Finally!

[Matt R]

Two and a half days without power, minus zero temperatures and a frozen nutsack has finally come to an end. Well, excpet for the frozen nutsack, that's still half fozen. The trees still have ice on them and power is liable to go out again at anytime, so figured I'd drop into the site for a quickie before praying for my electricity to stay on so that the kids can go to school tomorrow and I can return to work and get some rest.

 

[KeyserSoze]

Sorry to hear about that Matt. Damn, 2.5days without power?!? Not sure what I would do with myself...actually I can think of a few things but not sure if the GF would be down. Stay warm brother.

 

[davidr2340]

Sorry to hear that Matt! We just got over that crap... Although my power was only out for a day, I had some friends that where without for 4-5 days!
No power = No fun!!!

 

[CoventryCat86]

We put in a generator ten years ago, you may want to think about doing the same thing.

After spending big $$ on an 18.5 kW generator of course we've NEVER needed to use it..... which is actually a good thing. :thumbs: In the last ten years, we've had the power go out once or twice but never for more than a half an hour.

 

[moki]

I've been thinking about getting a generator put in too, but we have a fireplace and plenty of wood to keep warm, so even if we did lose power for an extended period of time, we wouldn't be freezing our asses off.

Still, the idea of putting a generator in does have merit. My question is, assuming you never use the thing except in rare circumstances, do you need to treat the fuel in it in some manner? A stabilizer, for instance, to keep the fuel ready to rock for the rare instances you use the generator?

Bill, do you run the generator a couple of times a year just to ensure it's working, etc?

 

[CoventryCat86]

I've been thinking about getting a generator put in too, but we have a fireplace and plenty of wood to keep warm, so even if we did lose power for an extended period of time, we wouldn't be freezing our asses off.

Still, the idea of putting a generator in does have merit. My question is, assuming you never use the thing except in rare circumstances, do you need to treat the fuel in it in some manner? A stabilizer, for instance, to keep the fuel ready to rock for the rare instances you use the generator?

Bill, do you run the generator a couple of times a year just to ensure it's working, etc?

It runs on propane so no need for fuel treatment or anything like that. I have a 500 gallon propane tank and I use propane for the clothes dryer and for hot water. I only have to fill it every two years or so.

As far as running it a couple of times a year, we didn't for the first few years and then the battery would die so the couple of times we DID need it, I had to take a battery out of a car, lug it into the house and jump the battery for the generator. And of course, about two minutes after going through all that, the power came back on anyway...

A couple of years ago, I decided to actually plan ahead and solve this problem so I hooked up a cheapie trickle charger to it with a timer that only turns it on for about a half an hour a day. Every now and then, I do start it up for five minutes or so and let it run which is a good thing to do.

 

[Matt R]

I have a small generator that kept the refridgerator going and the t.v. on so I could watch the news and stuff. We also have a fireplace which kept the temps at a brisk 55 degrees after the sun went down. You don't realize how cold 55 is until this happens. LMAO! BRRRRR!! I shipped the kids off to grandma's and stuck around to keep the generator full of fuel. My wife was performing in the Nutcracker all weekend so she wasn't home much anyway. It all worked out, but I am looking at possibly putting in a propane generator or just buying a bigger portable one that'll do the furnace and the fridge. Being in a small town, we lose power at least once a year, usually more. This is the longest we've been out since we've lived here, but they've had 5-7 day stretches before. All's good now though!

 

[benjiev]

I've been looking at the new Hondas but I still haven't figured out where I am going to plug it in...
Matt glad to see your back in action!

 

[NorCalCigarLover]

Dang Matt ...... I saw the news report and was wondering who here at CP was being affected by the storms. Take care of your family let us know if we can help with anything.

 

[Ginseng]

Wow,

Sorry to hear about the troubles. I've heard that generators do need to be run a few times a year just to insure their functioning. Fuel stabilizer is probably not a bad idea.

Glad to hear things are back online.

Wilkey

 

[moki]

I have a small generator that kept the refridgerator going and the t.v. on so I could watch the news and stuff. We also have a fireplace which kept the temps at a brisk 55 degrees after the sun went down. You don't realize how cold 55 is until this happens. LMAO! BRRRRR!! I shipped the kids off to grandma's and stuck around to keep the generator full of fuel. My wife was performing in the Nutcracker all weekend so she wasn't home much anyway. It all worked out, but I am looking at possibly putting in a propane generator or just buying a bigger portable one that'll do the furnace and the fridge. Being in a small town, we lose power at least once a year, usually more. This is the longest we've been out since we've lived here, but they've had 5-7 day stretches before. All's good now though!

These guys come highly recommended from a home repair specialist friend of mine:

http://www.homepowersystems.net/

 

[tone-ny]

Matt sorry to hear of the power outage, glad to hear it has been resolved. Like Bill said go with propane as a fuel source.

 

[moki]

Wow,

Sorry to hear about the troubles. I've heard that generators do need to be run a few times a year just to insure their functioning. Fuel stabilizer is probably not a bad idea.

