Twins are amazing.
On backup power due to storm
- Thread starter UncleDave
- Start date
And she has 2 sets...
Just keep checking your oil. I've got Castol 0-40 in mine.
Awesome to hear nobody got hurt. This is exactly why I cut down all trees that could reach my house in a manner like this a few years ago.
I thought I read that wrong the first time. WOW!
Power was out at my folk’s place for the last 30 hrs. Central Coast, 26 miles from the largest power plant in CA. Went out before the big winds. Power has been out three times in the two weeks I’ve been here, it averages once a month. PGE says this one was caused by “equipment issue”. Maybe they have great linemen but the infrastructure is third world.
Google eucalyptus. The worst tree to grow.
Glad they are OK, but what is really dense are idiots who plant them. So many disadvantages with many sensible alternatives.
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I read that twice as well, lots of responsibility for one gal.
I had a bunch of eucalyptus wood once - even after years drying - It would put out an open bonfire.
Cambria? Pines by the sea. They have more trees fall on vehicles, structures & lines than just about anywhere.
I spent 20yrs in Morro Bay & Paso Robles.
They're everywhere in California. There are some in my neighborhood, but I don't think any of them are in falling distance of my house. Other trees, absolutely. And less than a couple of weeks ago we had power out for several hours as a couple of poles and transformers were being replaced by a PG&E contractor.
It frankly doesn't look too bad in my neighborhood. I've seen worse debris - especially redwood needles.
Reason # 6 why eucalyptus is a bad choice:
That's because the oil has dried out. Next time we have an extensive wild fire, watch a growing tree literally EXPLODE.
I wasn't even going to bother.
I kept a pretty close eye on this the first 100 hours and It barely sipped anything even in the summer wither high loads.
Its 40-60 degree wet intake air and 1/4 load (at best) its plenty cool, although between rains it dries out the rocks directly in front of it.
Aside from the very mild hum, and of course cost, it's basically like being grid connected.
Wife and I worked out of the house all day with electric space heaters in each office, ran a load of dishes, washed and dried clothes(gas dryer) , ran well and septic xfer pump, a houseful of electronics, 2 fridges, a wine cooler, toaster, microwave, coffeemaker, and a bunch of stuff Im forgetting.
LOOOVE that area. Something magical about it.
The PGE guys got us back up last night, we had one "burp". We slept through the grid return as the Kohlers switchback is seamless.
The burp killed the ambient ocean noises, air cleaner, and alarmed the fridges when the genny fired back up again in under 10 seconds.
It ran about 5 minutes before flipping back to the grid and shutting off.
Total downtime - about 29 hours. Way ahead of the schedule they prepped everyone for.
I'll check the oil at sunup and see what it consumed if anything.
The burp killed the ambient ocean noises, air cleaner, and alarmed the fridges when the genny fired back up again in under 10 seconds.
It ran about 5 minutes before flipping back to the grid and shutting off.
Total downtime - about 29 hours. Way ahead of the schedule they prepped everyone for.
I'll check the oil at sunup and see what it consumed if anything.
Your set-up is great, frankly. With a whole-house capacity from the Genset, and enough fuel to run as long as needed.
I would never have thought this to be a need, but it’s surprising how unreliable the grid has become, particularly in your area.
I remember an ice storm in Connecticut in about 1976, it took out the roof of the Civic Center, in addition to killing power at my parents house for several days. We got by on Coleman lanterns, and a fire in the fireplace, but eventually the house dropped down to freezing, and my dad was in the process of draining the radiators (hot water heat) to keep the pipes from bursting.
That was a freak event, and no house I’ve owned since has been without power for more than about 48 hours, and that 48 hours was during a hurricane here in Virginia Beach.
Perhaps it’s just me, and perhaps it is anecdotal, but it seems like lengthy. The outages have become more common. And when I start to look at all of the things on which I rely, including refrigeration, and some form of heat and/or air conditioning, the whole house generator starts to become more of a necessity.
Thanks. Cold weather outages are brutal. Your dad was no doubt a smart guy and knew what he had to do to keep the whole system from being destroyed. We dont get weather like that here at 1500FT, but we do get pole crashes and storm outages in the winter, and PSPS shutoffs in the summer - on the hottest driest days of the year.
There's just a lot of random instability in the mountain area here and not surprisingly there some like 250K miles of lines and poles throughout the PG&E areas of coverage. The late summer "public safety power shutoff" outages are nasty and dangerous usually on the heels of a month or more of 100+ degree days and no water or power for up to three days. This setup keeps the whole place going just like the grid.
This is as close to fully automatic and turn key as I could get it, and with equal opportunities in the winter and summer to go down. The % chance of an outage mysteriously multiplies whenever I'm on the road the road and my wife is alone.
I struggle with thinking I could have either downgraded to a 14 KW unit and saved a bit of money during low consumption running, or taken it up a notch to a geared slower turning water cooled unit that would be quieter, but this project took place amid 5 other gigantic money sinks, so I ended up with a pretty solid B+ solution implemented well, but not the highest end gear available.
Best sir!
Unit consumed 300 ML over the past 50 hours running.
This was about 50% of the dipstick seemingly giving me 100 hours of runtime before needing to fill.
It does have a low oil shutoff, but Im not sure where that is set.
I like that the unit has hydraulic lash adjusters. If this were a correspondingly sized generac I'd be doing a lash inspection/ tightening right about now. It's basically a fan cooled 1000CC V twin.
This was about 50% of the dipstick seemingly giving me 100 hours of runtime before needing to fill.
It does have a low oil shutoff, but Im not sure where that is set.
I like that the unit has hydraulic lash adjusters. If this were a correspondingly sized generac I'd be doing a lash inspection/ tightening right about now. It's basically a fan cooled 1000CC V twin.
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I’m watching the hours on my generac for just that.
Cummins & Kohler never returned my calls or emails so business went to generac. Mines too loud & I wish I’d opted for a water cooled unit. Live/learn.