We had hail briefly from a passing thunderstorm this morning. First and only time I have seen frozen precipitation in twenty years living at sea level in Lala land.....

It's overcast up here in the mountains and warmed to 39.

No snow over night, still an inch or so on the ground.

According to the Acuweather radar SD is under a heavy (color code orange) weather cell. Judging by the level of water in the back yard and inability of the drains to keep up with the downpour, I'd say teh radar map is pretty accurate. Glad I'm not out on I-5 or I-15 -- ugly.

Hope the Sierra's are getting inundated with snow. Not for you Todd, for those farmers in the valley who can maybe start to plant crops again -- not now, but maybe next week.

So are your computer and router and modem, like, uhm, "Using The Force" to communicate with these forums?

I have 3 APC units alive and working, a 4th I need to order a new battery for, and also a car jump start that has a 600w inverter.

So, I was on batteries when I made that post. Laptop, and router

We got power back around midnight. (Forget if I posted that.)

I ordered my Honda EU2000i today to power the office and fridge in future power failures safely.

Next winter I hope to have been able to afford the Honda EU6500i to power my entire house and well.

Considering my office uses 350 watts, that is about 12 hours of running on the 2000's 1g of fuel. I can't beat that.

For the cost of the 2000, and the tiny fuel it requires I can't NOT AFFORD to have it. I run my own biz from here, not being online/working loses me money, and potentially clients.

It's been snowing here for an hour or so.. VERY WET, 35* still but sticking.

Wow, you're set up nice. Last time we had a power failure here, just for grins, I tried to get on the internet with all my equipment plugged in to a UPS. Computer, router, and cable modem. No dice. I assumed my ISP was down as well because of the outage.

UPS's are great. Like you, I have four of them (even including the dead one with a defunct battery!) During outages my SOP is to use the UPS's to shut down all my computers gracefully, then move one over to my digital piano. I found that a single 550VA UPS will power the piano for four hours (using headphones, not the built-in amp and speakers). Not bad. There's something fun about playing piano in the dark by candlelight. I've since bought an acoustic piano too, so I don't depend on the UPS's so much for piano playing anymore. And luckily power failures are usually short-lived and fairly rare around here.

Thanks!

I do the same too. I shut down the systems, and then when I need to I use the laptop + the 600w inverter/battery in the car jump start to power my router. After the laptop dies which is about an hour or 2 maybe of full use I recharge no a UPS.

Now, with the Honda EU2000 I`ll be able to go for days.

Very excited about that.

Done the same myself. Ran from battery and signed in to the power companies web site to report my power being out. My internet has had better up time than both my power and land line phone. Last year I added the phone to the internet cable so it can be reliable too.

Have you also considered the tri-fuel kit for the Honda EU2000i. You could go for about 10 days when connected to an industrial 47kg Propane bottle.

http://www.generatorsales.com/honda-generators.asp

http://www.generatorsales.com/order/Honda-EU2000i-Tri-Fuel-Kit.asp?page=Honda_EU2000i_Tri_Fuel_Kit

Storing propane is on site would also probably be safer, more convenient and won't degrade (i.e. you wouldn't have rotate the fuel) unlike the quantities of petrol required for the same power duration. Plus it would also reduce the constant trips to the generator to refuel the tank.