Glad to hear things are back online.

Wilkey

I've done some research into them, many of the generators appear to hook into your gas line, so there's no need to do anything with the fuel. You can also use propane, which is similarly stable. There is a battery, but the modern generators automatically run briefly a few times a year to test themselves, and also since they hook into your power grid, there's no need to recharge the battery either.

 

[grateful1]

Wow,

Sorry to hear about the troubles. I've heard that generators do need to be run a few times a year just to insure their functioning. Fuel stabilizer is probably not a bad idea.

Glad to hear things are back online.

Wilkey

I've done some research into them, many of the generators appear to hook into your gas line, so there's no need to do anything with the fuel. You can also use propane, which is similarly stable. There is a battery, but the modern generators automatically run briefly a few times a year to test themselves, and also since they hook into your power grid, there's no need to recharge the battery either.

Yes - modern advances have made them less maint. intensive. As far as the fuel - you may want to think about a dual burn <gas/propane> system...propane as a backup. It's been a while since I've looked...but, you may want to look at initial and overall cost of diesel vs. gas/propane...as well as power out put per $$ spent. These things can become steep!!



Matt - glad to hear everyone's well!

 

[Matt R]

That's the ones I was looking at moki..... I may get one next year. The $4000 you spend will boost property value two-fold in our town. I'm just pissed I didn't do it when we were building the house. I'd do the natural gas one, personally. Propane would be a bit cheaper in the long run, but we can't have propane tanks in the yards out here.

If you do decide to do one, moki, just be sure it clears local electrical codes before installing. The power companies have strict rules as to the wiring up of automatic generators. It's very easy to backfeed into their systems and kill a lineman who thinks the power is off to whatever he's working on. I've never installed one of these, as they were quite a bit more expensive when I was still wiring houses, but I have installed a lot of transfer switches and hook up points for portable generators. Best to have it done by a professional or at a minimum, have it inspected.

Oh and portable generators should be run monthly through out the year to circulate the fuel through the engine.

 

[NullSmurf]

I've been thinking about getting a generator put in too, but we have a fireplace and plenty of wood to keep warm, so even if we did lose power for an extended period of time, we wouldn't be freezing our asses off.

Still, the idea of putting a generator in does have merit. My question is, assuming you never use the thing except in rare circumstances, do you need to treat the fuel in it in some manner? A stabilizer, for instance, to keep the fuel ready to rock for the rare instances you use the generator?

Bill, do you run the generator a couple of times a year just to ensure it's working, etc?

Mine is only 5KW and runs on gas. Pull starter, so there is no battery to charge. I keep about 20 gallons and treat it with StaBil

I can run the fridge, furnace, and a few necessary electronic items.

 

[CoventryCat86]

I've been thinking about getting a generator put in too, but we have a fireplace and plenty of wood to keep warm, so even if we did lose power for an extended period of time, we wouldn't be freezing our asses off.

Still, the idea of putting a generator in does have merit. My question is, assuming you never use the thing except in rare circumstances, do you need to treat the fuel in it in some manner? A stabilizer, for instance, to keep the fuel ready to rock for the rare instances you use the generator?

Bill, do you run the generator a couple of times a year just to ensure it's working, etc?

Mine is only 5KW and runs on gas. Pull starter, so there is no battery to charge. I keep about 20 gallons and treat it with StaBil

I can run the fridge, furnace, and a few necessary electronic items.

The problem with those is you can't run your water pump and you have to run extension cords to anything you want to run off of it.

 

[NullSmurf]

I've been thinking about getting a generator put in too, but we have a fireplace and plenty of wood to keep warm, so even if we did lose power for an extended period of time, we wouldn't be freezing our asses off.

Still, the idea of putting a generator in does have merit. My question is, assuming you never use the thing except in rare circumstances, do you need to treat the fuel in it in some manner? A stabilizer, for instance, to keep the fuel ready to rock for the rare instances you use the generator?

Bill, do you run the generator a couple of times a year just to ensure it's working, etc?

Mine is only 5KW and runs on gas. Pull starter, so there is no battery to charge. I keep about 20 gallons and treat it with StaBil

I can run the fridge, furnace, and a few necessary electronic items.

The problem with those is you can't run your water pump and you have to run extension cords to anything you want to run off of it.

I'd love to have your propane 18KW, clean and quiet. I wouldn't have to worry about killing it with a blow dryer. :laugh: Mine is one-man portable and I've used it more offstite than on. I have outages about as often as you do. Extension cords are cheap. Combined, this cost me about $800. I need to move some of my loads around in the breaker box anyhow, so I might just wire up a vital loads group - one of these days.

I'm curious though. I have municipal water, but why would I not be able to run a pump? Is yours pulling that deep?

 

[jabba]

The Costco's in Florida sell a generator that run off your NatGas feed (if you have one)... and kicks in automatically when your power goes out... I think it was about $3000

 

[ckeller52]

I told the wife I was going out to get a generator for power outages and brought this home.

It's not my fault there was a motor home wrapped around it.