to have treats like potato chips. Clothes were Christmas gifts and a box of oranges. Pulled weeds in fields by hand. No stable cleaner, just a shovel and mono-rail litter carrier. Black and white YV even though colour was out there. Three TV channels, two were identical and were government channels. No stereo or records allowed unless they were church music. Sound Track from the "Sound of Music" movie. A trip was down to Niagara after getting up early to do chores. Picking peaches and getting home late to do chores. Then spending the next couple of days canning peaches. Baling hay and straw stacking on the wagon behind the baler, then unloading hay from the wagon or stacking up in the hay mow. Hot and dusty under that steel roof heated by the sun.
Grew up realizing doing things hazardous, backhanded, half backed solutions Did not make people more noble or heroic. Just dangerous and in the long term more time consuming and expensive.
I suppose you are sitting there drinking beer, eating kraft dinner, warmed by the BBQ and running a generator back fed through a welding receptacle. No plug on the cable, just wires stuck into the plugs likely too.

Jim H SW-PA · Dec 21, 2008

Lets not get your shorts in a bunch.
Lots of good intelligent, free advice has been given for your and my safety

You or I haven't the training or knowledge that some on this forum have payed a great amount to learn, and are only trying to explain something as simple as they can to us dummy's, although their answers get too technical at times to understand by by us unqualified people,they are telling [us] for our own safety that it is better to have a professional to keep you from hurting your self or burning the house down.

I know that house wiring has come a long way since the old 2 wire with the fence insulators in the attic. And it has been these men that learned the trade to let you sleep in confidence.

People like me that don't know the difference between a watt or a volt or a diode,etc. If I ask a question,and get a response that dazzles me I feel it is best to get someone that knows what he is doing.--not criticize him for being correct.

I see no one criticizing you , or I for being stupid , they are here to help.

bill mart · Dec 21, 2008

All these homes a mile from the road don't help the fire departments much either.Around here the main cause of death from generators is C.O. poisoning.

Leroy · Dec 21, 2008

So far this year we haven't had the storms yet but it sounds like 75 mile away they have got the power outages. In 2005 my 80+ uncle was one of those killed with a generator setting in garage with open south door and cord running in thru house door with wind from south. Found him setting in bathroom. The other 2 from this county killed in that storm had their generator put in basement and all properly hooked up into the chimney to vent and would have all been good if something had not fallen over top of chimney and iced the chimney shut. Couple of days ago about an 1/8" of ice and couple of times so far about an inch of snow. Today is coldest day of the winter with strong winds. Northwest Ohio

cArNaGe · Dec 21, 2008

Those are tragedy's Leroy. Family died in my area two years ago from a generator in the garage. Grandma, Grandpa and the two grandchildren that were staying the weekend.

[b:e92e652fa2]Every Home[/b:e92e652fa2] should have at least one operating CO detector. I feel they are just as important as a smoke detector. I heat my home with coal and have 3 CO detectors and 8 smoke detectors. (wife is paranoid)

BobReeves · Dec 21, 2008

Last year about this time Oklahoma was hit with an ice storm, several without power for weeks. I couldn't believe the number of reported CO2 deaths from generators.

Ours was out for 3 days guess my hook-up would be classed as an informed tinkerer connected generator. Our main breaker panel in on a pole 60 feet from the house, flipped the main and back fed through a 50 amp breaker. Ya I know.... But when it's 12 degrees, you have an inch of ice to walk on and no heat in the house you do what you have to in the shortest amount of time.

Traditional Farmer · Dec 21, 2008

No substitute for common sense of course the herd needs a little thinning now and again anyway.With the sheltered way most people are raised these days can't expect them to have much real world expertise

T_Bone · Dec 21, 2008

Hi B&D,

Don't let D Baker get under your skin. He rarely has anything to say on here other than to complain about his boss or bust someone's nutz and very seldom contributes to the tractor community in the 1-1/2yrs of his posts that I looked up.

Just another blow hard wannabe shoot'n his mouth off.

T_Bone

farmer boy · Dec 21, 2008

You would think people have enough brains to not take a chance and put the generator in the garage. Spend $200 on a heavy gauge 100' extension and run it to the house on a power bar and run the essentials or get a proper transfer switch and still put the generator away from the house.Don't mess with stuff that can kill you.

