Pennsylvania 811 helps excavators and underground facility owners stay safe while digging

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You can meet rescue dogs at the 15th annual NEPA Home & Garden Show

<p>MOSCOW &#8212; After their extended trip to Asia, a husband and wife did some food shopping, stopped at the post office, picked up their dog at the kennel and as they neared their home in the Poconos, eagerly anticipated a nice warm shower.</p><p>But, why weren&#8217;t the lights on? Why was the house so cold? Why was no water coming out of the faucets?</p><p>The exhausted pair learned from the neighbors the power had gone off three days earlier. Though their power was soon restored, the extreme cold led to burst water pipes and a big clean-up bill.</p><p>The couple, whose story can be found in the blog portion of rinkergenerator.com, eventually bought a permanent generator from Rinker Generator, feeling secure because it is designed to sense a power outage and supply backup power within 30 seconds.</p><p>Ben Rinker plans to attend the 15th annual NEPA Home &amp; Garden Show Jan. 22-24 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township, bringing along a 500-pound generator so interested folks can get a close look.</p><p>His business, which services all of Northeastern Pennsylvania, tends to install 80 to 90 generators during a typical year, maybe 200 to 250 per year if a storm like Hurricane Irene or Hurricane Sandy comes along.</p><p>The generators can be extremely valuable in a rural area, Rinker said, where a power outage can result not only in your lights and furnace not working but the septic system, sump pump and water as well.</p><p>Power outages sometimes last for days in rural areas, Rinker said, and some people who rely on power for an electric bed or stair climber can be inconvenienced all that time. &#8220;You could be stuck on one floor of your house.&#8221;</p><p>When most people hear the word &#8220;generator,&#8221; Rinker said, they think of temporary ones, &#8220;something they can carry around, roll out, start it, run cords.&#8221;</p><p>He doesn&#8217;t sell that kind, but the permanent ones that sense the outage and restore power without the customer having to do anything.</p><p>Sometimes people worry that a permanent generator will cost $10,000 to $20,000, Rinker said, but for most homes it&#8217;s more like $6,000 to $8,000. Generators usually can be installed in one day.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Workers from Rinker Generator usually can install a permanent generator within one day. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_install.generator.jpg</photo0><caption0>Workers from Rinker Generator usually can install a permanent generator within one day. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

At the Home and Garden show this weekend, check out permanent generators that offer security during power outages