Your last generator Maintenance Run

[newbury]

Long article on grid security.... fortunately for the rest of us, these curious Cliff Stoll types are working on the good side....

AP Investigation: U.S. power grid vulnerable to foreign hacks - Las Vegas Sun News

Rgds, D.

Have y'all read Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath?

It's a book by Ted Koppel about the minimal effort required to shut down the powergrid for months. Damaging several major transformers will be a logistic nightmare.

That's why I'm in a serious search for a 5KW and/or 10KW military surplus generator. Plus if I fill the two tanks on my tractor

I should have about 1,000 hours of run time on a 5KW

 

[3930dave]

Have y'all read Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath?

It's a book by Ted Koppel about the minimal effort required to shut down the powergrid for months. Damaging several major transformers will be a logistic nightmare.

That's why I'm in a serious search for a 5KW and/or 10KW military surplus generator. Plus if I fill the two tanks on my tractor

I should have about 1,000 hours of run time on a 5KW

Thanks Newbury, I'll add that to my reading list.

That will make a great fuel reserve, I know doxford gets good runtime with something like one of those.

I've never been an All The Eggs in One Basket guy...... that's one of the reasons I like modern distributed power (alternative) generation - it's much harder to take down.

Post pics pls if you get either of those Mil surplus units, they'd be a nice choice.

Rgds, D.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My Honda 2000 got a "maintenance run", couple nights ago after some extreme winds... The power went out for three hours and as we had a LOT of rain over the two days prior, and my sump pump has been running a lot.

After a couple hours, I started up the 2000 on the back porch,

plugged in a #12 extension cord that I have wired into the basement, plugged in the sump pump and let it run...

I use this gen set for all kids of things, all year around,

it's one of my best buys!

SR

 

[3930dave]

My Honda 2000 got a "maintenance run", couple nights ago after some extreme winds... The power went out for three hours and as we had a LOT of rain over the two days prior, and my sump pump has been running a lot.

After a couple hours, I started up the 2000 on the back porch,

plugged in a #12 extension cord that I have wired into the basement, plugged in the sump pump and let it run...

I use this gen set for all kids of things, all year around,

it's one of my best buys!

SR

46# dry weight, 1600 watts continuous, suitcase format - great solution for driving light loads - bonus marks for quiet, and a 12vdc output.

Sump pumps can focus your attention...... recent years have had lower water tables, but I've lived here long enough to see Spring/Fall conditions where the pump is kicking on every 15 minutes..... one of the original reasons I had for keeping a reliable generator around.

Rgds, D.

 

[buickanddeere]

Why not use a transfer switch . No extension cords through open doors or windows. This will energize the lights instead of staggering around in the dark. Keep the freezer from thawing and operate the microwave .

 

[3930dave]

Why not use a transfer switch . No extension cords through open doors or windows. This will energize the lights instead of staggering around in the dark. Keep the freezer from thawing and operate the microwave .

That suitcase is 120vac only.

I believe SR has a PTO gen too, so he might have a transfer switch for that setup as well. With that suitcase gen, I'd want a separate dedicated thru-wall 120vac line for times that I needed the tractor mobile.

Rgds, D.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Why not use a transfer switch . No extension cords through open doors or windows. This will energize the lights instead of staggering around in the dark. Keep the freezer from thawing and operate the microwave .

I DO have a pto genset to run the whole house, but why run it when I don't need to??

I don't run extension cords through an open door or window, it goes right through the basement wall and I can easily plug the pump into it. No "staggering around in the dark" either......don't you keep flash lights handy, just for this purpose??

We just aren't "panic people" here, who think we have to have a TV, micro and everything else, just because the power is out for a few hours... AND I don't need electricity to get water either...

PTO gen set comes into play, IF the power goes out for days, not a few hours... The freezer is fine for a day, if you keep the lid closed...

SR

 

[ultrarunner]

I DO have a pto genset to run the whole house, but why run it when I don't need to??

I don't run extension cords through an open door or window, it goes right through the basement wall and I can easily plug the pump into it. No "staggering around in the dark" either......don't you keep flashlights handy, just for this purpose??

We just aren't "panic people" here, who think we have to have a TV, micro and everything else, just because the power is out for a few hours... AND I don't need electricity to get water either...

PTO gen set comes into play, IF the power goes out for days, not a few hours... The freezer is fine for a day, if you keep the lid closed...

SR

As kids we thought it was exciting when the power went out... at the cabin grandma would have a nice fire in the fireplace and we played card games by candlelight and made smores...

Hot water was never a problem as it was propane and so was the match light stove. The old rotary dial phone always worked... power or no power... and the transistor radio could be used sparingly because it was battery.

