(ET) power outages

[Daystar Energy Services <daniel laser net>]

Last week the Mid-Atlantic got a half inch coating of ice. 150,000 of my
closet friends lost power. Today, five days later, only a couple of
hundred are still in the dark. Compared to the couple of weeks of no
power last year in New England, this was small potatoes. I was one of
the lucky ones, but my number will soon come up.

With that in mind, I spent Sunday wiring a transfer switch and generator
input to power a furnace circut and the kitchen with refridgerator. My
ET's inverter output ran the kitchen circut like a champ. But when I
tried the oil furnace, the control system's relay chattered like a crazy
man. I have heard from more than one source that cheap, hardware store
generators burnt up furnace controls left and right last year in New
England. After much handringing, phone calls and trips to a bunch of
HVAC supplies, I took the chance and replaced the White-Rodgers control
with the Honeywell product. The relay clacked into place and stayed
put.  I figure that I can run at least one circut for about a day from
the ET alone, depending of course on how cold it is or how often we open
the fridge. With the cheap, hardware store genterator that I already had
to recharge the batts, maybe I can keep going. Of course, I'd have to
unplug for a while to plow the driveway.

Dan