Tractors, Mowers, Chippers, Trailers, Chainsaws, Generators, Driveway Erosion Control, ETC.

i used to run a large gas powered Genny on an outdoor plug... Feed it backwards & then kill the main breaker. Did this for years & it was great at the time.

But as our electric/home needs changed so did the generator needs. Once you go to a whole house Genny? You will probably never do anything else.

We have lived at our new location for about 10 years now & first thing my wife said was if it doesn't have a whole house Genny... She ain't buying the house. It did. She did.... Fast forward to last year & we had to get a bigger system. All the added things outgrew the original set up. It can happen.

If you are someone in this thread? Its likely. We all have garages or shops, toys, welders, mills, lathes & the wife has her hot tub & heat/AC no matter the conditions outside.

In a world where power grids are old & suck with lots of huge trees.... Its the best way to be.

We have talked about it many times: if the power was gonna be off for DAYS or weeks like it has been here before? Id still cycle run & not just let it run 24/7.

Running for an hour will cycle all my fridges, freezers, HVac, hot water & so on. Shut her down for 4-6hrs then do again. That takes you down to 4hr run time a day.

We keep a 90 day supply of propane on hand at 24/7 usage, so that would get you really close to a YEAR in cycle mode. Just saying a little "prep" can get you thru a lot of situations.

NO we are not preppers in that other sense. Had a critically ill child that had to be ready for anything.

 

Standby generators are great until they aren't.

I had a mouse nest in mine. Thought I had it cleaned out, the genie engine overheated and granaded the lower end.

Had to replace the motor.

Check the rubber grommet that the fuel line feeds the regulator. Mine rotted away and allowed the little shits access to the inside of the genie enclosure. I now have stainless steel wool encircling the fuel pipe. No way they gonna like chewing thru that!

 

I “cycle run” also..
I’ll go out and shut it down, and shovel and snow blow if necessary.
Or shut it down at night. Sleep and restart in the am (or sooner).
Don’t need to run it just to use 5/amps waiting for stuff to cycle.

 

I put a real transfer switch in. If I'm not home any dumb dumb can hook it up without burning the house down. Plus it's hot switchable. Short outages dont require you to shut your whole house off.

https://www.reliancecontrols.com/products/category/pro-tran-transfer-switches

 

All this talk about generators and transfer switches. I need to run 80’ of 10/2 to a 30amp pedestal for my RV hookup. Tired of running a cord over the driveway.

 

I got to figure out what I'm going to do when our power goes out. Had a generator plug put on the house when we moved in last year. The well pump is on the shop breaker box and has a separate meter from the house. It's about 100' away.

 

This is all I have to say . . .
I don't have any pics of the transfer panel. And it's raining outside. Again..

 

Show Off

LOL




Awesome

 

It was here when we bought the property last year. It's diesel, with 150gal internal tank and that 250gal external tank. We have propane here, but no natural gas service. So I guess diesel is probably the best option.

 

What in the world? Why? What do you (or previous owner) need 100+kVA of 480v 3ph for?

 

Id hate to be the guy filling the diesel tank lol

 

Yeah. An engine of that power output would suck up around 3gal/hr.

 

We had them topped off before hurricane season. The internal tank took about 75gal and the external took about 125.

 

I don't have first hand experience. The prior owner told me it'll run for a few weeks if both tanks are full. The generator inspector told me that when it runs the fuel consumption will be almost identical no matter the electrical load. I don't know how much if any downtime the previous owner included in his "few weeks" comment.

 

Again why? Im genuinely curious.

Is there more than just residential loads on site? Is that genset feeding a whole neighborhood?

Maybe the previous owner just wanted to show off haha

Yeah, thats best case scenario under light load conditions

 

Every home needs 3 phase!


We have a 16 cylinder Cat diesel generator at work that will power just about everything. 14 out of 16 sorters will run off of it. Once they try and start #15 shtuff starts dimming

 

*sigh*

Nothing like a flat tire to start your day!



Ah-ha!



Yep...



The culprit? A frickin' thorn!

Also decided it might be time to dig out the snow blower. Fired right up first pull on last winter's gas