Living in the SF Bay Area it is not so simple for my neighbors...

Can't heat with wood... so almost no has wood and many no longer have wood burning fireplaces as they are banned in new construction.

Garage and Gate openers don't work, Internet is down, Can't charge phones and new phones don't work, Traffic Signals stop working etc.

 

[buickanddeere]

I DO have a pto genset to run the whole house, but why run it when I don't need to??

I don't run extension cords through an open door or window, it goes right through the basement wall and I can easily plug the pump into it. No "staggering around in the dark" either......don't you keep flash lights handy, just for this purpose??

We just aren't "panic people" here, who think we have to have a TV, micro and everything else, just because the power is out for a few hours... AND I don't need electricity to get water either...

PTO gen set comes into play, IF the power goes out for days, not a few hours... The freezer is fine for a day, if you keep the lid closed...

SR

First I knew of your pto generator and a transfer switch.
We had to replace the home 200 amp breaker panel. The new breaker panel has 18 of the 40 breakers on a built in transfer switch up to 60amps. The 200 amp transfer switch outside will power the entire 200 amp panel.

 

[DarkBlack]

Double ended male to welder outlet. Cheap,simple, works for me.

 

[buickanddeere]

Double ended male to welder outlet. Cheap,simple, works for me.

That has to be a purposeful dig to try and encourage some excitement. Nobody with any sense and understanding of electricity and distribution system would use a suicide cord.

 

[Ivan49]

Mine got a good maintaice run this weekend. Power went out at 1:45 wed night and came back yesterday about 1:30. I had to go downstate yesterday and it was lines of power trucks heading north on 131. Many areas up this way will not get power back until middle of the week. A ig thanks to the crews who worked thru Christmas to help out people they do not know. We had straight line winds of 70 to 90 miles an hour and many areas are flattened. Many lost their roofs not a Cristnas present they wanted I am sure

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm thinking the frequency of power outages is due to overhead lines.

Having lived in places where power is underground... power outages were very rare if at all...

 

[buickanddeere]

High voltage underground cables tend to suffer failures . Higher the voltage the more inclined to explode. At work the entire site is being converted to 13.8KV overhead from 13.8Kv underground for reliability.

 

[3930dave]

Mine got a good maintaice run this weekend. Power went out at 1:45 wed night and came back yesterday about 1:30. I had to go downstate yesterday and it was lines of power trucks heading north on 131. Many areas up this way will not get power back until middle of the week. A ig thanks to the crews who worked thru Christmas to help out people they do not know. We had straight line winds of 70 to 90 miles an hour and many areas are flattened. Many lost their roofs not a Cristnas present they wanted I am sure

Buildings gone and lives lost in a number of recent events...... looks like Texas also got hit hard today.....

Stark reminder not to to take people or things for granted.

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

I just did a bid last saturday for a customer that plugged a suicide cord into a welder outlet to power his house after the power was out for 3 days. He remembered to shut off the main breaker before plugging in generator, but after power was restored he forgot to unplug the gen set BEFORE he three the main breaker. I saw the reminants of his welder circuit and a ruined generator. The gen starts, but produces no power. Hes having me install a proper transfer switch. It used to ge a nice honda generator. Not anymore

 

[dragoneggs]

I try to abide by the rule of quarters... run all of your tools every three months. I like to think of the seasons and try to use each of my tools, regardless of function at least once. Sometimes you need to get creative but I take as a rewarding challenge.

 

[buickanddeere]

I just did a bid last saturday for a customer that plugged a suicide cord into a welder outlet to power his house after the power was out for 3 days. He remembered to shut off the main breaker before plugging in generator, but after power was restored he forgot to unplug the gen set BEFORE he three the main breaker. I saw the reminants of his welder circuit and a ruined generator. The gen starts, but produces no power. Hes having me install a proper transfer switch. It used to ge a nice honda generator. Not anymore

Thankyou for the real life example of one of the many things that go wrong with an illegal and dangerous cobb job farmer fix. There is a long line of persons here that think the double ended suicide cord is just fine.
They don't even know and don't want to know the difference between a ground conductor and a neutral conductor either. and use a three prong welder receptacle for 120/240.

 

[DarkBlack]

That has to be a purposeful dig to try and encourage some excitement. Nobody with any sense and understanding of electricity and distribution system would use a suicide cord.

Yes and no.
It's how I've actually done it for countless years.
Yes, it's not code compliant, and year after year it gets you excited.

 

[cqaigy2]

Yes and no.
It's how I've actually done it for countless years.
Yes, it's not code compliant, and year after year it gets you excited.

So you keep doing this on purpose?