Orby Saves the Day (or more) in the California Power Blackout

Truckracer, Where did you install the outside unit? I could see that the inside unit shouldn,t be too much of a problem to install. Did you put the outside unit 0n the back or maybe the toung or maybe on the roof?
 
Truckracer, Where did you install the outside unit? I could see that the inside unit shouldn,t be too much of a problem to install. Did you put the outside unit 0n the back or maybe the toung or maybe on the roof?
Put it on the rear bumper with two bolt on trailer hitch receivers and 2"x2" aluminum square tubes

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Truckracer, Where did you install the outside unit? I could see that the inside unit shouldn,t be too much of a problem to install. Did you put the outside unit 0n the back or maybe the toung or maybe on the roof?
Pics here
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I like your air conditioner system. I assume it is an inverter model. I had to get a new window unit and got a 14,000 btu LG inverter unit. The one that wore out was a 10,200 btu and flickered the lights when it come on. This new inverter model slowly ramps up and don,t need a surge to start it, Used less power and cooled my house.
 
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I like your air conditioner system. I assume it is an inverter model. I had to get a new window unit and got a 14,000 btu LG inverter unit. The one that wore out was a 10,200 btu and flickered the lights when it come on. This new inverter model slowly ramps up and don,t need a surge to start it, Used less power and cooled my house.
I am a Licensed HVAC tech so I have the micron gauge, Testo superheat / subcool instruments, refrigerant scales etc. Makes the install go quick. This unit is very easy on power. It heats great too. Saves a lot of propane. I have a second home that has 5 of these units. No ductwork. Works well.

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I like your air conditioner system. I assume it is an inverter model. I had to get a new window unit and got a 14,000 btu LG inverter unit. The one that wore out was a 10,200 btu and flickered the lights when it come on. This new inverter model slowly ramps up and don,t need a surge to start it, Used less power and cooled my house.
I have seen the inverter window units...that's a big improvement.

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Makes me glad I live in the Chicago area. Very reliable power around here, strong transportation system, access to Great Lakes water, minimal natural disaster risks with a comparatively low cost of living to boot. No wildfires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes. Minimal tornado risk. Trump really hates us so you know we're doing something right :)

You certainly do pay a high price for living somewhere with such a nice climate. It seems California, Florida and the Caribbean islands are always getting pounded by something.

What California really needs to do is take over PG&E and turn it into a publicly owned utility.

And hopefully after the next election California can get some federal help with paying for buried power lines. After all the years of Californians paying more taxes into the federal government than their state gets back, it's about time that California got their fair share back from the federal government so they can fix their energy infrastructure.
 
I live in ne Indiana it's not bad here except for snow storms and tornadoes. Wildfires unless were in a drought. Way cheaper than Illinois people come here from Chicago cause they have lake houses.
 
After having been to California this past August, I can understand why people would want to live there. The weather is incredibly nice almost all year round, the beaches are beautiful, the palm trees and sunsets are awe-inspiring. I can also understand the reasons people wouldn't want to live there. But I'll never disparage anyone who lives there ever again- if I had my choice, you could prop me up in a lawn chair by the beach with a beer and just leave me there and I'd be happy for the rest of my life :D
 
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Power in my area used to be rock solid. The two worst snow storms that the Western NY area has seen since 1977 (before I was alive) were in October 2006 and November 2014. Both left areas without power for days, and weeks in some pockets in the case of 2006, because of falling tree branches from the snow combined with the weight of these leaves still being on the trees. But I got lucky. I only lost power for six or seven hours during each storm.

Fast forward to March 2017 when windstorms hit the area and left us without power for five days. My section of town was the last to get restored. There were two problems, a tree took down five utility poles in one fellow swoop and once they were replaced, there was damaged equipment discovered at the substation that feeds my area.

Ever since then we’ve been plagued with power outages. Nothing too long term, longest one was on New Years day that left us without power for 12 hours. A few days later had another outage and when it came back on, our 5 year old $2500 refrigerator did not. Had probably 10 power outages in the year 2019 thus far, three of them last month alone. Since we’ve been on city water for about 10 years now and aren’t reliant on the well anymore and the hot water tank is a gas ignite so I can take a hot shower every morning, I don’t care so much, but it is annoying.

For my computers and network equipment I have four APC UPS units for short term outages that I can get a little over an hour’s worth of use out of. My AV setup is on an APC PowerCenter for protection, but I didn’t get the one a built-in battery. But as far as cable goes, my area is not backed up either. Utility power goes out so does my cable TV, internet and phone. Since there is near zero cell phone reception where I live, I am dependent on wifi calling at home. Having HughesNet in addition to Charter gives me internet access, but the latency is just too high to use wifi calling with any sort of reliability.

My installation is set for the beginning of December for a Generac whole house natural gas generator. After that, since I won’t be limited to an hour of battery runtime, I’m probably going to port my Sprint mobile hotspot number over to HughesNet Voice. HughesNet is discounting the cost by $10 for the first year until January.

While satellite may have reliability advantages in certain situations, it’s been raining here all day long, nothing too extreme, but periods of harder downpours. I’ve watched my System, Tx and Rx lights on the satellite modem go out no less than 10 times so far today. Rain just about completely stopped for the moment, I switched over to satellite and with a 78 Receive signal strength, I am shocked at this.


 
Due to the use of Orby at the house during the power shut off, I will be buying another receiver. Why is that you ask?

My wife likes a few of the channels that are part of the Orby package and not available on either FTA or our Suddenlink Cable subscription. This morning, I went to remove the Orby STB to bring back over to the shop and she suggested that I not touch it... LOL!!!

Unintended fallout from the PG&E power shut off. :bluesbros
 
Lol
Due to the use of Orby at the house during the power shut off, I will be buying another receiver. Why is that you ask?

My wife likes a few of the channels that are part of the Orby package and not available on either FTA or our Suddenlink Cable subscription. This morning, I went to remove the Orby STB to bring back over to the shop and she suggested that I not touch it... LOL!!!

Unintended fallout from the PG&E power shut off. :bluesbros
Lol

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This morning, I went to remove the Orby STB to bring back over to the shop and she suggested that I not touch it... LOL!!!
My gosh don't get her into Amateur Radio, :D. I have seen this a couple of times in 30 years I have been a ham. Where the wife gets deep into it also and they have two different setups in the house. That can get expensive.
 
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I believe historically, government takeovers of private firms have not worked out that well.


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Your right. The government cannot deliver mail efficiently. I would not want them controlling my lights. The whole health care debacle is already a circus. My insurance was great until the government got involved.

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I believe historically, government takeovers of private firms have not worked out that well...
If the State of California did takeover P.G.&E. it would not, of course, be an instant fix to the problem of wind and trees knocking down power lines.

It might, however, be difficult or impossible to sue the state if power lines sparked a fire.

But for right now, what to do? Since P.G.&E. is in bankruptcy, how are they going to get the billions of dollars necessary to harden our existing power grid?
 
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What I was thinkingMy thoughts exactly. Politics suck and just divide. Keep that off this forum

Your right. The government cannot deliver mail efficiently. I would not want them controlling my lights. The whole health care debacle is already a circus. My insurance was great until the government got involved.

These two posts appear to contradict each other. The first one is correct.

- Trip
 
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