From: Jared Mauch Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2010 4:37 PM To: George Bonser Cc: Nathan Eisenberg; NANOG Subject: Re: Muni Fiber Last Mile - a contrary opinion
You are likely already at the mercy of some local hut for your dialtone. Very few things home run to the co these days. It's unlikely any hut has more than 24 hours of battery.
I have talked to local techs that make the same trip each shift to fuel the generator during regular or minor power outages. Anything major, expect the service to die.
Best bets: your state emergency operations center, hospitals, airports, grocery stores and possibly hotels.
During the northeast power outage the biggest local problem was inability to pump gas out of underground tanks. The margin at the stations is low enough it's not worth it to have generators. Best off having the pipeline next to you and to use natural gas/propane if your needs can be easily met by it.
Jared Mauch
I am pretty lucky, the CO is about 4 blocks from the house and as far as I can tell I'm wired directly (and the wiring was installed around 1960 and is all above ground from a box next to the CO). The local loop does to go a box about a half block from the CO but it has no generator. It is just jumper blocks from the looks of it when I have seen it open. +1 on the natural gas generator, or if you heat with oil, a diesel that feeds off the heating oil tank. Even agricultural diesel will be fine or WVO bio-diesel. No need to pay road tax on diesel used in a generator. Gasoline would be my last choice for a generator.