Crazy Weather & Power Outages

[blksn8k2]

My electricity has been out since about 11:15 AM on Thursday (7/2/26). Not a huge deal due to the fact that about a year ago I installed a 14kw Generac whole house natural gas fired generator. I also have a gas well on my property so I get free gas. It's now Sunday afternoon and I just got back from spending the holiday weekend with relatives. The generator has been running nearly the entire time I was gone, although the power was on when I left here Thursday morning, and it's still running right now. Utility company says they should have the power restored by tomorrow evening (7/6) at 11 PM. I get text updates periodically from the utility company so I can tell when the power goes off or comes back on along with their restoration estimates. The generator also has wifi and can monitor itself all of which means I also get a monthly operation report via email. Besides all the normal appliances I also have a couple of chest freezers and well water (with a submersible pump) so the investment in the generator was absolutely worth the cost. Because it doesn't run on gasoline and has an automatic transfer switch I also don't have to be here to start or maintain it. It might stumble a bit when I first turn on the central AC but other than that it has run flawlessly. BTW, I had the AC off while I was gone.

[HotRunrGuy]

7 hours ago, blksn8k2 said:

My electricity has been out since about 11:15 AM on Thursday (7/2/26). Not a huge deal due to the fact that about a year ago I installed a 14kw Generac whole house natural gas fired generator. I also have a gas well on my property so I get free gas. It's now Sunday afternoon and I just got back from spending the holiday weekend with relatives. The generator has been running nearly the entire time I was gone, although the power was on when I left here Thursday morning, and it's still running right now. Utility company says they should have the power restored by tomorrow evening (7/6) at 11 PM. I get text updates periodically from the utility company so I can tell when the power goes off or comes back on along with their restoration estimates. The generator also has wifi and can monitor itself all of which means I also get a monthly operation report via email. Besides all the normal appliances I also have a couple of chest freezers and well water (with a submersible pump) so the investment in the generator was absolutely worth the cost. Because it doesn't run on gasoline and has an automatic transfer switch I also don't have to be here to start or maintain it. It might stumble a bit when I first turn on the central AC but other than that it has run flawlessly. BTW, I had the AC off while I was gone.

 

We just had a 19-hour outage, same here, I have a (most) house Generac Nat Gas generator.   I call it "most" house since I intentionally sized the unit to take care of the critical circuits, and not worry about the A/C or non-essential circuits.

 

Of course, one of my non-prepared neighbors was happy that I kept my Yamaha Inverter EF2800i portable unit, that unit kept his food and sump pump covered.

 

HRG

[fordmantpw]

We were without power about 3 hours on Saturday.  In the 12 years in this house, that is the second-longest outage ever.  The longest was about 6.  We live along a major feeder line, so we're high on the list.

 

My parents who live about 3 miles away are still out, and have been since about 2:30 on Saturday.  They've lived in the same house for over 50 years, and it's the longest they've ever been without power.  They have a portable generator, so keeping the fridges and freezers going, but thankfully the storm also brought cooler temps so it's staying cooler there.

 

It was pretty crazy here with a very isolated path of severe stuff.  They think a small tornado went through about 5 miles from us, though there were no tornado warnings.  It just popped up quickly and then the weather cleared and storms were gone.  

[fuzzymoomoo]

Lost power Friday evening with the storms that rolled through, literally right after the worst of it moved out 😒

 

got a harbor freight 6500 watt generator first thing in the morning to power 2 chest freezers, 2 refrigerators and my well pump. Had to install a makeshift transfer switch for the well because no store around had the actual equipment I needed. I’ll make it right soon once I can get the correct panel. Power came back Sunday afternoon. 

[blksn8k2]

11 hours ago, HotRunrGuy said:

 

We just had a 19-hour outage, same here, I have a (most) house Generac Nat Gas generator.   I call it "most" house since I intentionally sized the unit to take care of the critical circuits, and not worry about the A/C or non-essential circuits.

 

Of course, one of my non-prepared neighbors was happy that I kept my Yamaha Inverter EF2800i portable unit, that unit kept his food and sump pump covered.

 

HRG

 

Where I was over the weekend the outside temp reached 103°F on Thursday afternoon and about 98°F here several afternoons during the weekend. Had I been home I probably would have turned on the AC a time or two. Approaching 100 hours now without power from the utility co. Based on their online outage map I am in an area of less than one square mile that is the only spot within 15 miles of here without power. Ridiculous. 😡

 

Thankfully the outside temp is only 71°F right now so I've got windows open.