John B. · Dec 21, 2008

Seems like you're the only one with an attitude at this time!!!!!

Anonymous-0 · Dec 21, 2008

Due to a failure in the exhaust (that was the story in the paper...)

Templeton, MA sent six firefighters & auxiliaries to the hospital with CO. Had to be real high -- they found one FF passed out outside, and this was during the day. Auxiliaries were preparing food for the guys out working the ice storm recovery.

S.Crum · Dec 21, 2008

I've heard alot of horror stories over the years about CO deaths, burn't down houses and electrocuted linemen. So I'm not taking chances. I restored a Hobart G-3010 300 amp welder with a 10Kw onboard alternator. So I would have a mobile welder and back up power if needed. I didn't take any chances in the house. I pulled all the critical circuits out of the main entrance panel and wired them into a separate sub panel. The sub-panel is supplied via a manual transfer switch fed from either the main entrance panel or the generator set. The power line from the generator locates the generator about 75' to the south of the house in the open yard. The wind passes thru here primarily from the north. Told Mama today that I need to pull the gen set up and plug it in then test run the system before we really need it. The welder welds real nice and the generator puts out a clean 240 volts.

Aaron Ford · Dec 21, 2008

Heck, I'll be there 30 minutes ahead of the fire department. I'll be wearing a flaming jacket, no shoes, with a scorched dryer backfeed wire in my hand.

I readily admit that I commit most, if not all the offenses listed here. Thanks for the reminder and heads up. Sometimes I forget the hazards that I am dealing with.

Oh wait, after that receptacle was replaced, I did not update the backfeed cord. Guess its gonna be dark here til I get that ironed out....

I did think to get all my cordless tool batteries charged up so I can have that one little flourescent wonder at hand.

Gonna need some 10/3 w/G.

Aaron

buickanddeere · Dec 21, 2008

Looks good.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 22, 2008

People gas them selves by running cars in attached garages.Town has an ordinance that says doors between the house and garage must be fire rated and have a hydraulic door closer.When I did code enforcement. people argued with this big time ,didnt want to spend the money to be safe.I had to sign a form before they could get electric power connected.I told them to call me when the door and closer was in place.I expect Dufus would run the generator cord thru the door and let the gas in any way.One problem with CO is this,when you do feel its effects you are close to collapse and wont even be able to get outside.

Davidj · Dec 22, 2008

(quoted from post at 12:47:32 12/21/08) I wonder how many people here get sick and tired of your holier than thou attitude? Apparently you have never had to struggle to get by, did your Mommy and Daddy give you everything on a silver platter? It would sure seem that someone that has the world by the nuts would have a better attitude than you exhibit. For what is worth if you were on fire I wouldn't even whiz on you to put it out

Peace be with us

Anonymous-0 · Dec 22, 2008

Fellow in MA died when an ice laden tree fell on him.Neighbor had a big willow split and fall on his car.Loaded with ice.I had been hauling wood past a neighbors house last month for several days.I noticed a big tree in his yard looked bad.Meant to stop in and talk to him about it. too busy getting my sawed wood out.Wind storm took the tree down, knocked the corner off his garage,broke a window in his house and broke some trim.I am more afraid of trees than carbon monoxide.

onefarmer · Dec 22, 2008

I'm not going to get gassed. My generator is out in my 3 sided shed, 100+ yards from the house, just waiting to be plugged in and started. Buickanddeere won't like my set up as I back feed the system and don't use a transfer switch. I just shut the main off so I don't backfeed the grid, shut off all the breakers I can find and go set the generator running. Then come back and reset the breakers for the necessary units. Freezer, some lights, fridge..... No one in the house will touch any of this and the farm is a centennial so I'm not worried about the next owner.

buickanddeere · Dec 22, 2008

Not me you have to worry about.
Depends how lucky you feel about an open grounding system somewhere. Tingle voltage shocking your live stock. Or begging your insurance agent to pay the claim for damages, loss, injury, liable and/or wrongful death.
You are on your own. Brilliant, quick, resourceful, an expert in electricity and have never made a mistake.

how many generator deaths during this storm?

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