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Hurricane? Isiaas

pdplot

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Storm came and went quickly. Top winds around 70. My driveway is blocked by half a fallen tree, landline broke loose but cable and power lines still ok but mostly on the ground. Another half a tree is in the backyard. We only lost power for about a minute. Very unusual. Power lines around here are surrounded by tall, old trees. Pictures (for insurance company) are too big to upload. Company will not pay over $1K or $500 per tree. My landscaper is very reasonable so I'll do ok. Restoring land line may be a problem as Frontier sucks. I may have to eat the bill. I moved wife's car next to the garage and good thing I did because two large branches fell right where it had been.
 

Popeye

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Thanks for the update. A bit further East it was not too bad - mainly a lot of fallen branches.

Hope all goes well at your place.
 

DNK

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We basically got nutin
Mostly just tons of pine straw
And we could use the rain
 
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pdplot

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Our man Orlando is out there right now cutting up the tree blocking the driveway and Frontier man will be here in a half-hour to re-connect the telephone line. The lawn is still a mess of fallen leaves and branches but unlike many of our neighbors, we never lost power except for a ten-second period. A couple of tornadoes touched down but not near us. One big tree has a large heavy limb towering over our house that will have to be removed before it crashes down on our bedroom. Our house is surrounded by trees. Big old maples mostly.
 

Gliderman8

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We basically got nutin
Mostly just tons of pine straw
And we could use the rain
You are welcome to the 4-5 inches we got yesterday.
 

waltesefalcon

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Heck, it's 60 degrees here in SW Oklahoma this morning. Completely nuts for this time of year and I figure the hurricane is the prime suspect.
 
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pdplot

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Good news and bad news. Almost alone in our neighborhood, we have power. Generators running left and right of us. We don't have one. No word from Eversource as to when power might be restored. We were able to get Rhea's car out by lifting the power line high enough so the car could pass under it. She held it up with a large stick. Bad news. Phone man came - can't connect until pole holding wires from street is reset in the ground. The pole saved us from having our power lines cut by collapsing when the tree hit the lines but the phone line pulled loose and is lying under the fallen tree. He will call their construction man and who knows when he'll get here. Strange thing happened tonight. We turned on a/c and lights went dim. Surge protector "Kill-A-Watt"brand - fancy thing given to me by my brother, indicated a fault and when we went online to lok it up, it said Replace - call an electrician. I disconnected it and plugged the laptop into the wall as I don't like to run it off the battery. I'll turn the a/c on again and see what happens. Oh,oh, Lights flickered and went dim again and stayed dim. I shut off ac. Anyone know what might be wrong?
 

vette

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The AC is probably run on 240 volt. Take notice if any other 240 appliance makes the lights dim. Maybe a water heater. If any other 240 volt appliance dims the lights then it is probably a loose/bad neutral connection out on your service wire. If possible tell the power company guys when they get there to check neutral connections when they pull the wire back up.
 

Rhodyspit75

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Because the neutral only carries the unbalance between the two hot legs a 240 volt appliance will operate just fine without a neutral. During and after a storm many things happen to the grid. If I were you I would shut off the main and make do until service is restored in the area.

For all you know you could be running off a neighbor’s improperly connected generator. I suspect that this is the case.
 

vette

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Yep ur right about the ac running well on the 240. My age related member caused me to get it wrong. If the main service looses its neutral then when other things are turned on it can cause the different lights on different circuits in the house to go bright and dim. Did I get it right this time?
 
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pdplot

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Maybe I'm stupid but I have never understood the neutral wire. I'm used to car wiring with a hot wire and a ground wire. I believe our electric stove and oven are 240 - don't know about washer and dryer. Anyway, when those are switched on, nothing happens. Only the ac causes lights to dim and stay dim. I'll try it again right now. Yes - kitchen fluorescent fixture at the other end of the house dimmed and flickered. I called our ac man and apparently he's now out of business. I'll call my electrician who's very responsible. We had more storm damage than anyone else in Stamford I'm sure - and who is going to cut up the huge tree that fell across my driveway. This is a freaking nightmare and crazy because the winds never got over 70 mph - supposedly.
 

Rhodyspit75

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Try going outside and listening to you neighbor’s generator. Have someone turn on your A/C. If you hear the generator bog down then what I suspected is true. IMMEDIATELY go tell your neighbor to disconnect the generator he could kill someone working to restore power.

Yes vette, you got it right.
 
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pdplot

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How can a neighbor's generator affect me in any way while we're still hooked up to the pole? There are two insulated wires and a steel cable running into the pipe at the top of the garage, plus the Cablevision cable.
 

Rhodyspit75

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How can a neighbor's generator affect me in any way while we're still hooked up to the pole? There are two insulated wires and a steel cable running into the pipe at the top of the garage, plus the Cablevision cable.

If the generator is not properly isolated from the power coming into your neighbor’s house then it will feed back out to the utility company’s equipment. This could energize the wires coming to your house. Trust me I’ve seen all sorts of illegal generator connections.
 
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pdplot

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What you're saying is that my neighbors generator is not only powering his (big) house but running all our power appliances, etc. also? Seems hard to believe. I don't think these generators are that powerful. Ac man is coming this afternoon. I'll let him check it out.
 

Rhodyspit75

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“Good news and bad news. Almost alone in our neighborhood, we have power. Generators running left and right of us. We don't have one.“

This statement makes me think what I think. I hope your A/C guy can help you figure this out. Most generators can’t run two homes this would be why when your A/C tried to start the lights dimmed
 
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pdplot

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Amazing if true. Generators on upstream neighbor and downstream neighbor.
However - Cablevision cable also connected from pole though partially on the ground under branches and TV and wifi are still working. I guess that's possible since they are separate systems. Cable is not connected to the power grid but only carried on the pole.
 

Rhodyspit75

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I know it’s hard to understand (I can’t think of another logical reason) but did you try what I suggested turning on the A/C and listening? I just don’t want to see anyone hurt.

A little background on me. I was in the electrical industry for about 50 years and held Electrical Contractors licenses in three states until I retired.
 
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pdplot

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Not yet. I'm waiting until my ac guy gets here.
My line voltage is 117.8 measured by the fancy surge protector the "Kill -A-Watt".
 
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pdplot

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Problem solved. AC guy flushed out the compressor with high pressure hose and it cured the problem. It was drawing too many amps apparently. He measured the line from the street and it was full voltage.
 
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