[blksn8k2]

BTW, when I installed my Generac I had one of the local dealers come out and check a couple of minor issues and he said that if it were him he would have recommended a 20kw unit for my house. His logic was that there is not enough of a price difference between a 14kw and 20kw unit to justify not going with the larger unit. From what I saw a year ago there was still a pretty significant price difference. My total cost for the 14kw unit was less than $6k. I did most of the installation myself. The only things I hired out were the heavy gage wiring between the transfer switch box and the utility company's meter box and from the transfer switch to the breaker panel in the basement which I paid $600 for the electrician's labor. I also paid a private inspector $80 to certify the installation. The remained of the cost was in materials (generator, transfer switch, wire, conduit and concrete for the mounting pad). That same dealer installed a 22kw unit for one of my neighbors after I did mine and he paid $10k installed price for his. Had I bought mine from that same dealer and had him install it I suppose I might have been a lot closer to $10k.

 

Hey, the power just came back on at 11:35 AM on 7/6/26 and the generator finally shut itself down after almost four days. Woopee! 

 

Unfortunately, there are more storms predicted for this evening so I have no doubt it will be running again before long.

Edited July 6 by blksn8k2

[Texasota]

Glad you guys were prepared. I’m fairly sure our power supplies in the USA are going to be less and less reliable in the future. This is because of the intermittent nature of renewable energy and the ever increasing demands on our power grids (data centers, EV charging etc). 
 

I want a Ford pickup with Pro Power onboard to power my essentials. This will be my future backup plan. It’s much better than a portable generator but certainly not as robust as a whole house standby generator.

[fordmantpw]

31 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Glad you guys were prepared. I’m fairly sure our power supplies in the USA are going to be less and less reliable in the future. This is because of the intermittent nature of renewable energy and the ever increasing demands on our power grids (data centers, EV charging etc). 
 

I want a Ford pickup with Pro Power onboard to power my essentials. This will be my future backup plan. It’s much better than a portable generator but certainly not as robust as a whole house standby generator.

 

How about an EREV! 

 

That's the best of both worlds...power your house, run the battery down, charge up, shut down, rinse and repeat until you're out of fuel.  

[Texasota]

16 minutes ago, fordmantpw said:

 

How about an EREV! 

 

That's the best of both worlds...power your house, run the battery down, charge up, shut down, rinse and repeat until you're out of fuel.  

Ha! When pigs fly! 😁

 

My F-100 Powerboost will be able to do the same and tow much better. 

[HotRunrGuy]

3 hours ago, blksn8k2 said:

BTW, when I installed my Generac I had one of the local dealers come out and check a couple of minor issues and he said that if it were him he would have recommended a 20kw unit for my house.

 

After installing my Generac, I became really curious about just how much power my house needs to operate. So, I bought and installed a Emporia Energy Vue 3 monitoring system, with (4) sensors. 2 are used on the mains coming into the house from the utility meter, the other 2 monitor all the circuits that are controlled by the generator sub-panel.  Below are snapshots of current (pun intended) usage, the top 2 are the mains, the bottom are what is running thru the sub-panel.  Yes, occasionally one of the sub-panel legs will jump by 6 amps when the sump pump kicks on, but that only lasts for 15 seconds or so.  In the winter, same thing for the GFA furnace.

 

I went thru the same calculations as most, adding-up all the potential loads, but the data shows that the actual, live usage is a lot less.

 

The first image is without the AC/furnace running, the 2nd is with both.  The value is amps being drawn.

 

HRG

 

 

[fordmantpw]

Part of me wants to have a full-house generator installed because it's cool and it would be nice to have.  The logical side of me says that I've been without power a total of 8 hours in the 12 years I've lived here, so it's rather pointless.  Plus, I would have to have a propane tank installed for the generator since we don't have natural gas available.

[HotRunrGuy]

48 minutes ago, fordmantpw said:

Part of me wants to have a full-house generator installed because it's cool and it would be nice to have.  The logical side of me says that I've been without power a total of 8 hours in the 12 years I've lived here, so it's rather pointless.  Plus, I would have to have a propane tank installed for the generator since we don't have natural gas available.

Obviously, everyone's situation is different, as well as their tolerance for risk.  Like I said, we went 19 hours during this latest event, others in the same subdivision went for 30 hours.  At that point, there were a lot of worried people, with food beginning to thaw, and battery back-up sump pumps starting to run out of power.  This was the result of a storm that dropped 4-5" or rain, so saturated ground became a problem for those with finished basements.

