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Last time after Irene, we lost power for 8 days....yes, never experienced that in my life. My home country has lots of typhoons every year and we've never had power outage more than 2 days in major residential and commercial area. My mom was so surprised how we can survive without power for 8 days. Well...thank God it was summer at that time. This time, when I knew power was out on Saturday, I decided to leave and stay with a friend because I don't think we can deal with cold house especially we have yound child. Doesn't power company have some kind of liability on this? The cold weather is very crucial and some people could die due to no heat in the house.
Are you buying one for everyone? You say that as if they are $50. Not to mention the fact that they run on gasoline which is $3.50 or so a gallon.
Maybe JCP&L should distribute them for free if this is the "quick" response we are going to continue to get.
We have a small generator, which runs our furnace and fridge and one other small item like a light or coffee maker. We have a well and the generator is not powerful enough to run the well pump too. Plus to run the well pump off a generator would require additional work to our breaker panel, so then an electrician is needed, permit etc.
You have a choice you can either buy a generator big enough to do the job or you can come on the internet and complain along with the others.
I will admit that JCPL was a PITA to deal with when I was a contractor but with the population in NJ increasing, not to mention electrical usage increasing, sporadic outages will become the norm rather than the exception.
My generator sits idle 90% of the time but when I need it to keep the essentials running I consider it cheap insurance.
You have a choice you can either buy a generator big enough to do the job or you can come on the internet and complain along with the others.
I will admit that JCPL was a PITA to deal with when I was a contractor but with the population in NJ increasing, not to mention electrical usage increasing, sporadic outages will become the norm rather than the exception.
My generator sits idle 90% of the time but when I need it to keep the essentials running I consider it cheap insurance.
If you want to loan me the $6-7K it would cost for me to buy the unit and contract an electrician to have generator that would run my furnace, hot water heater, well pump, fridge etc. I'll buy one tomorrow. I'll PM you my address and you can send me a check, I'll pay you back $100/month. The average person cannot afford a generator that large.
The point I'm trying to make is that one day, two days, even three days is not the end of the world. But six days and no end necessarily in sight is ridiculous. Especially for those of us without running water.
BTW - Be careful about your generator sitting idle 90% of the time. Be sure to properly maintain it.
If you want to loan me the $6-7K it would cost for me to buy the unit and contract an electrician to have generator that would run my furnace, hot water heater, well pump, fridge etc. I'll buy one tomorrow. I'll PM you my address and you can send me a check, I'll pay you back $100/month. The average person cannot afford a generator that large.
The point I'm trying to make is that one day, two days, even three days is not the end of the world. But six days and no end necessarily in sight is ridiculous. Especially for those of us without running water.
BTW - Be careful about your generator sitting idle 90% of the time. Be sure to properly maintain it.
I can tell you that JCP&L most definitely does communicate with their customers. How do I know this? Because one of my friends, who has been without power since Saturday, related the following tale to me:
Last night, about 3:00 AM, she was awakened by her phone ringing. She answered the phone and listened to a "robot-caller" telling her that her electrical service had been restored. She arose from her bed in order to try to start her furnace and other appliances, only to find that her power had NOT been restored.
So--JCP&L managed to ruin a night's sleep for her and to get her out from under 4 blankets in order to run around her cold house in vain for until she figured out that JCP&L had screwed up again. She then phoned JCP&L, and informed a live person that--contrary to the utility's belief--power had not been restored to her street. The bottom line is that power was finally restored at approximately 9:30 AM.
So, contrary to popular belief, JCP&L does communicate with their customers. Now, if we could just get them to communicate accurately....
Funny. I've lived in NJ for over 30 years with the brief exception of 4 years in Boston for college and 1 year in Texas for work. In that entire time living in NJ I have never been without electricity for more than a day and that was during that one nasty ice storm we had in the mid-90's that shut everything down for a week.
Of course, during that time I have also lived exclusively in an area serviced by PSE&G and for the past couple years have been with Atlantic Electric.
Like others said, one, two, even three days, understandable, six, seven, or more, there is something going on. There is no really appreciable difference between the areas served by PSEG and JCPL, yet one of them consistently manages to have an extremely effective and planned response to natural disasters and one does not.
Funny. I've lived in NJ for over 30 years with the brief exception of 4 years in Boston for college and 1 year in Texas for work. In that entire time living in NJ I have never been without electricity for more than a day and that was during that one nasty ice storm we had in the mid-90's that shut everything down for a week.
Of course, during that time I have also lived exclusively in an area serviced by PSE&G and for the past couple years have been with Atlantic Electric.
Like others said, one, two, even three days, understandable, six, seven, or more, there is something going on. There is no really appreciable difference between the areas served by PSEG and JCPL, yet one of them consistently manages to have an extremely effective and planned response to natural disasters and one does not.
The point being if you don't want to be without power for even 4-5 hrs than you need a generator.
I used to live in a PSE&G area and we had power glitches almost weekly.
Too may people, too many trees and a freak October snow storm can and did wreck havoc on parts of NJ. If this happened in December it would be a non issue.
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The average person cannot afford a generator that large.
