Power Outage

[Henry W]

Back to power outage's, I feel more than one generator is recommended. One small generator to operate a couple lights, radio, TV, laptop or computer. A refrigerator. A larger generator to operate HVAC, well pump, stove, and major appliances when needed. But to conserve fuel try to stay with the smallest generator that will operate the bare necessities.

[dkeav]

I'm inclined to agree that you need a small efficient "prime" unit that can do the basics.  Maybe an inverter generator for those loads, as they're quiet and can adjust idle as needed to the load demands.  A large "stand-by" is nice though, but you kinda need to plan out a schedule for loading it down properly.  Which in an outage may not be a big problem if your neighbors are within drop cord range.

[Carlb]

in addition to my 6/1 i have an 8kw Titan(3600 rpm) tri-fuel setup for natural gas that I can run if i need to run my HVAC, but the 6/1 will do everything in the house as long as the wife doesn't  use the toaster oven and microwave at the same time.

Carl

[Henry W]

A tri fuel setup is nice to have. It's always good to have a generator that will run on something other than gas or diesel. I have a couple small military engines I bought a couple years ago. They are rated at 1-1/2 hp continuous. But they actually put out roughly 3 hp. They are overhead valve, 6 to 1 compression ratio. These engines can switch over to run on kerosene once running at operating temperature. I believe they will Also run on fine on a 50-50 mix of kerosene and gas, similar to JP-4 jet fuel. I am not sure if it wil run on jet-A fuel. I bought two brass floats for the Zenith carbs. The problems these engines had was the plastic floats would swell up with today's fuels. So I will not have this problem and these engines will be able to run junk fuel if needed.

[LowGear]

Oops,

The post has a couple of points to think about.  The first is obvious: Stuff just doesn't last forever in the freezer.  And part B had to do with security when you're the only one on the block with food.

It also revealed my ignorance about so many other things.  I forget how much food 6 people eat on a weekly/monthly basis.  If you're eating a meat based menu $1700 for 6 people wouldn't keep your table full for two months.  And that my interest in firearms sort of died the week I left the Army and dog handlers were still using 45s. 

http://eu.glock.com/english/pistols_models.htm

I promise to go back to basics and stay on thread.

I immigrated to Hawaii about 16 years ago (from Washington).  We live on a 14 foot country road and yet missed possibly one days power total if you add up all the 30 minute and 1 hour outages that have happened over the years.  I'm always surprised to hear how much down time "the world" has back in civilization.  The house I grew up in had a five day outage a couple of years ago and that's extra inconvenient when you're on a well.  What ever generator I chose for back-up one of the fuels would be propane / natural gas (is that possible?) especially if I had other appliances that used those fuels and I was already plumbed for it.  I guess that's one of the things I find so fascinating about Carl's system.

Casey

[90cummins]

We had some very high straight line winds come through here on early Tuesday evening and a tornado warning (doesn't happen here in southern new jersey often) and it took out a lot of trees and power lines.  My neighbors trampoline who is about 400 yards away went through his vinyl fence and ended up in my back yard wedged against a large tree.   When I saw that I quickly got a large piece of rope and tied it to the tree so it wouldn't go any further.

Power went out at around 6pm on Tuesday and they didn't restore power until around noon Friday.  I am pleased to say that the Listeroid performed flawlessly averaging 14to 16 hours straight per day average load was only about 1700 to 1800 watts. 

My listeroid is a hybrid using diesel for pilot ignition and natural gas.   In the aproximatly 45 to 50 hours of run time it only used a little over three gallons of diesel,  I have no idea how much natural gas it used but who cares I didn't have to go find a open gas station that sold diesel since i normally keep 15 to 20 gallons on hand.

Hi Carlb;
Your listeroid's performance no doubt moved you up to Hero Status!
I recently built a 28v DC generator using a Yanmar L100 running at 2750 rpm driving a Niehoff N1603-2 Military Surplus alternator. Recent fuel consumption tests I performed gave me a 5 hour per gallon run time while supporting the entire house in a simulated winter environment.
The electrical load included running the heat, 1 fridge and 2 small chest freezers and the deep well pump operating while watering the garden.
While this is good I'm looking for more.
You posted this in June so you have received your gas bill by now, could you follow up and calculate the natural gas consumed to determine the cost/hour??
Do you know how much diesel it would take to operate 24 hours?? 
Thanks
90cummins (new guy)

[Carlb]

90cummings,

When we got our gas bill for that month it was estimated because they weren't sending out meter readers for weeks after the storm because of all of the related damage.  The next month we got an actual bill and there was very little difference in the bill being only a few dollars more then the previous months on average.  We only use natural gas for cooking , clothes drying  and gas grill so the bill is normally small anyway.

As far as diesel since we are only use it for pilot ignition and for the time we ran it used less than 3 gallons.

[buickanddeere]

Back to power outage's, I feel more than one generator is recommended. One small generator to operate a couple lights, radio, TV, laptop or computer. A refrigerator. A larger generator to operate HVAC, well pump, stove, and major appliances when needed. But to conserve fuel try to stay with the smallest generator that will operate the bare necessities.

Problem is that train of thought leads to a bare necessities generator that won't quite start and run the bare essential loads. Always design in some reserve. A bare essential machine that doesn't work is worth nothing. A machine operating on the ragged edge of maximum will suffer a shortened service or life span.  Again worth nothing when it fails.

[LowGear]

Who said "Too, too, too, too, too much is usually almost enough."  Oh yeah, we're talking back-up power and not addictions.

[vdubnut62]

Back up power IS an addiction.  If nothing else, an addiction to being in control of one's environment.
Ron.

[buickanddeere]

Being is control of your environment means you are smarter and more motivated than the 90% of the populace who are unthinking drones .

[LowGear]

Absolutely!  I didn't mean to intimate anything different.

Casey

[vdubnut62]

Casey, I sense a minor disturbance in the Force, you are Jonesing for another Witte!
Ron