 

The kids that live next door are on vacation in Alaska. Once the power came back on, we were able to get into their house, and start the process of getting the water out of their basement.  Thankfully, they have family and a lot of friends that came over and helped out.

 

HRG

 

 

[akirby]

58 minutes ago, fordmantpw said:

Part of me wants to have a full-house generator installed because it's cool and it would be nice to have.  The logical side of me says that I've been without power a total of 8 hours in the 12 years I've lived here, so it's rather pointless.  Plus, I would have to have a propane tank installed for the generator since we don't have natural gas available.

Same. I really want one but we've only had maybe 5 outages in 8 years and 2 of those were construction related which is over.  Longest one was maybe 3 hours.  And that includes 2 ice storms which is the real danger and a tropical storm/hurricane.

[fordmantpw]

23 minutes ago, HotRunrGuy said:

Obviously, everyone's situation is different, as well as their tolerance for risk.  Like I said, we went 19 hours during this latest event, others in the same subdivision went for 30 hours.  At that point, there were a lot of worried people, with food beginning to thaw, and battery back-up sump pumps starting to run out of power.  This was the result of a storm that dropped 4-5" or rain, so saturated ground became a problem for those with finished basements.

 

The kids that live next door are on vacation in Alaska. Once the power came back on, we were able to get into their house, and start the process of getting the water out of their basement.  Thankfully, they have family and a lot of friends that came over and helped out.

 

HRG

 

 

 

My parents just got their power back after 48 hours.  They had a generator and was able to keep their fridges and freezers going.  Biggest thing is no A/C and no water (they're on a well as are we) outside of the few gallons they had available.  We don't have an issue with sump pumps here because we're all with walkout basements.  If it gets too hot, we just live in the basement where it stays about 70-75.  My parents house was 80 upstairs this afternoon when the power came back, so not too bad even though it was near 90 outside.  We've got a portable generator to keep fridge's and freezers going, but can't run our well pump, so we're limited to the 100 gallons in our water heaters.

 

Ice storms in the winter is another concern here.  That makes it harder to go get fuel for the generators, and you have to worry about pipes freezing.

[blksn8k2]

On 7/6/2026 at 2:08 PM, Texasota said:

Glad you guys were prepared. I’m fairly sure our power supplies in the USA are going to be less and less reliable in the future. This is because of the intermittent nature of renewable energy and the ever increasing demands on our power grids (data centers, EV charging etc). 
 

I want a Ford pickup with Pro Power onboard to power my essentials. This will be my future backup plan. It’s much better than a portable generator but certainly not as robust as a whole house standby generator.

My '23 F-150 Tremor has Pro Power Onboard. I only used it one time to power the freezer in my garage and that was about six months before I installed the Generac. I was not that impressed. It ran the freezer just fine but could not run that and the refrigerator in the kitchen at the same time. I don't know if the problem was the length/size of the extension cord or what but the light in the fridge wouldn't even come on. I never tried running just the fridge by itself as the power came back on before I tried.

 

The Generac is just so much more convenient and I don't even have to be there for it to take over and do its thing. I live in a rural area and my property is the last one on this circuit. Since I installed the Generac on 8/11/25 it has run a total of 107 hours. Truly one of the best investments I could have made.

 

 

Here's the Hours Protected portion of the Mobile Link report:

 

 

Edited July 9 by blksn8k2

[fordmantpw]

I would definitely have one in that scenario!

[blksn8k2]

Here's a weird scenario that I can't explain. Prior to this last power outage and after several other, shorter outages, the digital electric clock on my GE gas range started loosing time. Like 20 minutes every hour. This went on for several days. I just assumed it had taken too many power surges and was toast. Fortunately, the timer still worked fine which was actually a bigger concern. None of the other electric powered clocks in the house had any issue with keeping the correct time. I had to reset them after every power outage but that's all. What's really baffling is that while on generator power for several hours that clock started working perfectly again and has been fine even after the power came back from the utility co. Any ideas? You would think that if it were, say, a low voltage issue from the utility co that it would have shown up elsewhere at the same time.

[twintornados]

58 minutes ago, blksn8k2 said:

Here's a weird scenario that I can't explain. Prior to this last power outage and after several other, shorter outages, the digital electric clock on my GE gas range started loosing time. Like 20 minutes every hour. This went on for several days. I just assumed it had taken too many power surges and was toast. Fortunately, the timer still worked fine which was actually a bigger concern. None of the other electric powered clocks in the house had any issue with keeping the correct time. I had to reset them after every power outage but that's all. What's really baffling is that while on generator power for several hours that clock started working perfectly again and has been fine even after the power came back from the utility co. Any ideas? You would think that if it were, say, a low voltage issue from the utility co that it would have shown up elsewhere at the same time.

 

Maybe take a look over at "GE Monogram News"? 

[HotRunrGuy]

1 hour ago, blksn8k2 said:

Here's a weird scenario that I can't explain. Prior to this last power outage and after several other, shorter outages, the digital electric clock on my GE gas range started loosing time. Like 20 minutes every hour. This went on for several days. I just assumed it had taken too many power surges and was toast. Fortunately, the timer still worked fine which was actually a bigger concern. None of the other electric powered clocks in the house had any issue with keeping the correct time. I had to reset them after every power outage but that's all. What's really baffling is that while on generator power for several hours that clock started working perfectly again and has been fine even after the power came back from the utility co. Any ideas? You would think that if it were, say, a low voltage issue from the utility co that it would have shown up elsewhere at the same time.

Maybe it just needed a good ole' Ctl-Alt-Del (disconnected from power for a bit then plugged back in)?

 

HRG

[fordmantpw]

12 minutes ago, HotRunrGuy said:

Maybe it just needed a good ole' Ctl-Alt-Del (disconnected from power for a bit then plugged back in)?

 

HRG

 

As an IT guy, that's my thoughts.  That's also the first solution I give anyone when any type of electronic device isn't working!  

[akirby]

5 minutes ago, fordmantpw said:

 

As an IT guy, that's my thoughts.  That's also the first solution I give anyone when any type of electronic device isn't working!  

Because it works more often than not!

 

I saw a meme that asked why IT folks are so snippy with users sometimes.   Because I once had to drive 3 hours to plug in a server that 3 different people assured me was plugged in.

[Texasota]

3 hours ago, blksn8k2 said:

My '23 F-150 Tremor has Pro Power Onboard. I only used it one time to power the freezer in my garage and that was about six months before I installed the Generac. I was not that impressed. It ran the freezer just fine but could not run that and the refrigerator in the kitchen at the same time. I don't know if the problem was the length/size of the extension cord or what but the light in the fridge wouldn't even come on.

Do you have the 2.4 kW or 7.2 kW ProPower system?  The 2.4 system is marginal in how much it can run. Lots of information on various F-150 forums on how they have setup sub panels for their house or hooked up to the main panel to allow most things to be selected (obviously you must be careful to not overload the 7.2 kW ProPower system).

 

The ProPower system has lots of advantages over a portable system. Much quieter, very fuel efficient and much lower exhaust emissions.

[Texasota]

7 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Do you have the 2.4 kW or 7.2 kW ProPower system?  The 2.4 system is marginal in how much it can run. Lots of information on various F-150 forums on how they have setup sub panels for their house or hooked up to the main panel to allow most things to be selected (obviously you must be careful to not overload the 7.2 kW ProPower system).

 

The ProPower system has lots of advantages over a portable system. Much quieter, very fuel efficient and much lower exhaust emissions.

Here is a fantastic video on ProPower Onboard. One of the best I have found in my research:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0RKOSCdwxeQ&ra=m

[blksn8k2]

1 hour ago, Texasota said:

Do you have the 2.4 kW or 7.2 kW ProPower system?  The 2.4 system is marginal in how much it can run. Lots of information on various F-150 forums on how they have setup sub panels for their house or hooked up to the main panel to allow most things to be selected (obviously you must be careful to not overload the 7.2 kW ProPower system).

 

The ProPower system has lots of advantages over a portable system. Much quieter, very fuel efficient and much lower exhaust emissions.

 

 

Ford also used the Pro Power Onboard name as an option on trucks that were not gas/electric PowerBoost models. My truck has the 5.0L flex fuel V8 with two alternators and a power inverter that converts DC power to AC and has two 120V outlets in the bed plus 120V outlets in the cab. That system is rated at 2.0 kW.

 

The higher output systems you are referring to are actually part of the PowerBoost drive train which uses the 3.5L Ecoboost coupled with an electric motor between the gas engine and the 10-speed transmission making it a true gas/electric hybrid. That system's options are rated at either 2.4 kW or 7.2 kW. That is not how my truck is equipped.