What is your weather like ... today

[sissy]

Warmed up here but getting nice rain .I had a staghorn but it got the same treatment and died ,sorry to say .A neighbor gave me one of his babies and it was just getting a nice sized about 8 inches long .I should have called my son to ask him but dumb me forgot too .CE you must be getting the weather that is headed our way .

 

[addy1]

Snowing snowing snowing hard!

 

[sissy]

only rained a little here and weather channel shows rain is mostly past us .Says 53 for today

 

[callingcolleen1]

Spring, why have you forsaken me! Needing you now! Hello! Where did my spring go? Currently only 21 degrees, pond grew thin ice last night.... Was really hoping for an early spring and a early start to summer for a change. Last three years the springs have been wet and cool, and our local spring downtown activities were almost rained out! A couple years ago it snowed in June!
Ya, so I want a early spring this year! Even if I Have to MAKE spring come early myself! Will heat the pond to JUNE if that is what it takes to make the plants start growing in pond early! Ha ha ha he he he. Hey I got nice long strands of super green pond algae for even the big fish to hide in!

Little birdies came to the window and told me not to worry, spring is still coming soon, and reminded me that it COULD be minus 45 right now, with a wind chill too, and knee deep snow! So thankful it will get to almost above freezing today! Just cold enough to freeze the mud down by the river so puppies won't get muddy paws!

The last three pictures you will see the view from out my back window, past the birdies feeding, there is an old mill down by the creek. Sadly that mill will no longer be "humming" this summer, after celebrating last year it's one hundred year anniversary.

 

[CountryEscape]

Sad when large companies close their doors for good. That's a neat looking mill, Colleen. What will they do with the buildings, do you know yet?
Ryan, I'm counting on you to let us know what this storm produces. You are farther north than me, so I won't be getting those numbers in snow. In fact, right now when I checked weather.com the hourly part, it showed not hardly any chance of precip (0-20%) until 11 a.m. when it changes swiftly to 70%, then 100% chance at noon, but only until 4. Of course, all of that can change between now and Thurs. a.m. They have already issued a winter watch for Thurs. a.m. If it's not sleeting or freezing rain, I'll be going to work at usual. Little bit of snow won't keep me home. The ice, however, WILL!!! Had my run-in with the ice storm last year in January, I do NOT plan a repeat of that. Best part is that the winds are dying down, and this weekend, temps back up to high 48's and sunny for Sat. and Sun., so you can't beat that for February weather!
Ponds were shut down when I got home from work again. I'm so ticked at the electricians! Every time I plug in both floating heaters, they flip the breaker in the house. I TOLD them I needed plenty of power to run 2 ponds, and anything else I might hook up outside, including heaters for the ponds! In fact, I was hassling them to get it done because I needed the plug in heaters that first winter with the koi pond. Geesh ... I do not know anything about electric, so wondering if they can simply put in a larger breaker to fix the problem? Unplugged the heater for the goldfish pond, it seems to stay ice-free anyhow, and all is good again.

 

[brandonsdad02]

CE, ill keep you updated. It's supposed to hit here Thursday am and snow all day with snowfall up to 2" an hour. Going to work Thursday won't be bad but coming home will be a different story. That 30 mile 35 minute drive could turn into a 2 hr drive.

You aren't that far from me, wouldn't take all that much to get your electric straightened out. You can put a bigger breaker in, but what you need is 2 circuits ran out there. That way you won't have to worry about it.

 

[sissy]

what kind of service panel and how amps you may need to go to a 200 amp service as your breakers may be overloaded and will overheat and cause a fire .Feel the breakers that are popping and if they feel warm or hot you need more power .Breakers should be checked and if the feel loose when you turn them back on they could be going bad because of it

 

[brandonsdad02]

Sissy, that's a possibility, but it all depends on the service wires coming to the house. When I rewired my moms house, I had the electric company run new wires from to pole to the meter, from the meter on in to the house, I ran new wires for everything. I put in a 200 amp service only because everything in the house was electric. All electric baseboard heat, water heater. She lives out in the sticks and didn't have the money for a LP tank and all that stuff.

 

[sissy]

I live rural also and all electric and have heat pump that cools and heats .Lp is available but no matter what you need electric to push the heat and air and lp has gotten very expensive .When I had this house done upstairs I had 200 amp service and then in the basement I had a 150 amp service put in another breaker box and that runs the basement and guest house and pond equipment

 

[CountryEscape]

Hmm ... I went downstairs to look at the breaker box, and realize I have no idea how to figure out what size it is. I do know this: It is about 18"W by 3' tall or so. It looks like every possible slot is filled in and most of the breakers are "20" and then the ones for the dryer, furnace, AC and so forth are either 2 - 30's or 2 - 40's. Do I count the numbers and add them up to see what the amp of the box is? That didn't seem right, as there are more than 10 of the 20's. When I realized they used the last slot, I realized that maybe they put in what was available without making a larger breaker box, or adding an additional one. :sad: It sure would have been nice had they called me to ask me what I wanted them to do!
So, with that info, what would be suggested? Thanks for your help, Ryan and Sissy!!!

 

[sissy]

on you main largest breaker coming in it should say amps and your glass meter will say amps

 

[brandonsdad02]

Like sissy said, you should have one larger main breaker on the top or bottom of the panel that will say 100 or 200 on it. Just like where you saw the 20 on the other ones. I would suggest setting a sub panel next to it with a double pole 40 or 50 amp breaker. That should give you at least 6 more breaker spots.

 

[sissy]

size of box does not matter with amps .My breaker box in the basement has 30 openings

 

[brandonsdad02]

CE. Take a picture of it. We can tell you if it's full and what size of service you have.

 

[CountryEscape]

OK, had to get a flashlight, and finally saw the number, it's a 200 amp, has 26 openings on it. So, guess I need to add more power, right, or could the 20 breaker that the outside deck electricity is hooked up to be increased to a 30 or 40? I have no idea how that works, can you tell? I think Ryan said that won't help much in the long run. If my son could run electric wire, I would ask him to do it, but I'm freaky scared about anything that can cause shock or death, and to me, electric wires scare me to death! I would not put him in harms way, nor have him do something that he's not been trained to do, unless he felt comfortable enough to add the extra box and wiring. We will wait until summer and see what he says.
My other problem may be that my goldfish pond is run with an electric heavy duty cord run to a multi plug outlet, so that's not good either. Son said he could run new electric line to that area, off of one of the boxes. Would that possibly help the whole issue, or still same amount of power being pulled from the same items, still will trip the breaker if I have two heaters running at the same time?