teef Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 I always think generators are waste of money, till we lose power in the neighborhood and mine is the only house not powered up! you should hang out with my dad. he had a generator placed over a year ago, and of course the power hasn't gone out once. he's just waiting to turn on every light, radio and tv in the house, just to be a d-bag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saxum Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 We rarely lose power for extended periods but the minute or five blips really annoy me. Just annoying except for one time appliance appeared to burn out at same time. What I'd really like is an all house UPS which gave enough power for everything running to stay running with no intervention just refilling tank or having battery recharge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 (edited) We rarely lose power for extended periods but the minute or five blips really annoy me. Just annoying except for one time appliance appeared to burn out at same time. What I'd really like is an all house UPS which gave enough power for everything running to stay running with no intervention just refilling tank or having battery recharge. Those blips are hell on say an A/C compressor's contactor (24v magnetic contactor set-up from thermostat... 220v when blipping on and off will arc... I have had the contactor arc weld together...ie: burn up). Then there are the "rolling blackouts" during peak summer cooling times. Now that energy companies have or may have got go ahead, installed smart meters, they should be taken to task by gov't for any little blip. They got what they wanted. Now, provide me with as much service that I will pay for, with zero non-inclement weather interruptions. They won't, bacause they can't meet peak demand at certain times. I always keep spare contactors on hand. (Only about 20 bucks, HVAC guy will charge $200 to install... Are you kidding me?) Yet, the one contactor that went out early this season... It fried (my fault, had it in for the 6th season) took out first couple of inches of wire. Had to make quick repair. Will rewire whole unit in fall, outside of cooling season. "No time to tune up the boat in the middle of the ocean." Again, blips are the worst when A/C is actually running. I like a minimum of 15-30 minutes idle time on compressor, fan before starting up after a shut down. Running continually all day, no prob. My family is under direct order from Headquarters (Me) to shut off A/C when we have a power blip, interrupt... Not to turn it back on until power has been stabilized for @ least a half-hour. Most electronic/digital thermostats have a time-delay to protect equipment. Some older units with basic thermo have the time delay unit near contactor in compressor unit outside. Edited August 1, 2017 by ExiledInIllinois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marv's Neighbor Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 Our electricity is very reliable. I did look into a permanent setup, at one time, but a realtor told me that it would be an unrecoverable investment, so never went any further. The portables are OK but I don't line storing gasoline in my garage, for extended periods, so nothing there either. If we had service reliability issues, I would reconsider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 Our electricity is very reliable. I did look into a permanent setup, at one time, but a realtor told me that it would be an unrecoverable investment, so never went any further. The portables are OK but I don't line storing gasoline in my garage, for extended periods, so nothing there either. If we had service reliability issues, I would reconsider. Gas fired engines are always a hassle but if you live in the east where you have days of prep time before a storm it makes things a lot easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 (edited) Gas fired engines are always a hassle but if you live in the east where you have days of prep time before a storm it makes things a lot easier.Just dawned on me... Your friends back East needlessly sink propane tanks? East is heating oil. Can't you just have the genset run on oil? Why sink propane? Heating oil is just off-road (not taxed) diesel. I suppose you'd need a diesel genset, which they of course make. Our huge genset at work runs the lock and the huge power needs of the machinery (3 phase, 480v). Original when lock was built was an old manual Detroit Diesel-Allison (which took coolant water right from river... Always big probs with algae, but that's another story). Now our newer genset (all automatic) is all self-contained, a Cummins-Onan diesel in its own building that (whole building) can be lifted by crane-derrick barge right from the water. The new genset still uses same diesel tank that was sunk in ground 60 years ago. Anyway... They have to make smaller diesels that run on heating oil. Well, of course they do! "Off road Diesel #2 and Home Heating Oil / Fuel Oil # 2 apparently differ only in the tax applied at the time of sale. Both are dyed red. They differ from standard Road Diesel #2 in that road tax has been applied, no red dye has been added, and there is a specification regarding ash and/or sulphur content." We use the red dye stuff in all our tractors, equipment and get it from the 1,000 gallon storage tank in the ground. Edited August 2, 2017 by ExiledInIllinois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike in Horseheads Posted August 2, 2017 Author Share Posted August 2, 2017 you should hang out with my dad. he had a generator placed over a year ago, and of course the power hasn't gone out once. he's just waiting to turn on every light, radio and tv in the house, just to be a d-bag. Well, yah I want to do that too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts