Time to check out the generator.

[ultrarunner]

PSPS stands for Public Safety Power Shutoff, which is a temporary power outage that PG&E may perform to reduce the risk of wildfires:

When it happens: PG&E may perform a PSPS during severe weather, such as high winds, low humidity, or dry conditions, to prevent energized power lines from coming into contact with tree branches or debris.

How long it lasts: A PSPS can last up to two days, but may last longer

 

[ponytug]

@grsthegreat PSPS events happen when the utility is concerned that the wind is likely either to bring wires down and cause fires, or that branches will be blown into wires causing arcing and fires. They have gone bankrupt more than once in recent history. Moreover, the fire liabilities are large, given the state of the equipment, wires, and the damages resulting from fires that burn into areas with homes. The 2018 fire killed 85 people, destroyed 19,000 buildings and resulted in the utility pleading guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter due to outdated equipment, the root cause being an old power line and an insulator support that the metal had worn through in a 100+ years of service.

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/879008760/pg-e-pleads-guilty-on-2018-california-camp-fire-our-equipment-started-that-fire

Utility equipment exists to prevent this automatically, but not much has been deployed around here, hence the PSPS events. I think of them as butt covering events. Ask me why I own three generators, batteries, solar, and fire equipment.

The Northern California utilities are so far behind state of the art, that it is hard to describe. I've seen better.

There was a pretty strong movement to disband the electric utilities after the 2018 Camp (Paradise) fire. If another big fire results from utility negligence, I would bet on the movement succeeding and the utility being disbanded.

All the best,

Peter

 

[grsthegreat]

Yeiks….that sucks, but i see why they do that..i guess.

Glad they dont do that here.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yeiks….that sucks, but i see why they do that..i guess.

Glad they dont do that here.

PGE has been out in my area hardening the utility poles and active in cutting back the fuel load...

Many of the poles where I am now date from the 1950's and the old neighborhood 1920's

 

[Up to the Axles]

Just wanted to pitch that propane is the 99% ideal fuel for BU gensets. It never goes stale or clogs the carb[gas], grows bugs [diesel], etc. A disadvantage is you usually need an electric starter because you have to have enough intake vacuum to draw in the gas; hand yanking is not usually successful. But I've used squirts of starting ether to get past that.

 

[LouNY]

Just wanted to pitch that propane is the 99% ideal fuel for BU gensets. It never goes stale or clogs the carb[gas], grows bugs [diesel], etc. A disadvantage is you usually need an electric starter because you have to have enough intake vacuum to draw in the gas; hand yanking is not usually successful. But I've used squirts of starting ether to get past that.

It's just a shame that it's so low in btu that it takes so much more gallons then liquid fuels. And that it may be difficult to get delivered when needed the most. Pack mules can't haul many gallons of it. Blizzards, floods impassable roads your ---- out of luck.

 

[ponytug]

Just wanted to pitch that propane is the 99% ideal fuel for BU gensets. It never goes stale or clogs the carb[gas], grows bugs [diesel], etc. A disadvantage is you usually need an electric starter because you have to have enough intake vacuum to draw in the gas; hand yanking is not usually successful. But I've used squirts of starting ether to get past that.

I agree propane has a number of positives, but as @LouNY points out there are drawbacks. E.g. Around here, you would probably never get a refueling during an outage.

I think if there were "One" fuel, we would not have the diversity of solutions for electrical backup that exist today. I think that a great page is 1 backup solution = no backup, 2 independent backup solutions =1 working backup, etc.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Larry Caldwell]

My primary fuel storage is the wood shed. I have enough 15% moisture hardwood to last the winter. With gravity feed water, we rarely use the generator, but I have it hooked to a 100 lb. tank, and half a dozen 20 lb. tanks available. Electricity is a luxury, not a necessity. The generator is only necessary for the electric water heater and enough pressure to take a shower. If we want to work a little harder, I can heat a laundry tub of water with wood and temper it with cold water out of the tap for a bath. 19th century technology uses local resources.

 

[LouNY]

My primary fuel storage is the wood shed. I have enough 15% moisture hardwood to last the winter. With gravity feed water, we rarely use the generator, but I have it hooked to a 100 lb. tank, and half a dozen 20 lb. tanks available. Electricity is a luxury, not a necessity. The generator is only necessary for the electric water heater and enough pressure to take a shower. If we want to work a little harder, I can heat a laundry tub of water with wood and temper it with cold water out of the tap for a bath. 19th century technology uses local resources.

It's luxury which I don't wish to be without.

It pumps water from my "deep" well of 150 ft, I could use a hand pump in my shallow well of 12 feet. But it is about a 100 ft from the house and certainly not as handy as the faucets in the kitchen and baths.
My heat comes from a variety of sources,
my primary is an oil fired boiler which needs electricity to run,
my supplemental is my coal burner insert in the fire place, which can save a lot of oil,
then my "shoulder" season heat is my mini-splits, more electricity.
The fans and circulatory all use electricity.
This is going to be my last winter for coal and then the insert will get changed out for a propane insert.

I grew up when we heated 2-3 houses with wood, cut log lengths and pulled them out in the winter, between cow times. Sawed and split the log lengths during any slower times in the summer and stacked it into the main wood house to cure and moved it from that to the house wood sheds and basement wood stacks for the stoves and furnaces. I have absolutely no desire to go back to wood.
I did entertain the thoughts of an outside boiler 30 years ago and do wish I had gone to a coal boiler back then.

 

[etpm]

@grsthegreat PSPS events happen when the utility is concerned that the wind is likely either to bring wires down and cause fires, or that branches will be blown into wires causing arcing and fires. They have gone bankrupt more than once in recent history. Moreover, the fire liabilities are large, given the state of the equipment, wires, and the damages resulting from fires that burn into areas with homes. The 2018 fire killed 85 people, destroyed 19,000 buildings and resulted in the utility pleading guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter due to outdated equipment, the root cause being an old power line and an insulator support that the metal had worn through in a 100+ years of service.

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/879008760/pg-e-pleads-guilty-on-2018-california-camp-fire-our-equipment-started-that-fire

Utility equipment exists to prevent this automatically, but not much has been deployed around here, hence the PSPS events. I think of them as butt covering events. Ask me why I own three generators, batteries, solar, and fire equipment.

The Northern California utilities are so far behind state of the art, that it is hard to describe. I've seen better.

There was a pretty strong movement to disband the electric utilities after the 2018 Camp (Paradise) fire. If another big fire results from utility negligence, I would bet on the movement succeeding and the utility being disbanded.

All the best,

Peter

I grew up in California, the Bay Area. I moved to the Sierra in 1977. My wife got pregnant so we moved lower down to Tuolumne City. We would get a notice with our water bill that the water we were paying dearly for was unfit for human consumption. We were drinking PG&E "Ditch Water". The ditch water was from a flume originally used for hydraulic mining of gold in the 1800s. PG&E never bothered to cover the miles long flume and ditch system so we got bad and expensive water. No wonder we left in 1980 and ended up in WA State. PG&E has not changed in all these years. They couldn't care less about their customers or the fires and deaths they have caused. It seems to me they should be disbanded.
Eric